pretty good B-movie

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2008)

To read through the reviews here, this film appears to have entered "love it or hate it" territory, and that doesn't make sense. While this film is not as good as Casino Royale, it's still a good action film in the contemporary espionage genre.
Dispelling one common complaint: Some critics remark that that the editing in the action sequences borrows too much from Hong Kong or even MTV. That's not true. The editing style chosen for this film is a taken from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," complete with sudden close-ups and reflections from metal surfaces. Related Complaint: Too much/too little action. Actually the issue is overall pacing; Foster determined to keep the pace moving from one scene to another rapidly, not allowing for any moments of leisure or reflection. When there is so much action, any one action set-piece loses some of it's thrill, since it's no longer unexpected.
Common Complaint 2: The plot is shot with holes. This is not entirely true, though understandable. What has actually happened is that the script underplays the plot and director Foster hasn't come up with a visually striking way to emphasize the plot elements so underplayed.
Common Complaint 3: There's no humor to this Bond (for instance, no Bond quips). Actually there is, but Daniel Craig makes no effort to draw attention to it, usually speaking his 'quip' lines in a natural tone of voice, i.e., without the emphasis previous Bonds brought to them. Related Complaint: Too serious! Maybe, but the producers realized that Casino Royale left some issues to be resolved before they can open up the character to innovation that could make it more 'light-hearted.'
Common complaint 4: There are no Bond gadgets in this film. True; however, the repeated insertions in the film of the computer programs used by the British Secret Service tell us why - the era of the 'Bond gadget' (despite micro-technology still 'hardware') was late industrialism, such innovations would leave little impression in the AI/software era of our day.
Complaints aside, this is a pretty good B-movie, and it is certainly a James Bond movie - the core of the Bond legend has been re-interpreted for the 21st Century, but remains intact. The camera work is excellent, and there are moments that may unsettle some (like the opera sequence) but that still add to the substance of the film; and although the plot is a bit muddled, Foster and company have really made the film about Bond and so preserve an inner sense of continuity. Frankly, after Casino Royale, I'm not sure where else they could have gone. The next film will be the one that determines the future for this franchise.