‘Spectre’: New James Bond trailer presses forward while glancing back

By this point in its life, the James Bond franchise has found the golden balance between paying homage to the past and setting down squarely in the present. The new “Spectre” trailer doesn’t disappoint on either score.

The newest piece for the latest (last?) Daniel Craig-Sam Mendes collaboration dropped in the American overnight (watch it above). The trailer sets up a long runway to a scheduled Nov. 6 U.S. release even as it builds a bridge from a franchise high point three years ago.

In 2012, “Skyfall” excelled at action (that opening train sequence) and personal stakes (the closing at the titular estate) a relatively long four years after the previous movie. Now “Spectre” looks to continue the momentum.

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“They say you’re finished. ... I think you’re just getting started” opens the dialogue, courtesy of Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). Then Bond is off, motivated by a message from his past.

There are snowy Cold War-ish locales (a chase scene echoes the frigid sequences from the likes of “The Spy Who Loved Me and “A View to a Kill”) and swank ballrooms, various forms of airborne and landbound chases and -- why not? -- an unzipping dress. There’s also the title organization, a throwback to a previous shadowy evil. There’s even a chess set.

But there’s also much to let us know we’re living in the moment. Like, the recurrence of Q as geek (Ben Whishaw), being asked to help 007 “disappear.” Or a pageant-filled scene in Mexico, as the production goes to new locales for its opening set pieces. And there’s a more modern quartet of female characters -- this one includes Monica Bellucci, Léa Seydoux and Stephanie Sigman in addition to Harris.

Ralph Fiennes pops up as a disgruntled M, telling Bond he has no authority -- of the moment in its questioning of the role of intelligence itself (and also reminding that Judi Dench’s M is, after nearly two decades, a -- shed a tear -- thing of the past.)

By the time Christoph Waltz wal ... well, strides in as the villain Oberhauser (”It was me, James, the author of all your pain”), the trailer has seamlessly blended enough disparate elements that it would almost be odd if old Landa wasn’t in the frame.

The 24th Bond film will have a high box-office and critical bar to vault. From these couple of minutes, at least, it has found the right formula -- comic but serious, with old mythologies but new turns, a franchise that continues to redefine itself before our eyes.

As he address Bond, Oberhauser offers: “You came across me so many times and yet you never saw me.” Exactly.

Twitter: @ZeitchikLAT

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