heavens. But if you start thinking about that question of form, then you're left reflecting that in a 50-year, 23-film series, there's only actually ever been five good ones. So, was anyone really expecting otherwise? Or is the prospect of a genuinely copper-bottomed feel-good Bond success so seductive that people are willing to kid themselves that they just saw something brilliant, when it's clear that they didn't? Daniel Craig is back! As Ian Fleming's James Bond 007! -- looking for all the world that if it was up to him, he'd much rather be at home, at his kitchen table as he watches his pretty wife bake a nice pie. Dame Judi Dench is back too, as M, still mining her trademark lemon-sucking disdain. And Rory Kinnear is back too as Named Functionary, who can now never escape that time Charlie Brooker made him fuck a pig on everyone's telly. Other than that it's new faces all round -- Ralph Fiennes doing gruff yet twinkly, Naomie Harris as a slinky new Moneypenny, and Ben Whishaw as Matt Smith as Q. Not forgetting middle-brow Marmite Sam Mendes calling the shots. We join the action pre-credits in a dusty, ad-filled chase sequence (most notable for Harris shouting "VW Beetles, I think!" for no reason, and a long and loving look at Bond's wristwatch) which ends with Bond apparently shot and left to die after failing in his mission. Cue Daniel Kleinman's most forgettable opening titles ever, as Adele's big-lunged honking tells us