Mild, not bold...

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2013)

This is Bond without the full throttle. Quantum of Solace and Casino Royal show us a much fiercer and provocative Bond, even when he's struggling with his own issues in the aforementioned installments. In this film, we hear too much about Bond's back story to make him a man of mystery. So what's bad about that? Well, this franchise doesn't base itself on the ordinary, it prides itself on the extraordinary. Bond without his over-the-top cunning and super human feats isn't Bond. Knowing he's another human being makes him seem dull. The pacing in the movie deliberately slows down the action and intensity way too much to make him the Bond that we've known for years. This is intentional because he's supposed to be an old dog and what not, but why are we watching then? Bond is like a comic book; he's supposed to be "present tense", not "has been".
That said, Daniel Graig is his awesome self (even if he's exhausted in every scene), and shoo-in Javier Bardem is as evil as ever, something he seems to excel at. Ralph Fiennes easily fits in as Bond's new overseer, and is delightful in just about everything I've seen him in. His script is a little lacking in the movie, but again that's the movie, not the actor.