Bond, shaken and definitely stirred.

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2017)

My love of Bond definitely lay with the earlier actors who delivered Bond as suave, confident, intelligent spy who served on Her Majesty's behalf in the interests of Great Britian in the Cold War era in which Fleming based his fictional character upon.
Enter Daniel Craig who brings a harder, grittier, focused Bond with a killer edge capable of dispatching both friend and foe effortlessly. To take on a well established role and bring your own interpretation of Britain's well loved spy is difficult enough initially but Daniel has moulded Bond to his best of acting experience in 'Skyfall'. Having not seen his previous outings as Bond, I had to watch and form my own opinions.
'Skyfall' opens with a surprise exit of Bond for six months thanks to a colleague acting upon a decision made by 'M', leaving British Intelligence operatives fully exposed, there are repercussions for 'M' who is effectively under orders to retire following the fiasco. British intelligence is unaware that Bond has survived but is shaken to the core after being shot. We see him drink himself to oblivion but sobers up when he decides to pay 'M' visit after M16 is attacked in London. M16 have regrouped and are operating underground literally with Bond who must now find his nerve but we see his vulnerability he's still pressed into action despite reservations. Bond seeks to find who has the list of his comrades and seeks a ghost operative whose ruthlessness knows no limits. With Bond in Shanghai, he is exposed and subsequently brought of out his shell taking on a adversary determined to stop at nothing, even bringing the fight back to the ancestral home in Scotland.
The film itself in the former half is refreshing, it changed my opinion of Craig's abilities but the latter half of the film felt incomplete and wholly slower than I'd expected as Mendes fails to deliver. Craignshould have been given artistic licence and free reign to take Bond further but is limited by poor direction and the desire to finish a plot that was rushed somewhat.
Not fully disappointed, I believe Craig can do better but with a better director but bravo to him to showing different facets of Bond's usually suave character.