The Great man is back.

So i was lucky enough to see the new Bond movie this week, and thought i'd post my impressions here, seeing as its getting some mixes reactions on the interwebs. Personally speaking, i was a huge fan of Casino Royale. I thought the more sombre, realistic approach was just what the doctor ordered after the super-cheesed invisible cars and bad guys with diamonds in their faces of the Brosnan era.

So while some have complained that the fancy gadgets and tricks of the old bond movies arent present, you wont find that gripe with me. Craig does a far better job playing an agent with nothing but a gun and his own ability, rather than an arsenal of ridiculous space-age techno gadgetry.

The film takes a slight departure from the strong narrative of the previous entry, instead going for a more action-heavy approach which fits the very angry Bond quite well. The story this time around sees James hunting down the members of a multi-national organisation who have set about destabilising governments for their own economic interests. An interesting twist on this however, is the fact that the organisation played a part in the death of Vespa, Bond's previous love interest, resulting in some mixed motives behind James' actions.

Overall the story works quite well, though it lacks some of the more clever aspects of Casino Royale, instead opting for perhaps more simplistic "stopping the bad guys" plot lines. This is arguably necessary however to support the numerous action-heavy scenes. And it is with these scenes that my biggest gripe arises.

The director gets in very close with his shots, which works when trying to establish dialogue, but not at all during car chases and fight scenes. The film opens with a car chase which SHOULD be incredibly exhilerating, but instead comes off as chaotic and hard to follow as super-close ups chop and change every milisecond between various angles. The same can be said of the fight scenes; one in particular was so close-up and so chaotic that i had absolutely no idea how Bond managed to subdue his attackers when the camera finally pulled out to reveal them lying unconscious. The shaky-cam worked excellently in films like saving private ryan to immerse the viewer into the situation, but in films such as this it simply makes events borderline impossible to follow.

The film is c lassic bond overall however. It features the great story, characters and bond one-liners that you expect from any 007 feature, and should prove a worthy movie-going event for bond lovers, especially if you favour the new rebooted s tyle of the franchise.

Verdict: Pretty Sweet.