Close to perfect Bond flick

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2006)

This movie is a near perfect Bond flick. Hard to be sure where it will stack up against the full line-up since it has to go up against classics like Dr. No and Goldfinger but it will surely be in the top five. Great character development, terrific action scenes, decent story line and none of the campiness which spoiled so many otherwise decent Bond films. All in all, a excellent prequel to the Connery versions. Could have used a bit tighter editing as a few of the sequences were longer than need be and detracted from the overall flow of the movie. As good as the first action sequence in Africa was, it was a bit too long for its place in the story. The intro of his first 00 action was also longer than necessary. The Miami airport scene was way too long. That one violated the Director's credo of not falling too much in love with your footage! With those minor carps, Daniel Craig does a great job as Bond. As James Bond, I'd have to put him second behind Connery, perhaps only because Connery created the persona in so many ways. I'd love to see another Craig Bond movie. The movie had much better character development than you usually see these days. Eva Green as Vesper Lind is a first class foil to Craig, also well developed as a character and a 3-dimensional Bond Girl-- what a treat! The story line is good enough to keep things together with enough loose ends to make you want more and to set the stage for the the Connery series.
All in all a movie worth seeing and seeing again. I have the full set of Bond DVD's (with the exception of the first Casino Royale which doesn't really count) and this one will get a deserving place in my jukebox when released on DVD.