A dash of promising with the after taste of disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (5 May 2013)

There were aspects of this film that were very good. The cinematography is one of the best I've seen in a film, as the opening sequence in Istanbul and the shots in Shanghai were terrific.
With that said, directionally this is a mess of a movie. The villain is one-dimensional. In fact, he doesn't even appear until the middle of the movie, and even then he isn't given much of a back story aside from a few lines of dialogue, which is the worst way to give expository information on a character.
Now couple this with an aging Bond that some deem isn't capable of doing the job. It's hard as a viewer to understand this logic given we know Bond will always prevail, so instead of him going through a series of test, which were edited and directed poorly, they should have focused solely on his almost paternal relationship with M, that way the ending had much more impact.
Moreover, with most Bond movies aside from Casino Royale, you never get past the surface to see how Bond feels. Even in the dramatic closing scene with M in this move, the director decides to pan back, instead of giving us the close up to see Bond's pain, to feel Bond's pain. Worst of all, they drown out his sorrow with music. This scene had the potential to be one of the most powerful emotionally in the Bond franchise, and they failed to execute it.
Overall, this movie borrowed plot elements from a wide variety of movies including the Bourne series, the Dark Knight and there was even a surprising Home Alone sequence, which was executed well.
The biggest upside to the movie is the ending, as they set it up for Bond to go an a number of different directions. Let's hope for fans of the franchise such as myself, they choose to go up.