Thoroughily enjoyable Bond outing only a little let down by Mendes' direction

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2012)

Daniel Craig and Ian Flemming's great James Bond character are always worth spending time with - both for the adventure of seeing where this 50 year old franchise can go next and the joy of seeing subtle acting in a very unsubtle genre. One notices however, after enjoying a couple hours of solid escapist adventure including both touching transitions (a great character exiting the series given a meaty role on the way out!) and smile inducing re-introductions of minor iconic characters (it's clear THIS Moneypenny is going to have more to do in future films even if the classic Aston Martin may not!), that by the next day between the standard set pieces (the thrilling chases, the smooth erotic encounters and the lavishly filmed travelogues) there seems to be a certain lack in the connective tissue holding director Sam Mendes' story telling together.
Yes, we do have a new villain who has freshly creepy kinks to offer, and a few jokes all too parsimoniously doled out, but neither the kink nor the comedy get enough screen time (or have the impact to FEEL like they have enough screen time) to fully satisfy! The great first challenging encounter between Craig and Bardem seems particularly shortchanged (even though it contains the movie's most memorable line, "what makes you think it's my first time?"), and the "Hannibal Lecter" style transitional confinement scene is simply a time waster, but any film which can have the fun this one does with a pair of komodo dragons and a throw-away line about "the circle of life" is not so very far off the track with which the series has always bonded with its audience, and there are other delightful surprises as well (I defy anyone to *recognize* Albert Finney in his sublime turn at the family estate which gives the film its title).
This is a smooth enjoyable Bond from the superlative opening credits (among the best in the series so far) to the final rooftop passing of the "inheritance", neither shaken nor stirring, but a worthy addition to the series and pointing the way to potential greatness still to come. "Rebooting" an adventure series which had gotten the not entirely deserved reputation of being a Cold War creation (only FROM Russia WITH LOVE really went there) into a Post-Cold War environment where the nature of the threats have evolved is not a bad thing - even when copycats from Helm to Bourne to all the earlier Bond incarnations makes keeping ideas and visuals fresh difficult. Ben Whishaw's new "Q" offers impressive potential if we can take his unfortunate assertion that "we don't go in for that sort of thing any more" as mere hyperbole and something the DEPARTMENT will back off of when they see the potential for the sort of "toys" his kind are good at - particularly if interacting with the fascinatingly flawed Naomie Harris' character, Eve, and while the initial introduction of Ralph Fiennes here was none too smooth until the exciting scene in the Committee Hearing Room, there is great potential to be mined in his persona as well.
It is easy to note that Sam Mendes is a wildly uneven director in his stage work - sometimes brilliant, sometimes simply misguided - and he shows the full range of that unevenness in this film. Two of the important new "Bond women," Bérénice Marlohe as a supposedly frightened adversary and Helen McCrory as an aggressive MP are essentially wasted in his apparent effort not to be "politically incorrect" (to do a Bond film is to free yourself from such concerns unless you can honor them with *humor*). Nevertheless, he gets the broad sweep of the film right and if he returns for another go in the series, one can expect the ride will be smoother and the "highs" of comfort, kink and comedy even higher. I look forward to it - or ANY film in which Daniel Craig or Dame Judi Dench hold forth.