What a letdown!

Rating: Null/10 (16 November 2012)

After seeing the trailers for this movie, I was really excited. Sure, I said to myself, Quantum of Solace was nigh unwatchable but they seem to have made another great neo-Bond movie. It'll be like Casino Royale all over again!
This charade was kept up right until the scene where the guy gets eaten by the komodo dragons. Hmmm, I said, that seems like something that would happen in a later Pierce Brosnan Bond or an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. The facade started to crack. The movie kept going fairly well. We meet the super villain: he has an awesome intro and great opening lines. Then, for no discernible reason, the movie plunges straight into the toilet.
Keep in mind, up until the conclusion of the island part I was really into this movie. I was more than willing to suspend my disbelief (it IS a Bond movie) and the plot seemed to be building to a cool story. There was a gorgeous woman who needed saving, an extremely crazy super villain that needed defeating, and a mystery about a missing list that needed solving.
But for some reason the writers chose to completely abandon these intriguing plot lines they spent the entire first part of the movie developing! I noticed in the credits that 3 people wrote this movie. Did the smartest one write the first part, the second smartest the second, and an escaped chimp the ending? It was going well!!! It had a great set up. Then they just chucked it all and started again on a much worse story. The bad guy kills the damsel in distress right away, so that angles done. The missing list is never found and not even attempted to be recovered after we meet the bad guy. The super villain turns out not to be a great foe for Bond to duel; instead, he wants to fight a decrepit old lady!
The writing is just so bad after we meet Javier Bardem. Some examples off the top of my head:
-Javier arranges an extremely elaborate plan to get to M just so he can look her in the eyes, involving changing the location of Mi6 headquarters, getting caught, tricking Mi6 into uploading a virus so he can escape, having disguises and getaway cars ready for him, and rerouting a subway train through the floor at the exact right moment, all so he can...shoot M with a handgun? WHY DID HE GO TO ALL THAT TROUBLE JUST TO DO THAT? Every Bond villain ever had grander ambition than that.
-A major part of the plot until after the island part is how Bond is losing his skill. He can't run, shoot, and he may have a drinking problem. After the island this is never mentioned again
-The Scottish groundskeeper has no trace of a Scottish accent. He also steals Will Smith's line from Independence Day
-The movie turns into Home Alone at the end
-Javier Bardem can finally shoot M, then decides he can't, then tells her to shoot herself. She doesn't.
-There's no final showdown between Bond and Javier. Javier dies from a knife in the back and Bond is just standing there.
-After that anti-climactic death, M dies anyway. The whole stupid final part of the movie was a complete waste
This was one of the most perplexing, frustrating movies I've ever seen. It had a great beginning with cool action sequences and some interesting plot developments. Then it completely abandons them for government inquiries, bad guys fighting a house, long chase sequences where nothing interesting happens, and a plot to protect an elderly woman, which ultimately fails anyway. This is the worst movie I've seen in a long, long time. I give it a 3 only because the beginning had so much promise. Watch up until Javier finishes his opening talk with Bond. Then turn it off and make up your own ending. It will be much more satisfying.