Promising start, but....

Rating: 5/10 (31 May 2013)

I loved Casino Royal. After the folly of Brosnan's Die Another Day, the series received a much needed kick up the backside, and was relaunched with a gritty, stylish take on Her Majesties Secret Servant.
Quantum of Solace, while not terrible, didn't quite hit the same highs (something to do with a writers strike(?)) So, like any Bond tragic, I desperately wanted this instalment to live up to (or at least approach) my very high expectations. And for the first hour or so, things were looking pretty good. We had the obligatory pre-credits chase sequence, a killer title track, a brief lull while 007 recuperates at the bottom of a bottle of Vodka, the pre mission briefing, and then the introduction of a suitably colourful villain.
And then Q turns up. Now let me just say that Desmond Llewellyn's character was one of the most iconic and endearing figures in movie history....but since the 'geek with gadgets' device has more recently been hijacked by numerous other action movies (Mission Impossible, XXX, Van Helsing to name just a few), I thought maybe Bond had outgrown this character.
To the movies credit, the new Q is low-key and edgy: "Exploding pens? We don't really go in for that sort of thing any more". The fact that he is now the irreverent youngster, and Bond the world-weary cynic is also a refreshing change, and the repartee between the two is far better than anything we saw from the Brosnan movies.
Enter the Aston Martin. OK, so in Casino Royal we learned that he won this in a game of chance, and I thought it was a nice touch that, instead of simply discarding it (as seems to be the way with most of the Bond's stuff), he went to the trouble of bringing it back to the UK and putting it in a lock-up garage. A respectful tip-of-the-hat to the old movies.
BUT WAIT.....What's that? A secret button on the top of the gearstick? Oh dear, what started as a tasteful homage to a bygone era is starting to feel like something a lot less subtle.
And suddenly, this Bond movie did't feel like a Bond movie any more, as it descended into an overly drawn out set piece, with 007 and his old game keeper deciding the best way to protect the head of the British Intelligence service is to hide out in a remote homestead, with little ammunition and no support.
And just when I felt I could suspend my disbelief no further, one of my most cherished film-going memories was raped as the Aston Martin was revealed to be (inexplicably) decked out with machine guns! WHY??? Of course we all know what happened in Goldfinger, but in the context of THIS Bond story arc, IT MADE NO DAMNED SENSE! They may as well have had the shimmering figures of Connery, Moore & Lazenby appear as ghosts, and come to the aid of Craig in his darkest hour.
I really thought that Casino Royale represented a new beginning for 007, and we would see them take the series in a fresh and exciting direction. But by the end of Skyfall it was painfully clear that the producers had got cold feet. The movie ends with the instatement of the 'new' (male) M, and in the words of Roger Waters, "Isn't this where we came in?" Next stop: a full remake of Goldfinger.