I was no fan of the last James Bond movie, Casino Royale, precisely because it was not a James Bond movie. It stripped away everything that made James Bond James Bond, they took away his women, his gadgets and made an action spy film in the mould of Ethan Hunt or Jason Bourne. As a spy film it worked, but it was not a James Bond film. This film carries on in exactly the same vein of massacring the character billions of people recognise, but does so in a more satisfying overall package.
This film carries on almost directly from the last but the difference can be seen immediately. Where Casino Royale was a series of over-long action sequences sandwiching a boring and predictable game of Texas Holdem, this film is tighter, taughter, shorter and more artful. The car, boat, plane and chase scenes all work well and don't overdo it, even if there are more than a few touches of Bourne in certain places.
The acting is solid but nothing spectacular, Craig is still absolutely refusing to show charm with his women, but playing a spy he is just as believable as he was previously. The difference here is he has a bit more acting to do and does it well. The same can be said for Olga Kurylenko who aside from being the obligatory gorgeous Bond girl delivers surprisingly well in her dramatic scenes. They completely waste the wonderful Mathieu Amalric though, not to the ridiculous degrees they misused Mads Mikkelsen last time, but Mathieu's character had neither the gravitas or opportunity to do anything interesting. Gemma Arterton and Giancarlo Giannini are glorified cameos and are only really there to pad out the story.
So as an action film it works, it has some moments of decent drama, it's well edited and shifts along, but the conclusion is rushed and there are holes in the plot - it's much better made than written. Only real problem with it is yet again it's not a James Bond film - he sleeps with one woman *again*, there's no charm to the man and the only high-tech stuff involves the type of thing we were seeing in Minority Report at the turn of the century. That said there are some lovely cinematic touches (Marc Forster's abbreviated chase after the Tosca sequence is one of the most artfully done things in the franchise's history), the acting does what it says on the tin and for action movie fans this will all be good. For true James Bond fans though it's another attempt by Paul Haggis to destroy the character who is the reason most people will see the film.