fairly mediocre and a little boring in the second half

Rating: 6/10 (5 April 2013)

Not sure why this film has such a high average rating.
I thought it was a fairly mediocre, boilerplate Bond film. First hour was fairly interesting and well paced, but then the second really dragged on and I thought the pacing was really too slow. They could probably have taken out at least half an hour of footage without detracting from the storyline.
Not quite I got the Bardem character's motivation. Basically, he was an MI6 agent who was caught and then his suicide capsule didn't work, so he did a complete 180 and became a villain ? That doesn't make any sense to me. It's like if Superman decided to become a villain because he had a really bad day.
Craig is a very good actor, but the problem with Bond films in general is that it's already so over the top that unless you're able to find just the right balance, it comes off as machismo buffoonery.
By the halfway point, I had mostly lost interest in the storyline and watched it mostly to find out what eventually happened.
The story itself seemed fairly boilerplate and not terribly creative or well done.
As a side note, the female lead, Berenice Marlohe, was both stunningly gorgeous and a superb actress.