The lesson to be learned from "Spectre" (2015), the first James Bond movie since the stellar "Skyfall" (2012), is that just bringing back the star (Daniel Craig), the director (Sam Mendes) and the screenwriters (John Logan, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade) from a critically-acclaimed, commercially-successful predecessor is no guarantee that the magic can strike again.
MI6 is under attack. Its security has been breached by a cyberterrorist who has exposed the British secret service's undercover operatives and has wrecked havoc in the city of London. And James Bond (Daniel Craig), who usually saves the world, must do something that hits much closer to home: to defend and save the very
"Bond. James Bond."
Is it really that hard to work this immortal line into a script for a movie that lasts two hours? Or was the history of 20 films through 40 years so forgettable that all ties to the past needed to be cut?
Unlike Batman, which went through a downtur under the rudderless direction of