Brutal Bond.

I don’t know what it is with all these poor reviews of Quantum of Solace.

For the most part it was brilliantly executed and impeccably choreographed. Craig is the most f!@#$%^ badass Bond ever. I think he’d be the first Bond who’d have me scared s!@#less as an adversary. Any complaints might be that he’s less suave (and perhaps less sexy, but I wouldn't know) than the Bonds of old. This Bond is certainly no Dalton, Moore or Pierce pretty pansy boy.

For all the action, you also see in Bond a broken killing machine acting on impulse, a driven psychopath in denial of his murderous inner rage. Yet in between there's moments of compassion before he buries beneath his facade of control. Maybe this was executed a little to deftly, too subtly, but I think for once you see there’s some emotions (albeit dark ones) in Bond, instead of a caricature of a superspy. I suspect however, many Bond fans adore the warm and fuzzy happy Bond.

Overall I liked the way that most Bond elements were much more subtle than the films of old. There's no Q introducing over-the-top gadgets, but who wouldn't give their firstborn grandchild to get at M's multitouch international intelligence database, or Bond's phone with GPS suspect tracking and 3D camera? He doesn't order a martini, but his bartender up in first class certain knows he likes it shaken and not stirred (although that martini ended up being awfully clear for a shaken drink).

Even the plot that everyone complains about as being sparse mostly makes sense. The criminal organization here is no SPECTRE. There's no gaudy plot with Dr. Evil demanding a ransom of $1 million and the world blowing up. Instead they're less flashy, similar to any other profitteering corporation plundering resources from third world countries, insidiously invisible and efficient.

Overall this Bond film is about as realistic as Bond films get after all the flashy elements and cheezy oneliners have been toned down. Despite all that, Bond wreaks some mighty havoc.

Also worth mentioning, the trademark implied-naked-bond-girls opening sequence was one of the less cheesy ones, and the Jack White/Alicia Keys theme is pretty sweet too, up there with "A View to a Kill" and "Live and Let Die".