A preview of my next Caustic Commentary

These are my thoughts as I watch footage of a bazillion pounds of steel getting scrambled get scrambled. This Daniel Craig fellow certainly can act, and he is quite rightly billed as the star of this spectacle. Never once convinced that BrosBond wasn't totally in control during his action scenes, even that time he was skidding along upside-down inside his Aston - there, I mentioned Die Another Day, let us never speak of it again - Brosnan's scaredface is not much to write about, but then again you hadn't cast an actor, had you, you'd cast a presence. Craig is a whole different beast. "Not in control" is what he is for most of this film's underwhelming (a mercy; more of it and I'd get sick) runtime.

Bond drives down a long tunnel. Inasmuch as this is a film wherein Bond treats his license to kill as an outlet for his grief now that his cuddlebunny's gone and drowned, I'm trying - and failing - not to read much into this blatant tunnel imagery.

Having no wish to watch/hear/comment on the titles or the execrable "song", I shall describe this film at length, primarily as a means of getting the obligatory out of the way now so I can enjoy Daniel Craig Doing Acting during the parts of the film where I can see it properly:

Gritty, nervy "back to Fleming" actor (actor, note, as opposed to charismatic screen presence), in his second outing as James Bond, off on a highly personal mission despite whatever he calls it. Theoretically not sanctioned by MI6, prompting the best confrontation between this Bond and this M, even though they send at least one employee out "after" him and welcome him back with open arms afterwards.  Felix Leiter played by an actor reprising the role from an earlier film.  Fire plays a rather large role in the climax, set in the middle of a desert in South America, wherein the villain attacks a bloodied Bond with a sharp-edged weapon and completely fails to hit him despite Bond being unarmed. Bond Girl set up as a foreign secret agent (with her own slightly/greatly confused subplot wherein it briefly looks as though she's working for the villains), who is more useful driving transport and causing introspection on Bond's part than doing fights, but makes up for it by shooting one of the baddies. Main villain at one point threatens revolution against a country's dictator-for-life during a monetary dispute. Secondary Bond Girl at one point wears naught but a sheet. One of the good guys causes a collision involving a yacht. The random use of a "harmless" actor as a villain. The lead actor, doing Proper James Bond Acting, is cited as a great asset to the film, mostly by the film's (few) defenders, but they're absolutely right. The villain at one points makes a sartorial decision best described as "questionable." Scars visible on a Bond Girl's back, due to trauma she suffered at the hands of one of the villains, the one whose body is consumed by fire at the end. One villain's name is a mispelling of an actual word; another is an actual word. Gunbarrel technically present and accounted for, but done a tad "wrong." Etc.

Licence to Kill.

As for Quantum of Solace, the same, but written by about ninety billion different people on the fly, shot by a man suffering seizures all the way through, and edited by a team of (poorly) trained monkeys on speed.

New direction? Please. At least Bond's suits fit this time.