A quantum short of Bourne...little solace for Bond fans

Rating: 3/10 (1 November 2008)

I saw a pre-screening of this film and of the 5 of us, 4 actively disliked it, and 1 found it 'OK'.
Issues:
1. Pre credits sequence - really rather pedestrian.
2. Opening credits - poor. You'd think they'd get them right at least.
3. Theme tune - poor.
4. Action sequences - a sort of watered-down Bourne, despite sharing people who worked on Bourne. I think the action sequences were supposed to be bone-crunching, but they were just rather dull, with the exception of the plane sequence.
5. Craig - given very little to work with in the way of script.
6. Plot - a strong knowledge of the Casino Royale plot is a pre requisite if you are going to make any sense of this.
7. Script - just not good enough, although a few of the jokes (which are few and far between) do hit home.
8. M - is now very much an out-and-about M, popping up in the most unlikely locations.
9. Product placement - at one point the film stops for a Virgin infomercial. This sort of overt product placement totally destroys the artistic integrity of the film.
A major rethink desperately needed to get this franchise back on track. This is in the bottom 3 of Bond films along with Octopussy and late era Dalton.
Avoid.