unimpressed - Casino Royale way better

Rating: 5/10 (3 November 2012)

Well i was quite looking forward to this without expecting something astounding...and it still left me cold at the end. The benchmark (for me anyway) is Casino Royale and frankly i'd rather watch Quantum of Solace than Skyall (yes i know QoS was a bit under par).
No gadgets, OK i'm fine with that as i like the more realistic bond, but then...why the hell is there suddenly a Q character back again ? Q was flimsy, looked like a teenager and detracted from the class and sophistication of the Bond franchise - no offence to the actor but he has been woefully miscast. Then we have TERRIBLE continuity editing (or lack of i should say) - check out how many times Bond's bullet wound scar changes from right chest to left chest and back again (both in opening credits and also throughout the film - 10 times maybe ?!! lol, very very poor).
Then the opening action set piece - its OK, nothing special, motorcross bikes on rooftops was cool but after that a routine fight on top of a train - sorry Casino Royale has that beaten all ways up. Then after Bond is shot he is next shown lying in a bed sipping a beer - nothing is explained as to where he is, who rescued him and patched him up, who the girl is lying in his bed next to him, very loose plot strand.
The bond girl Severine is good but gets about 8-10 minutes screen time before getting killed off - what the ?! The other girl (an MI6) operative is hardly pretty, and in terms of being a strong actress sorry she's just not memorable and neither is her script (not her fault admittedly).
Fight scenes are minimal - a short fight against bad guy "Patrice" in a skyscraper but all in dark shadows - good for stuntmen looking to 'sell' a fight, but really dissatisfying for the audience, and another short 'by the numbers' fight scene against 3 Chinese goons in a casino, and thats about your lot fight wise - we've waited 4 years for this film and that's the best you can do ?! And the bad guy's death at the end is extremely basic and not dramatic at all, very poor.
On the plus side : Dame Judy has more screen time and she is a classy operator with some sharp lines. Ralph Fiennes has a good cameo appearance that promises to be a bigger character in the next film. Bardem's first few big scenes are good but after that just standard bad guy fare. Daniel Craig looks good and tries to show a vulnerability to his character but there isn't too much he can do with this poor script.
Frankly the pre-film trailers for The Hobbit and Life of Pi were more enjoyable than this film. I really would like to see the same scripter and director who did Casino Royale to come back to the franchise because it badly needs them.