Underwhelmed - (00)7/10

Rating: 7/10 (29 October 2012)

I went to see this film with a totally open mind hoping to get blown away by it. Sadly, this did not happen. After an exciting opening sequence, the movie sagged badly, with little action either, until the half way mark when the baddie Javier Bardem appeared. He was great, in fact the only great thing about the film. The film may have been well made, and well shot, but I found it bleak and tiresome, and worst of all just not very exciting or suspenseful. I am bored with seeing it raining in London, this is a tired cliché, London is not such a rainy city ! The Shanghai scenes were boring and unimaginative, I only saw the film 2 hours ago and I am struggling to remember what happened there ! The casino fight was quite pathetic and absurdly resolved. The mystery island segment showed imagination and was better.
The film was full of decent half-laughs and sniggers, but no real killer lines. I am not at all a fan of mindless bombastic action films, but honestly I would be happier to have even John Woo or Michael Bay direct the next Bond movie than see more of this ! Give me flash cars, massive action stunts etc. The romantic scenes with the bond girls were also far too understated to the point of being inane, cutting away before there was barely a kiss. This must rank as the un-sexiest bond movie ever !
There was not enough action in this film, and I can't believe it cost $ 200 million, where did it all go ? Although the critics reviews are all very positive at the moment, I am sure that when the hype dies down this movie will have no higher a rating than Quantum of Solace in the long run. In fact, though Q of S is not a film I long to see again, I enjoyed it more at the cinema than I did this ! I give Skyfall a very disappointed (00)7/10, and that is being generous !