Viewed in
2008
Premise
In the second installment of the Daniel Craig era, James Bond attempts to do his duty without being tempted by revenge.
Who should watch
Daniel Craig fans.
Thoughts
I found it to be a boring disappointment.
The good parts of the movie was Craig being a tough badass, and there were tons of action scenes, including a car chase, boat chase, and plane chase. My favorite scene was an over-the-top fight between Bond and a henchman up-and-down a collapsing painting scaffolding. There was a also cool scene that shouts out to 'Goldfinger'.
I'm sure I would've enjoyed the other action scenes if I could figure out what I was looking at. My friends and I sat in the third to last row, and it did not help making sense of things. Director Marc Forster wanted to prove he could do action scenes. If he did, he was not able to story tell it.
Another disappointment was the story. There was an interesting revenge angle with Bond and Camille. However, it was not pronounced until the last quarter of the movie, when it felt like it was 'too little, too late'.
When I walk into a 007 movie, I want to see a slick James Bond, ladies seducing/being seduced, sexual innuendos, crazy gadgets, campy lines, and exciting stunts. This movie had very little of those. While I understood the film makers were making a conscious effort to make the Daniel Craig era more realistic and emotional, I would have forgave them for the omissions if they could create a good story and story telling, like in 'Casino Royale'. Not here. There was a possible good story in there, but it was buried by poor story telling, directing-wise and writing-wise.
What I would change
Everything mentioned before.
