Falling from the sky....with a thud.

Rating: 6/10 (22 November 2012)

After being surprised to learn that American Beauty director Sam Mendes had been chosen to direct the movie that celebrates 50 years of James Bond being on the big screen,I started to become increasingly interested in the film,when I found out that Bond baddie was going to be greatly modelled on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
The plot:
Returning to MI6 after having been left for dead, thanks to a failed mission where he was assigned to retrieve a stolen computer hard drive, containing a list of all NATO secret agents currently undercover in terrorist organisation's,James Bond discovers that MI6 is being attacked by a computer hacker,who seems to be doing everything in his/her power to bring MI6 to its knees,and is also launching a vicious attack on the head of MI6,and Bonds most trusted mentor M,in an attempt to ruin her entire legacy.As he starts to search for the perpetrator,Bond begins to wonder if they attacks may be connected to something "secret" that M committed in the past.
View on the film:
Taking the supporting character's in a similar direction to the one taken for Bond in the wonderful Casino Royal,screenwriter's Neal Purvis,Robert Wade and John "Gladiator" Logan brilliantly deconstruct all of the character's who have mostly spent their time in the past sending their "man on a mission"..on his mission.Easily giving the strongest,most rounded performance in the film,Judi Dench shows M to be someone who uses her stern,blunt exterior to hide fears that her role maybe shortly dismantled,and also struggling to be completely at ease and satisfied with her tenure,due to "dark shadows" that have quietly been growing over her career.Along with Dench,Ben Whishaw gives the movie some nice indie charm as the young and eager Q,whilst Ralph Fiennes and a returning Rory (son of the much missed, late actor Roy) Kinnear give the film a great dose of extra gravitas as Gareth Mallory and Tanner.
Sadly,due to the film's eye being focused on the supporting character's,the writer's unexpectedly leave the major character's of the movie on the sideline!,with Daniel Craig being left to re-tread and take Bond down a muddy,darken path that had originally been so fresh and bright in Casino Royal,but ,with the possible exception of a half- hearted look into Bond's "family past" has now just become a circle for Bond to repeatedly run round.
Whilst Bond is at least given some "family issues" to deal with,the Bond girls (played by the gorgeous Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe) are given the cheerful role of being "filler tracks",with Harris's only highlight being a happy,last minute punchline,and Marlohe being given a plot line that barely has any connection at all to the main plot,that along with being used by director Sam Mendes to set up a stylish,but completely useless set piece of Bond wilfully not stopping a "glorifed extra" assassin,also has Marlohe go from being a distraught character,who has spent her life being a forced sex worker,to just being another notch on the 007 bedpost in the space of 5 minutes!
For the villain,the writer's initially appear to be using Silva (played by a calculating Javier Bardem) as a way to take the "Bond villain" into a tantalisingly complex,realistic moral area,by showing the things that Silva wants to achieve ( such as expose MI6 being illegally compliance in torture.) may actually be something that Bond should not be attempting to shoot down.Tragicly,after spending the first 10 minutes to show the intellectual side of the character,Sam Mendes pushes any of Silva's complexity aside,to instead create a ranting psycho,who in fact does not care a bit about MI6 being involved in torture,but is instead simply suffering from "(M)ummy issues",that lead to this Bond film falling from the sky with an almighty thud.