A huge disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (5 November 2008)

When I first saw the trailers for QOS I was not all that impressed. Yet, as usual, the hype and constant media coverage pulled me in. I have just watched the film today and while the excitement pre-movie was unbearable, the feeling afterwards was somewhat undesirable.
I would like to begin by criticising the intro. These scenes have always been the bread and butter of the first half-hour of any Bond Film before they start to really get going. This however was not. A full 5 minutes into the film, after a timid attempt at a car chase I was being tortured by Jack Black and Alesha Keys strangling a cat.
Secondly the film has no coherency, you are not pointed in the right directions as a viewer and so are being constantly forced to go over what has just happened in your head. QOS moves around far too much in the short space of time and the punter is left feeling cheated out of the gorgeous locations used in the film.
Thirdly, the lack of any real character development outside of Bond and Camille is frustrating.
In a nutshell the film moves to fast, relies to heavily on over complicated action scenes (which unlike the last film do not wow or surprise the viewer). There are to few of the Bond Institutions, no Q, gadgets, evil Bond girl or even the one liners, which are essential to any Bond. I realise the film is trying to distance itself from previous incarnations such as the tragic Die Another Day but it brushes dangerously close to losing all the characteristics that make it a Bond film. The plot is clumsy and many of the scenes are poorly executed from a screenplay point of view.
Finally, I have a personal gripe with Daniel Craig as Bond- he's simply not charismatic enough. All in all I rate 5 stars as it is watchable, just not memorable and I will not be paying any more money to see it at least. BRING BACK THE REAL BOND!!