A franchise falling apart

Rating: 2/10 (2 January 2013)

Main spoilers near bottom look for warning.
What have they done to Bond, this was not a film that lives up to the expectations of the Bond franchise. As a film in it's self it was okay, nothing to write home about, in fact had this film not had a character in it called Bond it would have gone straight to video (DVD BLURAY whatever it is nowdays).
This film has enough quality actors to deliver. I do however care if I am able to follow the plot, accept that the reasoning and rational is not too contrived to make a storyline. This film falls at both these points.
The fact that I can say points about this film is a bit of an irony, in that it is pointless. Rules of Bond are quite simple, he saves the planet from devilish madmen hell bent on world domination, he does not bother with petty shoplifters, car thieves and in the case of this film, some balloon who has a vendetta against M.
From the outset it was a sequence of "bond Style" locations and chases but lacked any sequence, unravelling of story or development of either a "evil villain" or "Bond Girl" in fact there was not a bond girl in the film. So it went from car chase to bike chase to train chase to casino to boat to island to London to Scotland so all the ingredients but without a purpose, nothing unravelled. This film made no sense.we were just expected as viewers to trust that bond had some reason to go to the places listed above without any real reason other than they are "Bond Ingredients". Hints were dropped here and there that normally would have some depth, instead they were just keywords to associate one scene with another "Principally the word SKYFALL" which gets a mention by a shrink to bond but then gets brushed under the carpet like its some hidden codeword that cannot be talked about leading us to believe the shrink had some purpose to bring up such a word....nope it was apparently random to the shrink.
Please when watching this (as no doubt you will, hell its Bond) just separate the franchise and evaluate the film as if it was a new spy character series like Bourne, and when you do that you see this film has no substance whatsoever. Awful awful awful.
Sam Mendes should not be allowed behind a camera again if he can cock up this tried and tested formula. Craig is looking rough, and while still better looking than me, I wouldn't pitch myself as Bond and neither should he.
below more direct spoilers
It introduced a new Q character, cashing in on the geek chic by making him an attractive chap, but didn't give him enough substance for him to reoccur in the next film.
They take a trip to Scotland for reasons only known to Mendes himself which turns out to be Bonds childhood home called "skyfall"... hurrah a meaning to the title, not quite on par with goldfinger, man with a golden gun, moonraker etc, Skyfall a derelict old house where Mendes cannot decide if Bond was an orphan or had a father or whether all his possessions upon bonds premature bodyless death were put into storage or sold off.
bond goes to Skyfall to have the villain come to him instead of being on the backfoot, however bond goes completely unprepared and has to resort to old shotguns (Bond is never unprepared for anything you idiots..shaken not stirred is his catchphrase mendes !!).
gets helped out by an old man that recognises this 44 year old craig who has been looking after the place faithfully for what must be 40 years by my reckoning despite his parents being dead and him being orphaned, he kept the place batman esq ideal for Bonds return, who this gamekeeper will now lay down his life for, even though clearly bond has not been in touch.
and does bond succeed in protecting M..no he fails and M dies...BOND SHOULD NOT FAIL !