This is not the James Bond we have come to love over the years

Rating: 5/10 (7 November 2012)

*Contains major spoilers*
I think Craig is a good actor, but I'm still struggling with him being James Bond. That said, I went into Skyfall with an open mind and left with very mixed feelings.
The plot was unoriginal; a list of agents and their alias' is stolen and a man responsible is threatening to leak the names to the world. Sure it's been done before, and however over the top and unrealistic the techno-hacking elements are, it doesn't matter. It does the job for an action spy film and that's what is important.
Skyfall's main problem is that it forgets about it's own plot half way through. After the Enquiry I'm not sure if the list is ever mentioned again.
What we are left with is the most elaborate and unbelievable 'revenge plot' that somehow manages to last around two hours. The film started out on the front foot, but for long periods of time not much really happened.
However my biggest gripe with Skyfall is the same as with QoS. Bond not longer cares about collateral damage. The Bolivian Policemen in QoS, and in Skyfall Bond happily lets Silva snipe the guy in Shanghai among others. Perhaps more criminally, Bond doesn't make any effort to save Sévérine, a woman who he hours before promised he would free from the sex slave trade. This is not the James Bond we have come to love over the years.
This leads me onto the next point. There is no Bond girl, unless you count either Sévérine, who played a minimal part, or Eve, who had very little screen time outside the first 15 minutes. I think it would be very generous to consider either a proper Bond girl.
The action is there, but what is love about James Bond is completely absent. I'm not sure if anybody else is getting a little bored of motorbike chases going up and down steps in Istanbul or like cities?
As with QoS, it's not Craig's fault, he can only work with the script he is given, but he really isn't James Bond.
For a film that I have so many negative things to say about, I shouldn't have enjoyed watching it, but I did, it was okay. If Skyfall was a standalone film I would have definitely reacted differently. Perhaps I set my expectations too high, or maybe the James Bond universe covered up what is otherwise a poor film. I will never know.
I imagine Craig will be back for a forth outing, so lets hope he is given something he can really work with next time. I'm finding it very hard to give a rating to. I'm going to stick with a 5 for it's few saving graces; it was entertaining in parts and has a couple of good action scenes, namely at the beginning and end.