Revisits Old Territory

Rating: 5/10 (30 November 2012)

If your a die hard Bond fan, you find what you like here. The theme song by Adele is pretty much like prior Bond themes. The opening credits are very much like older Bond films. The action is much like territory covered before. In fact, it is dangerously like "Action for Older Persons" as it is too much formula and flash, not enough script.
The plot seems to involve cyber terrorism and a former agent whose gone bad and is bent on killing M. They steal a sensitive worldwide list of agents, and then burn 5 of them on You Tube with a plot to keep doing 5 more every week. What is interesting is that there is no real black mail demand to stop this process. Then the movie forgets about this process, focus on the bad guy and his personal thing about M.
So it loses the save the world process here and never finds it again. Instead we get a get setting in Scotland to stage an action finale which makes very little sense. The bad guy loses focus on any real destroy the world goal and the film loses focus as well.
The most refreshing thing about this movie is Naomi Harris. She is the only new Bond woman of note and she looks sensational though the film only really gives you small hints of how good she looks. This is a Bond light film in there is less sex in this than previous films. Daniel Craig is back as Bond but he really does not get a lot of acting here. It is good to see him back on screen but think he had a better role in the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
This movie celebrating 50 years of Bond has all the smoke and mirrors of a Bond film and if your into smoke and mirrors and stunts, it will make you happy. Even though it is easy to follow, there is very little to surprise you. It does set up new character actors to take over in repeating roles of Q and Money Penny for future films but it does not make up for the loss of opportunity the series had by missing 2007 as the obvious Century promotion.
This film will not kill the series. The trouble is a true Bond fan is in dire need of a great script to refresh the franchise. The question is will it happen next script as it sure does not happen here. This one takes advantage of the old frame work and adds to it. The thing is when a building is 50 years old, it is in major need of rehab. This film makes it look like that has not yet happened.
The net result is the same old furniture and rooms but the view to a kill is missing, lost in transition and translation someplace.