I'll rank it tentatively at #6 +/- 4. With Waltz vs. Craig, it has to be good. The coolness of the villain is the main factor in whether I enjoy a Bond film. When I dislike a Bond film, it's usually because the villain is non-threatening (NSNA, QOS), forgettable (DN, TND), or nonexistent (OP, TLD). Sometimes a strong central villain is enough to salvage a film that is crummy in every other respect (TMWTGG, AVTAK). Conversely, the absence of a single cool villain can take the shine off an otherwise excellent film (FRWL, TSWLM). I'm a single-issue voter when it comes to Bond films. Give me one villain, make him big and cool, and give him a cool scheme. Don't waste my time with multiple villains, and don't make the villain deliberately lame in order to make Bond look cooler. That's bass-ackwards. For whatever reason, after the disappointment of QOS, the producers seem to have come around to my perspective. SF had a big cool villain, and now they've cast Christoph Waltz. I don't see how a villain played by Christoph Waltz can possibly be boring or peripheral in the manner of Dominic Greene or Georgi Koskov, so I'm stoked for SPECTRE. Purely on the basis of the casting, I expect to enjoy it.
Edited by Fairbanks, 12 December 2014 - 09:41 PM.