It was the Best of Bonds; It was the Worst of Bonds

Rating: 6/10 (8 November 2012)

Do not miss the first 10-15 minutes of Skyfall. It's one intense and well-executed action sequence followed into another. Do not miss the middle of the film, for one extremely well-done, satisfying and unique casino scene.
And, then there's the rest: A mixture of some taught drama, some not-so-taut drama, and some totally pedestrian and unworthy-of-a-Bond & nonsensical action scenes. Worst of all, the final battle of the movie is in one of the latter group: something you've seen countless times before in B-grade action movies with far less-important stars and characters.
I've found it's a problem when a movie doesn't know how to play to its strengths and instead tries to switch modes: if you start playing drama too rigidly, your mind goes into 'analytical mode', and then when over-the-top action is presented, as a viewer you start noticing every technicality and lapse of logic. Skyfall suffers from that, and I largely place the blame on director Sam Mendes, who seems to linger and ponder just a little too long on many scenes. It also suffers from an inane running thread about him being 'too old'. Considering they signed Craig for many more Bond movies to come, this is a most curious plot contrivance, and totally unnecessary. They could easily have just extrapolated that his injuries at the beginning of the movie were severe enough to have physically damaged him. They didn't need to make this another Wrath of Khan with constant references to, 'Are you still capable, Mr Bond?'
Were it not that Craig is still so engaging as Bond, and is supported by such great co-stars and characters (such as Ben Wishaw as the new Q, Naomi Harris, Ralph Fiennes and Judy Dench), Skyfall might rate a couple points even lower.
Lastly, while the epilogue is certainly an interesting setup for the next film...you'll either feel a heavy case of deja vu, and/or that it's been a big, long 3-picture journey just to come full circle.