If the Daniel Craig era had begun with Quantum of Solace, Bond fans (myself included) would have been moaning about the rough days that the franchise had entered. Instead, we began the latest transition with the pulse-pounding Casino Royale and segued into the Marc Forster-helmed (Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner) territory with the kidnapping of Mr. White as the overlap. But the second installment is clearly not as strong, as the franchise erred in the same way that Diamonds Are Forever did: it failed to focus on Bond, and instead got wrapped up in various offshoots of the central plot, resulting in a muddled mess.

We have the SMERSH or SPECTRE-like conspiracy with the threats by White about Quantum's influence, just before the agent guarding M (Dench) frees White. After the ensuing chase, the muddle begins. We've got Bond tracking Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric, who proves to be snide and sneaky but not archvillain worthy); we see Leiter (Wright) dealing with dirty political games in the person of his superior, Beam (David Harbour); and we see the other environmental, political subjects that the movie wishes to address in the form of the discussions around Greene's impact on global politics. All of it is connected, but all of it is too wordy, and not enough Bond action. Does it make sense after the third or fourth viewing? Sure. But that's not necessarily what we're going for in a Bond film.

Olga Kurlyenko is Camille Montes, the Bond girl... who Bond doesn't bed. Gemma Arterton is British agent Strawberry Fields who does get seduced, and then covered in oil (a la Goldfinger). We're never quite feeling the connection with Montes for Bond, and Fields is merely collateral damage. But Montes and Bond are similar, in that they both have revenge on their minds (Montes wants to take down General Modrano, an ally of Greene's.) So, from a chemistry perspective, there is none—it takes too long for Bond and Montes to come together, and not in the Biblical way.

Craig's Bond is provocative and a bit "off" in this one, but we can only hope that the next film (merely DAYS AWAY!) will be better. And early reports (and the trailer) seem to say it will be.