I think I speak for all of America when I say that I can't wait for Skyfall to come out here.

I saw this last night. Had to go to an 11:00 showing because the 9:45 was sold out, which I found surprising with a Bond film. I had a very good time with it, but it wasn't the revelation the reviews led me to expect. Pretty much on a par with the previous two Craig films. But MEGA gorgeous and with better acting, perhaps.

My one major complaint is that the Aston Martin had the gadgets, honestly. Because in this continuity it's not from Q branch, he won it off Dimitrios. So when did all that get put in, and why does M know about it? Alternatively, if these films are suddenly meant to be sort of prequels to Dr. No now, he STILL shouldn't have it, because it was new in Goldfinger. Also, the Komodo dragons were shit.

Now, somebody smarter than I am chime in here; is this a sexist movie? Severine is fucking useless and not even Bond gives a shit when she dies. Moneypenny starts as a field agent but is so crazy bad at it that she ends up a receptionist. M dies and gets replaced by a man. Not necessarily sexist on the surface of it, but I think the execution might make it so. M dies because she's shit in a gunfight. That's really all it is. She's so shit she gets shot and drops her gun. Whereas Mallory is so badass that he can get shot, then be pretty much totally fine, scrounge up a gun, and take down some thugs. Just something that's been floating around in my head, I hate being the guy who calls sexism...

I think it is a bit unfortunate that the film makers try to give Moneypenny an awesome background but basically make her a washout. M's death is fine, but kind of weak on top of the Moneypenny thing. She does come from accounting, after all, rather than field service.

And yes Severine is completely useless. Bond discovers she's a slave and then heroically uses her just to get to Silva and daringly doesn't do anything to save her. Nice work, James.

I wasn't especially wowed by the film, but enjoyed it nonetheless. I don't think it holds a candle to most of the classic or Brosnan Bonds, but is probably better than Casino Royale and definitely better than Quantum of Forgetfulness.

Severine isn't really any different from most Bond girls, the expectation that she do something more is misguided. Remember, most Bond films have two Bond girls, the first of whom dies early.

The real Bond 'girl' in this one is actually M.

This is another really weird thing with the Craig era bonds. They have yet to actually show him being a good agent in any capacity.

Casino Royale (and to an extent Quantum) were all about Craig being a young fresh rookie, so he consistently fucks up pretty much every aspect of his mission (shoots up an embassy, kills the bomber guy he's chasing, gets caught/tortured, gets double-crossed by the bond girl and loses the money, again consistently kills off all his leads in Quantum).
Then with Skyfall we've now suddenly skipped all the time when he was supposedly a good agent, so now he's old and out of shape, and consistently fucks up every aspect of his mission in this movie (doesn't get the hard-drive thief, lets the assassin kill the guy in Shanghai, lets Severin die, lets Silva escape, doesn't save M).

It's actually kinda crazy, to where I'm thinking....Why the fuck is M even sending him on this super important mission, he seems to be the worst fucking agent ever.

That would have worked if they hadn't repeatedly implied Bond was too old. It would have been better if the talk was about MI6 having outlived its mission, making double-0s dinosaurs. But then the end wouldn't have worked because the bad guy is a FORMER AGENT, which just reinforces the idea that MI6 is more problem than solution.

Now would have been just the time to drop SPECTRE into the mix and end on an anonymous dude with a cat in his lap. SCREENWRITING IS EASY, SONY.

That jumped out at me as well, some nasty face replacement.

I don't think we're making a big deal out of it, but that shot noticeably distracts the audience and pulls them out of the film.