Daniel Craig's time as James Bond [Agent 007] has come to an end and I am sad to say that I wasn't impressed with the plot nor the story telling of this collage of half baked drama, primal action sequences, and a myriad of action characters with story arcs that were never explained.
The only kudos that rise up from the filth of bad writing, comes in the form of some robustly intense "in your face" action sequences which were brilliantly caught on film; Craig was said to do many of the stunt scenes on his own, I presume they mean the fighting sequences and near escapes from flash-bang hand grenades. There was very little CGI used in the stunts, but there was a need to add computer generated crap, it stuck out badly and was too obvious to ignore.
Craig's performance as James Bond was on track, as the new writers kept to the same dark character development; keeping the Batman-esq leading character often demoralized about a woman he loves that he just met, and finding out that she has betrayed him in some "spy way" that often leads him to doubt if the "love was real" or designed by a third party in the story.
A lot of the talk that follows this film is the introduction of a new "Agent 007" - portrayed by Lashana Lynch; in another obvious move to black-wash another big movie with a leading black actor/actress, to level out the realism of life in the spy filled action film genre. Needless to say, the character development on her end was not all that pristine, and with Craig already being the "Serious Goat" in this film, Lynch's performance [even in the action sequences] paled in comparison.
As for the plot, this movie is about a programmable virus. No spoiler alert intended, the main problem I had with this film was the new "bio weapon" that was the big problem in the film. Where previous Bond movies would introduce a problem, having that problem be delivered to its target, then show the steps of how to arm or detonate it - more especially how to deliver the weapon, and how the good guys know about it and what has to be done to eliminate the threat...well, this film failed to present it in a way that the less educated would be able to evaluate its deadly potency and its relevance to the world today.
There's a second story line about a little girl and then a third story line about the bad guy...there's nothing more to say than that the girl is cute, she's a distraction for Bond and the bad guy had something done to him in his past that is only talked about and presented in old photos. I'm a little done with these bad guys that have all this money to create stuff, buy a mercenary army, own awesome weapons, and have great looking women around them, all in the name of revenge. There are actually two bad guys in this film though. The primary threat from Rami Malek was delivered as best he could have with the limited airtime and character foundation to present a real, nasty dude.
But SEXY kudos to Ana De Armas who wore a slinky, black dress and kicked a whole lot of ass in this movie! She plays a CIA Agent who assists Bond in Cuba and should have been considered as the new 007 replacement; if the series is planning to shift to a female lead. This lady had charisma, sex appeal, and a little thing called "talent" that made her character the focus point for some much needed believable action sequences.
All in all, there's a LOT of cheese in this film. There are several scenes that drag about and slow things down to a snails crawl; there's banter between characters about who is the "007" agent, like spies really care about that shit; and the best part...at the end, how the British Navy uses a conventional missile strike to destroy a world threat [like virus technology] instead of using nukes like they would have done in previous Bond movies.
This movie is perfect for wasting a Sunday afternoon with popcorn and a cold drink. That's about it. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ [3 of 5 Stars]
