Spectre is the cinematic equivalent of a shaken martini that has been left out too long: it contains all the right ingredients but has gone lukewarm and flat. Following the high-water mark of Skyfall (2012), Sam Mendes returned with a mandate to knit the previous three Craig films ( Casino Royale , Quantum of Solace , Skyfall ) into a cohesive, mythological arc. The result is a film of profound structural contradictions.