A good action movie, but not up to "Bond" standard

Rating: 6/10 (5 November 2008)

I'm not going to go in to detail, as so many people have already done this - however what I will add is from my perspective I felt that whilst the action was good - if not very samey (most of the action was just a repeat of either C.R or Bourne) - the story was quite weak.
Problems:
1. The opening sequence was very flat - what happened to the big Bond stunts?! 2. I thought there were going to be more gadgets?!! This is BOND!! 3. What was the point in introducing half the characters when you don't do anything with them?! 4. So you have a ruthless, evil, secret corporation, hell bent on world domination, run by cold blooded killers - the plan? Take over the countries water supply and sell it back to the locals at a hugely inflated price... Damn that could be any high street company (every little helps!) Weak... very weak... 5. Could M please not spend the whole movie complaining about Bond killing people - he has a licence to kill, not a licence to rough up a bit but keep alive. 6. Could she also not just assume that Bond is guilty of whatever the local police report back (I mean it begs the question, do you give everyone you don't really trust a gun?!) Perhaps I could suggest actually asking him for his side of the story?!? 7. Q? I don't think I need to say any more! 8. I missed the point where Bond took the hulk super strength potion - Pulling a steel door handle off?!! Do you have any idea how much force you'd need to apply to do this!!?! 9. Where is the super hard to kill henchmen? This one seemed more like he should be in changing rooms, looking at curtain swatches?!
There were a few things I liked - Craig's performance I thought was good - I like the body in oil, (tiping it's hat tip at Goldfinger).
My overall feeling after Casino R. was that they really wanted to make everything a lot more serious, and QOS took this even further. The problems is that what makes Bond, Bond, is that he is larger than life but at the same time cool, calm, and collected.
Now yes you can argue that this isn't the Bond from the books, but we've grown up with this reinvention, and we LIKE it!! We like seeing the gadgets, we like the wise cracking, we like him getting off with the ladies.
What you've given us is to be fair, a much more accurate Bond, but then isn't this really just Bourne, and so many others that have gone before?
I'd like to finish by saying, this messing about with Bond was tried before with Timothy Dalton, and it didn't work, nor did it last.
So please, please, please... Bring back 007!!!