This is not a 'proper' Bond film ...

Rating: 2/10 (26 November 2008)

Let me say straight away that I think Daniel Craig makes an excellent gritty James Bond - however, the problem with this film (the second 'Bond' in this new 're-invented' official series) is that the classic elements that make up a 'proper Bond film' are all missing. Instead they've been replaced with a totally incomprehensible plot, unnecessarily fast and trendy film editing, below average titles and abysmal music.
The classic gun-barrel sequence has been stuck at the end of the film instead of at the start (before the pre-titles teaser sequence where it belongs). Why for God's sake? One of the most exciting, heart-pounding cinema experiences was to settle down, see the curtains pull back, hear the Bond theme and see the gun-barrel move across the screen. You then KNEW you were about to be treated to a larger than life, escapist film experience. It now seems the producers just want to make things as different as possible from the original series. While I felt Casino Royale was quite good and ended with the James Bond music and a classic Bond quip - and I thought to myself, great - they've now set the scene for Daniel Craig and with the next film we'll be getting back to more the old 'Bond style' rather than a routine action clone of the Bourne series (nothing wrong with the the first Bourne film - I thought that was excellent by the way). How wrong I was - this film was simply terrible. I suppose I'm old-fashioned but sadly we're never going to get a true Bond film experience again because the ingredients just aren't there any more - we need a proper larger than life villain, John Barry's music, Maurice Binder's graphic design, Ken Adam's set design and of course a few throw-away lines and some sexual innuendo!
Don't get me wrong - the original Bond series was getting far too silly with invisible cars, ridiculous CGI surfing and John Cleese - but now the producers have gone too far the other way - and created another run-of-the-mill action film - fair enough - but please at least give us a decent plot we can actually follow!