Not bad. They clearly pulled out all the stops to make it work, plus they got Sam Mendes to direct and he's done a good job. There is a line in one of Le Carre's books where George Smiley says that espionage requires a certain gentleness, and that's what I think was missing from the previous two films, a lightness of touch. They have to be fun, and this one was. There were exotic locations (the Macao Casino scenes looked beautiful), plus Bond movies have a little surreality, as shown by using the abandoned island Hashima as the villians' lair.
There were also spectacular stunts which worked well, and a final showdown that showed that Mendes understands Bond movies.
There are criticisms, though. Any system administrator who allows a dodgy laptop to be attached to his network gets what he deserves and I wouldn't trust Q to work at PC World, much less MI6. The plot was a little obvious in that respect. Bérénice Lim Marlohe was good eye candy but under-used as the Femme Fatale/Bond Girl. Javier Bardem was good as the villain, but creepy rather than menacing, but I still think they need a really good henchman. Mark Strong would be good for that, or Arnold Vosloo. Yeah, Arnold would be great.
As for Craig as Bond, to paraphrase what Morpheus says to Neo in The Matrix, "Don't try to be James Bond; Be James Bond!" and I think he might be getting there, but it will be a lot longer road than everyone says. Not yet. Not bad, though.
And I rather liked the yatch. Nice. It's called the Regina and it's a snip at $14,000,000.
Nah, I'll leave it for this year, what with Christmas coming up...
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