That difficult second movie...

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2008)

I was one of those people that got to feel smug after always giving Daniel Craig more than the benefit of the doubt before Casino Royale. He was great in that, and he's great in this... or at least, he is when his stuntman gives him chance to appear.
I kept being reminded of the second Indiana Jones movie, which was really just an extended series of chase sequences threaded together with little narrative. This is Bond's Temple of Doom, just a non-stop roller-coaster with no chance to breathe... we even get a series of stunts and explosions before we've even had any real groundlaying exposition. It's a film that wants to run from the outset before even giving you time to get into the starting block... and apologies for the corniness of that analogy.
With the all new, all realistic Bour... er, Bond franchise, then it's all presented so seriously that the hyperrealism can be a little unintentionally silly at times. Falling hundreds of feet, getting in about ten lethal fights and escaping exploding buildings beyond all laws of probability are okay if your lead villain lives with ninjas in a volcano. When it's a "straight" movie then it does push it towards the limits of suspension of disbelief... in fact towards the end I kept expecting Bond to escape a nuclear blast by jumping into a fridge. The fact that the movie keeps reminding me of Indiana Jones - a franchise I don't particularly care for - is telling.
The use of violence and sexual violence against women as a means to show how evil the villains are is troubling, and the rudimentary conclusion, wrapped up in a couple of minutes, makes you realise just how little plot there actually is. Don't get me wrong, this is very well made entertainment, Craig is still on fine form and Judy Dench is for once exceptional.... a self-conscious bore with the bland skincare commercial Bond, she shines with this sixth incarnation. It's fast, it's pacy, it's always watchable and there are glimmers of depth, but it's never going to be anyone's favourite. Still better than any Bond film since at least the 80s though...