British Wit and Charm, Excellent Cast, Delivers Enough to be Bond

Rating: 10/10 (16 November 2015)

A lot of fun, confusing at times, but worth the ride.
I love the characters, the bond series, and the plot formula. That said, the general themes and factors in the movie (such as the origin story, corrupt government officials, the evil shadow organization, and technology vs. manual labor) were conceived quite poorly. Very little character or story development. It left me with the feeling that a lot of explanatory scenes were cut out. The scene-to-scene transitions, the logical progression, the weaving of parallel sequences, et cetera, was also terrible.
Monica Bellucci, incomparable goddess, was given an utterly useless role, no arch and no drama. Her romantic scene made no sense and was as passionate as two mannequins being knocked over in a Black Friday mob; her character was superficial, unnecessary, and obviously the product of a lazy writer needing to push the story along. Her whole 3 minutes of the film was a disjunction and distraction.
Christoph Waltz, another brilliant and talented actor, was one- dimensional, predictable, and generic. The artificial hype of Waltz's power never rang true; his devices illogical and confusing, his dialogue wooden, his action scenes boring. None of this was his fault, bear in mind. He did his job well, but it was an "odd job", pardon the pun.
Léa Seydoux seemed just as confused as we were. Her emotions fit the scenes like a foot trying to fit into a leather glove. Angry one minute, for no reason, then absolutely calm, for no reason. It's as if months passed between cuts in the same scene.
I feel sorry for everyone in this movie, except for Daniel Craig. He was solid, and he was Bond James Bond. The movie was worth seeing, 'cause everybody's gotta love 007, but go in with low expectations.

Jeffrey Rosenspan