Bond fails to protect...or care.

Rating: 5/10 (24 November 2012)

Don't look for a hero here. Bond fails to protect or even acknowledge the most vulnerable, saving his tears only for the one who used him the most. In fact, each of the main characters in this film, from Bond to Villain and M to Q, all commit tragic failures of judgment. Bond, M, and Q are simply horribly incompetent spies. Here are two of many possible examples:
Standing less than 20 feet away from Bond, an assassin prepares and then trains his rifle on an unsuspecting victim. Who is the intended victim? What does Bond do?
Later, only scant seconds before a rescue he expects, Bond engages in a William Tell style shoot off with Sévérine, the woman he convinced he could free from terror and bondage.
In both cases, the writers and director leave Bond without the slightest acknowledgment or remorse for the needless outcomes he could have either prevented outright or at the least, attempted to delay. In fact, he fails to prevent the death of anyone who relies on him.
Sadly, the two characters who's story line and portrayal we care for, Sévérine and Silva, will not be returning. However, Bond will be back. But if his character can no longer care enough to easily prevent an assassin before the shot, or to delay a game of death long enough to save a women he has determined has been trapped in the sex trade since age 13, why should we care whether Bond himself lives or dies?
This film has action you expect and will be entertained by and acting by Marlohe and Bardem which almost make the film worthwhile. But like Bond, I will not waste tears for those who knowingly put themselves in his care.