Great Action, Fails to Live Up to CASINO ROYALE

Rating: 7/10 (25 May 2009)

I had high hopes for the twenty-second Bond film after seeing CASINO ROYALE. I loved that film and I easily rank it as my favorite Bond film so far. I wasn't disappointed in the latest installment but it definitely did not live up to my expectations. As the first official 007 sequel, the film picks up immediately after the last with Bond on the trail of the organization responsible for Vesper Lynd's death. He discovers a widespread, secret organization known as Quantum; one of it's members, Dominic Greene, is in the process of assisting with a military overthrow of the Bolivian government.
A major complaint about this film is that it's nearly ALL action. Considering that the film opens in the middle of an intense car chase and rarely lets up through the length of the movie, yeah, I'd say that's a fair statement. The first time I saw this movie, I was still a bit confused at the end about the plot. The movie doesn't really slow down enough for much plot exposition between action sequences. It took an extra viewing just for me to fully grasp what all had happened. On the plus side, the action sequences are creative and generally awesome. Most of the budget seems to have been put towards shooting locations and action.
Daniel Craig returns for his second run as 007 and I still feel he is one of the best to ever tackle the role. The writers of this film didn't give Bond as many one-liners or utilize as many of his mannerisms but Craig still came across as a fantastic Bond. Judi Dench received more screen time as M and has proved that she is a strong element in the 007 series that has been under-used in the past. Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton join the ranks of beautiful Bond women. I enjoyed Arterton and wish she'd had a larger role though Kurylenko did a fine job alongside Craig. As for the villain, I thoroughly enjoyed Mathieu Amalric as Greene. He's a soft-spoken, mousy individual with some crazy eyes and I felt he was a nice break from the usual Bond villain archetype.
The film is entertaining, it just doesn't feel like a Bond film. It's loaded with fantastic action and beautiful women but it lacks the 007 charm. The cast did a great job and the production value was there, so I feel the fault lies with lackluster writing. Although, to it's credit, the opening credits theme was one of the better ones we've had in a while. The song "Another Way to Die", a duet with Jack White and Alicia Keys, had lodged itself in my head for a good while after seeing the film.