THIS PAGE CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS FOR SPECTRE, DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM.

Right? Phew. Well then, what did you reckon? I came out of the cinema pretty happy myself, it was a well rounded Bond film, with all the stuff you'd expect, and some nice nods to the Bond heritage.

I must admit, I'm a huge James Bond fan in general, I've seen em all, read most of the books, even collected these magazine things when I was 12 (does anyone remember those, was it just me?). So yeah, I'm a fan. But as you know, this is about killing, or at least examining your heroes in greater detail, so I'll start where it's easiest. Ian Fleming. The writer of the original novels, a spy in his own right, who, it's pretty obvious from the books, was sexist n racist. That's agiven, he was a product of his time, Connery described him as 'a terrific snob', and also had a huge pre internet porn collection.. So yeah, something of a 'sexist mysoginist dinosaur, a relic of the cold war'-(see what I did there?). But his books sold millions, JFK put one in his top 10 they are trashy, and shouldn't be taken seriously. I enjoy them because of what they are: pulp fiction. They were so successful other spy writers tried to talk him down- John Le Carre, who wrote the huge doorstop book 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' said 'Bond isn't a spy, he's a global assassin'. Which still sounds cool. Anyway, I'll come back to Fleming, on with reviewing the film.

Daniel Craig. Despite weird internet sites set up before his casting dead set against him, Craig has been, in my mind one of the best incarnations of Bond. In Spectre, he is given chance to add a little humour, which is no bad thing, and generally does a good job of playing the spy. I mean when he's escaping Blofelds lair, he kills about 15 guards and made it look easy. Normally I'd pick something like that apart, but while I was watching it in all its cinematic glory I was just thinking 'WOOO YEAH, GET SOME!'. Which brings me to Christoph Waltz, who if anything was born to play a Bond villian, especially one with as much pedigree as Blofeld. He's suitably nasty, and driven by revenge. Perfect, I look forward to seeing him in the future. (I also like the nods to Dr. No, the first Bond film, in both some dialogue, and Waltz's costume). In fact, the cast was brilliant all round, even Bill

'Exposition' Tanner.

Lea. Lea Seydoux. She's purty. And in Madeleine Swan we finally have a Bond girl who's a relatively rounded person rather than a bikini clad bimbo. I could rattle on for a while about Bond girls, and think I will:

Unlike Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale, Madeleine doesn't fall to pieces and scream a lot when there's a fight (how good is the train fight?!?), she finds the heaviest thing to hand and smacks the guys fighting Bond (played ably by Dave Bautista) in the back with it. I would've cheered if not for the fact in the next second she gets knocked out by a punch that made some of the audience gasp. So Bond is on his own? No! Madeleine comes to his rescue, wielding Bond's gun that he managed to drop.

Obviously the fact I have a bit of a crush on Lea, whether its in French art films, Mission Impossible 4, or a blink and you'll miss it cameo in Inglorious Basterds, I was always going to like her Bond girl. But the writing of her as an infinitely more fierce and independent character: 'If you touch me, I'll kill you', made it very easy.

So yeah, those are the things I liked, the casting, the costume, the set pieces, even a lot of the dialogue- 'Now we know what C stands for'. Where it fell down a little was plot... But then plot has never been a Bond films strong point. And just while I'm picking holes, when Madeleine is rescuing Bond with his own gun, she empties it firing at Hinx. Now, she's already proved she knows her way around firearms in the previous scene, but clearly the director, armouror or whoever, doesn't, because, as most gun savvy folk will tell you, with a Walther PPK, the slide locks back when the last round fires. (a great example of this is seen in the Frost n Pegg film Paul, when Jason Bateman delivers a beautiful line-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9WLi-QTrSA NSFW language, poor quality vid :/ ) Instead, the gun clicks, Madeleine looks down bewildered, and promptly gets strangled and has to be rescued by Bond. That sort of thing irritates me a little, but only cos I'm a closet gun nerd.

In Skyfall, the production did have to shoehorn in some product placement for Heineken- 'I just have to hack this really dense code.. Bill? Bill are you drinking?'

'Yeah, why?'

'Is that really apropriate?'

'Shut up Q, I'm going through a divorce.'

In Spectre it wasn't quite as blatant, which made for a nice change. They can make as many godawful adverts using Bond as they like, just stay out of the films.

What did everyone else think? Is it a fitting 'relaunch'?

Fleming is probably spinning in his grave at the idea of a black Moneypenny and a Bond girl saving Bonds life. Which is good. As I said I could happily ramble on about Bond for a good while, so I think I'll devote some separate posts to more specific Bond themes. (I'm thinking best fight scenes and top 5 Bond girls? Christ it's sounding like buzzfeed...)

P.S I'm pretty certain Ben Whishaw as Q is my new style icon. Forget Craigs suits, that always seem kinda too tight... Im gonna rock knitwear and a parka. At least more than I already do.