A travesty

Rating: 1/10 (31 March 2007)

Being a Bond fan, I had great expectations from this movie, with all the hype I had heard. Sadly, the movie did not live up to expectations.
First of all, the movie is very "choppy". It goes from non-stop action to periods of soporific calm. There's an effort to recapture the magic in the beginning scenes. However, that effort falls flat on it's face. It doesn't even begin to compare to the ski chase in "The Spy Who Loved Me".
The dialog, to be blunt, is flatter than beer that's been left standing for a week. I missed the double entendres and the dry British humor that the other Bonds employed with such effectiveness.
There are hardly any exciting Bond gadgets in this movie. "Q" is very conspicuous by his absence. Forget about any memorable car chases! The morning traffic around here is more exciting.
The villain, Le Chiffre, is the most pathetic Bond villain of all time. Where, oh where, are the villains like Goldfinger, with their classic lines and delivery? The movie drags on and on after the first 30 minutes or so. Were the produces trying to achieve a certain running time? There's precious little quality content, in terms of dialog, action, etc.
Last but not the least, this is the LEAST convincing Bond. Daniel Craig is utterly unconvincing as James Bond and can't hold a candle to the likes of Sean Connery or Roger Moore. Craig's dialog delivery isn't deadpan, it's plain dead boring. Craig's Bond doesn't ever come alive and merely flickers along for the entire length of the film. The film seems to be a sequence of scenes ripped from older Bond films.
All in all, a HUGE disappointment. This is the first Bond movie, ever, that I don't ever want to watch again!