Serviceable, but Flimsy Bond Film

Rating: 7/10 (12 November 2012)

Not much to say about this film's plot. All the scenes are appropriately emotional and the actors are all good at their respective roles, but the plot is just a standard revenge plot.
The villain has the same basic storyline as the villain from GoldenEye. He's an ex-British spy out for revenge and Javier Bardem plays him like Heath Ledger's Joker, complete with a disfigured face and a complete nonchalance towards explosives.
And the third act of this film was just spinning its wheels in reheated gibberish. The bad guy comes in referencing Apocalypse Now and the heroes counter with Home Alone.. Really? And even though MI6 knows exactly where Bond is running to, they can't send reinforcements, why? It all leads up to a fan service epilogue. Its not bad, per se... but its really just so paint-by-numbers at this point.
I'm not going to say Daniel Craig isn't a perfectly good James Bond. He's a great Bond, but so far, his villains are really weak. I want the genocidal mad-men and sinister organizations back. What we have now just feels like a series of briefly enjoyable, but ultimately empty one-night stands.