Very good Bond film.

Rating: 7/10 (15 November 2012)

(As everyone knows, it's a Bond film, so you do have to suspend a certain amount of disbelief - that should be an automatic tick-box on entry to the cinema.)
Skyfall starts like a typical Bond, right in the heart of the action: chase scene, pretty girl and a glamorous location. It's beautifully choreographed and shot and gets proceedings off to a great start. This scenes sets up the rest of the film and leads us towards the thrilling climax.
So, the bad:
The middle section of this film is far too plodding. The story is not strong enough to justify the time spent telling it and I would have liked to have seen some sharper editing here. At 143mins this is a long film.
There are some pretty large plot holes that left me scratching my head a bit and I find that a little strange that they were not thought through in a $200m production. There were also some large continuity and production errors that made me wince a bit.
But, the good:
The final section is, in my opinion, one of the best endings to any Bond. He shows resourcefulness, tenacity and expertise. The setting is wonderful and it fills in a tiny bit of Bond back history which is a new thing and actually handled rather well.
The cinematography is universally great in this film. Wonderful lighting and locations and almost painterly in places.
Judi Dench is wonderful.
A proper villain. He's bonkers and brilliant and just steals the scenes.
Rather good titles and title song by Adele. Brings back memories of Shirley Bassey.
Overall: I enjoyed it. It was a bit long and could have lost some pounds in the middle section (couldn't we all?) but I thought it was up there with Casino Royale as one of my favourite Bond movies. Daniel Craig is an excellent Bond and Mendes obviously relished making this movie because of the care gone into it...which begs the question: why production errors and plot holes!?