These carping critics need to do their goose steps elsewhere

Rating: 9/10 (17 November 2008)

Can't believe how people are dumping on this reframing of the Bond legend. You'd think arrogant exceptionalism had seen its day, like the adolescent preoccupation with gadgets which I wouldn't have wanted to sit through again even for a night with the beautiful Olga Kurylenko.
So what have we got here instead? Some thinly veiled jabs at the way foreign policy has been mishandled over the last 8 years, at least. Surely you boneheads realize the US has been pretty happy to see the takeover of water utilities in South America with the result that prices have skyrocketed for people who can barely afford food? And the idea that we're quite willing to see foreign (usually non-white) populations suffer under a dictator as long as we're better off, has hardly been a state secret over the years.
Though the script tends to fudge a bit by throwing in the revenge factor, at least, for once, Bond is clearly on the side of the downtrodden. In fact he's in direct conflict with a group of well connected financial manipulators, quite intent on squeezing all the profit they can out of the less developed world. To see Bond take on these poseurs was worth the price of admission.
Do I miss Bond the connoisseur? No. In fact, I much prefer someone who gets it on regardless, and who couldn't care less whether his martinis are shaken or stirred. The fight scenes are quite good and when someone gets killed, he looks dead, for a change. No, this isn't a Bond for those who've never ventured far without their parent's help. This is a Bond for those who've taken a risk now and then as a fiercely independent man, far too proud to have been compromised already.
No, Daniel Craig may yet become my favorite Bond. He's taking the franchise away from fantasy, and I don't doubt that means he'll lose some fans, but he's going to gain a lot of respect instead, from men especially. It's funny how all the previous Bonds never had the guts to do the same.