Well, it’s about time. I was just starting to feel the fall movie drought’s effect when, thankfully, SPECTRE came to quench my thirst. However, since the vodka martini that symbolizes Craig’s Bond films has been both shaken and stirred in the past, I went in completely blind, not knowing if it would be a masterpiece or a disaster. Both refreshingly and regrettably, I found the movie to be somewhere in the middle.

SPECTRE stars Daniel Craig in his 4th outing as Bond, James Bond. This time, he travels the world in search of a secret organisation that has secretly controlled many of the events of the previous films. He must hunt for this organization while being hunted by his own country, teaming up with a beautiful but strong leading lady (Lea Seydoux), and work with many allies from previous installments of Craig’s franchise, such as Moneypenny (Naomie Harris), Q (Ben Whishaw) and the new M (Ralph Fiennes), replacing Judi Dench’s M, who had been a staple of Bond films since 1995.

So, a secret agent has to go rogue in order to track down an organisation that his superiors doesn’t think exists… sound familiar? No? Well, refer to August’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation review. Turns out, that film actually has nearly the same premise. I will, however, give SPECTRE points here: the titular secret organisation actually has been set up for three movies prior to this one, which makes it feel much more threatening and real than Mission Impossible’s evil cabal, known as the Syndicate, which was introduced in the same movie with no prior knowledge.

Okay, let’s talk about the many positives of this film before we get to the negatives. First, I have to mention Daniel Craig’s performance as Bond. He continues to be one of the best Bonds to date, simultaneously remaining tough, sensitive, suave, wry, brooding, and threatening all at once. I can also praise the rest of the cast in this film, especially Ben Whishaw’s Q — I smile every time he’s on the screen, as he offers a quirky, amusing presence. I also must mention Lea Seydoux as Madeleine Swann; I’ve been following the French actress’s career for quite a while, and this is perhaps her biggest feature film role yet. Prepare to see more of her as the years go by.

The film’s action scenes are incredible as well. As I said in my Mission Impossible 4 review, the action in modern films has to keep things new and fresh in order to stay relevant. From a car chase around tight corners to a plane following a convoy of trucks, SPECTRE retains Skyfall’s tradition of explosive action scenes.

SPECTRE’s music is yet another standout. Thomas Newman’s fantastic instrumental score underlines the film, but what you really want to know is this the only song that really matters: the opening title song. Despite being generally panned by critics, I enjoyed Sam Smith’s Writing’s on the Wall. This song resonated with me, and I’ll certainly be purchasing it in the future.

The final positive is how well SPECTRE connects to the previous three Bond movies. While most Bond films have their own stand-alone stories with little mention of other movies, this one actually beautifully connects to the previous three films, and highlights characters from them, such as Casino Royale’s Vesper Lynd and Le Chiffre and Skyfall’s spectacularly-evil villain, Silva. The film even stoops to mention Quantum of Solace’s Dominic Greene–a cool sentiment, even if I want to forget that movie as soon as possible.

Now for the dreaded part of my review: the negatives. Unfortunately, there are a few, and more than I would have liked. First, the film is really long, perhaps too long at an astounding 2 hours and 30 minutes. A film like Skyfall could run for 2 hours and 23 minutes without feeling too long, because it doesn’t have any unnecessary scenes. But SPECTRE ultimately drags, and I can think of a few minor scenes that I could happily have left on the cutting room floor.

Also on the naughty list here is the film’s villain. I won’t spoil anything, but while this character (played by Cristoph Waltz) could have been as memorable as Skyfall’s Silva, instead, he is an absolute bore. Worse yet, he appears in, like, three scenes. Only at the last scene does the villain actually become somewhat memorable, but even then, he’s not on par with Silva’s worst. And then they try to give the villain a connection to Bond and… ugh. It just doesn’t work.

Otherwise, there’s little to stop SPECTRE from being an enjoyable and overall, worthwhile Bond film. While not as good as Skyfall or Casino Royale, it is loads better than the often-forgotten Quantum of Solace, which is certainly a huge plus for me. I’ll recommend SPECTRE to any Bond fan or anyone looking to see a decent popcorn flick on a weekend, and give it four out of five stars to boot. By the way, rumors have been hinting at Daniel Craig’s departure as Bond soon. I hope they aren’t true, as this is one Bond I’d hate to see say good-bye.