Disappointing and lazy sequel to Casino Royale

Rating: Null/10 (16 December 2008)

This film was much anticipated by all James Bond fans and I think that it is fair to say that most were very disappointed. The story continues where Casino Royale finished but with a car chase where 007 attempts to get his prisoner to a 'safe house' for interrogation. This was the first inkling that all was not well. Marc Forster showed that he was out of his depth with an action film. The chase seemed badly shot and he resorted to the current trend of quick-fire editing in place of good direction. Other people have commented on the confusing plot however I think it was purely too simple with no depth to any of the characters ( strangely for a Marc Forster film ) and no chemistry between James Bond and Camille. The story stayed with the central story and peripheral characters were under-utilised. In Casino Royale we saw Daniel Craig affected both physically and emotionally by his various encounters but here he seems to have become transformed into a man of steel with no emotion ( perhaps understandable given his baptism of fire in the previous film ) and no effects from his various chases and fights. I understand that the writer's strike resulted in the script being rushed however with more character development and some action scenes where you can actually see what is happening this would have been a worthy successor to Casino Royale. The comparisons with the Bourne films are justified. Here as there we had a solid first film with good performances, character depth and engrossing action scenes. In both we seem to have a lazy formulaic sequel relying on action and hyper-active ( and incredibly frustrating ) editing. It is a great shame that the producers are risking a remarkable resurgence of the franchise with these tactics.