Where am I?

Rating: 5/10 (5 May 2012)

This movie tries to outdo too much. It is "The Bond Identity" on adrenaline. But that is really to it's detriment. This is immediately evident in the opening car chase. Every shot is so split second, that exploding cars and trucks become meaningless, almost a parody of itself. I mean, come on, you spend the time to shoot this sequence, give the audience a chance to feel what it was like. This movie is far too jumpy. It reminds me of the Michael Bay syndrome. His movies need to cut every half second because if it ever slowed down, you would catch on that you are actually watching something dumb. That being said, there are a mix of good action sequences and just dumb ones. Bond motorcycles over three boats and jumps into another one to chase after the villain - all in stride like it was well choreographed. It's just too easy for Bond to slip in and out of the villain's lair without a scratch.
Then there's the weak script writing, where Judi Dench has to show up in all the convenient moments to keep the plot going. Doubly so for the very last scene, which wraps up everything way too conveniently. Literally, she just pops in from nowhere, any spot on the planet. There is also the same complaint with too nebulous of a evil crime syndicate or what have you. Then there is a relatively stupid finale in a pretty lame looking location.
One thing I will hand to the cinematography, the action unit director knows that you can shoot exciting action sequences without the use of shaky cam. Let this be a lesson to future action filmmakers.