Fair successor to Quantum of Solace

Rating: 10/10 (17 February 2013)

Loved the beginning. Ten minutes of pure chase/fighting but I was fully engaged. Touching shot by Eve, great effects as Bond falls off the train and floats into the water underneath as the pre-movie credits begin to roll. Fitting Skyfall song by Adele during these beginning credits, as well as later on when Bond is on the boat in Macau after the scene with Eve and throughout the movie. Like the cold open in the first episode of Breaking Bad - draws you in and makes you want to know what's going on.
Actors are great - LOVE Judi Dench as M, and of course Daniel Craig is made for the role with his stoic demeanor and piercing gray/blue eyes.
Interspersed with humor, too: e.g. when 007 returns to M and she justifies her decision to tell Eve to shoot and tells him his house's been sold (guess he "should've called"); when Q tells Bond "told you" about backing into the subway door just as the train approaches; when M asks if she's to be the bait as Bond is "kidnapping" her in the car, and then sarcastically comments on how completely inconspicuous the beige bmt car is.
Well shot, well made movie - all the money, action, special effects are there without being over-the-top. Beautiful shots of Shanghai, lots of nice filming from above, blue/dark color scheme throughout that matches the film's contents. Scenery complete with komodo lizards/dragons and all. Gorgeous image of Raoul walking in front of the fire explosion.
Speaking of Raoul, the bad guy is actually witty and endearing - interesting and unique approach, I liked it. Also relatively attractive (especially in police uniform!) which is again a nice digression from the typical beautiful hero and ugly villain approach (think Bain in ugly dog-type face mask in Dark Knight Rises, etc.).
Speaking of attractive - hot computer science nerdy guy Q. Keeps up variety with his snarky comments, too.
Love how Severine played, even though she didn't play for much. Especially when Bond revealed her tattoo and predicament, she showed fear but some trust and a little half-laugh so realistically. Thought she looked very appealing.
However, did find some parts of the film unrealistically shot (no, not just the impossible action). I'm talking about when Bond and Severine arrived to Raoul's deserted island, and the houses on the island looked more like a backdrop painting than anything else. Same backdrop painting goes for the scene where Bond and M get out of the car for a stop in Scotland and talk - they really look starkly separated from the trees and mist in the background. Also unrealistically empty train (i.e. no one on the train..) that crashes down into the tunnel after Bond when Raoul sets off an explosion.
Creepy but interesting end at the house. Very different from the fast- paced chases in the rest of the movie, where main characters are always surrounded by many people. This time they are alone, and it's different (like in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Harry ventured off just with Dumbledore to destroy the Horcrux).
Loved the movie but didn't like the end. First off, with all the orphan discussion and Raoul looking at Bond's parents' grave, I was expecting some blood connection between Raoul and Bond. But to my main problem with the ending - M died?! She died after Bond saved her from the bad guy, without really getting shot and just a wound on her hand that she'd been sporting for a while up to that point. It also wasn't poignant or sad, which it really should have been considering she's the second main character behind Bond. Small redemption in that the gamekeeper stayed alive - it gets old when the secondary good characters get mandatorily killed off in order to compensate for all the bad characters that get killed, so this was a nice change.
Synopsis: Very long movie (2 hours 20 minutes), but a great action film with some good variety of attractive, interesting, funny characters. Not a philosophical masterpiece by any means but what you want from a good old James Bond movie, plus beautiful scenery and great artistic special effects from Chris Corbould.