Quick thoughts:
-Ironically the Bond this reminded me most of was LICENCE TO KILL, surprisingly, in that it seemed like it was going out of its way to part with traditional 007 elements. Easily the bloodiest Bond ever with the highest body count and an endless torture scene...leading me, again, to draw a connection with the 2nd Dalton film, though even that wasn't nearly as violent as this.
-Craig is terrific, cool and even sensitive in the shower scene with Eva Green; imagine Roger Moore or Lazenby trying to pull that off? No complaints from me with the casting, he seems like he's bringing the best of Dalton and Connery together.
-Needed to be a bit lighter; this is a very, very serious film with little humor (LICENCE TO KILL anyone?), but I think Craig could pull that off equally from the one or two moments when he's able to do that here.
-The pre-credits was okay, but the immediate post-credits chase sequence was tremendously well-done in an old fashioned Bond manner.
-Very, very odd and not entirely successful pacing; the last third of the movie in particular moves in fits and starts, almost like a Peter Jackson film
It could have been an issue with the movie's structure -- the last portion is just messy and not altogether satisfying, with several endings that you just know AREN'T the real ending...in fact I wasn't even sure the last scene was the ending until the credits rolled! Just not a whole lot of cohesion there.-Easily Arnold's most satisfying Bond score and I really liked the song AND its usage in the film...a soothing love theme and a kick-ass Bond theme rendition to close out the movie make this a "bullseye" as Doug Fake would say
-Eva Green was okay, the villain was okay...I just thought both were...just okay. Other than Craig's performance there really isn't a whole lot to take away from this -- she's pretty good but hardly memorable, and the bad guy (I'm lazy, I know, but I don't feel like looking up his name! lol) is just about average. I doubt anyone will remember them the next day if that makes any sense.
-Overall, I liked the approach, thought Craig was great, LOVED the locations, enjoyed several sequences, but wished the script (and the last third in the particular) had held up its end of the bargain. It'll be interesting to see if this very serious, even glum Bond film appeals to the masses the way the effects-heavy and hard-to-take-serious Brosnans did....but I really think if they keep up the "old school" approach but lighten it JUST A LITTLE, they'll be in fantastic shape for the next one.
Three stars (out of four). Not great but the best Bond since the Dalton era, no doubt.
). Everyone in my showing laughed when Craig offered to take the sacrificial lamb babe in the red dress "back to his place", then just drove in a circle and ended back at the entrance to the hotel. That was pure Connery. I'm not saying the film is perfect (they should have re-cast "M". Imagine Batman Begins with Michael Gough as Alfred. Not that Gough was bad in the Burton/Schumacher films, far from it, but it just would have been distracting in a franchise "reboot"), but it's the best Bond in a long, long time, and I hope that Craig will have a fruitful run as 007. Then again, history is against him (ever notice how odd-numbered Bonds are always hugely popular, while even-numbered Bonds always play 007 2 times or less?).
