“No, the issues are with the studio’s choice of director in Marc
Forster. This is a man who knows how to put dramatic audiences through
the wringer (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner) but
he’s completely out of his depth handling a franchise this large.
High-tempo sequences, like the opening car chase and an extremely
Bournian rooftop pursuit, are disorientating in the extreme: too fast,
too sloppy and too ruthlessly edited. Often, things change in the
blink of an eye – one second Bond is lying on his back, the next he’s
jumping out a window, the next he’s swinging from a rope. It’s often
impossible to keep up.

Fight scenes often seem practised and stagey (Bond smashes an opponent
through a wall with ridiculous ease), while one shot sees 007 riding a
motorbike… at about 25mph. These are all hallmarks of a director
unfamiliar with action; perhaps former Paul Greengrass protege Dan
Bradley should be held responsible (it would certainly explain the
feeling of deja vu – as Bond jumps through yet another window, you may
feel like yelling, Alan Partridge style, “STOP GETTING BOURNE
WRONG!”).

What’s more, the realistic tone struck by Martin Campbell in Casino
Royale has taken something of a leave of absence here. MI6 use flashy,
over-the-top Minority Report-style holo-computers, when anyone who
reads the papers knows that British intelligence can’t even hop in a
taxi without leaving their laptop in the back. Bond, leaping on a bad
guy’s bonnet, finds time to fire of a clunky quip before his bullet.
Amalric’s bad guy lurches uncomfortably from believably slimy to
ridiculously evil, lunging at Bond with an axe in a final showdown.
Though I hesitate to compare it to Indy’s infamous ‘fridge’ escape,
the scene where 007 jumps out of a plane without a parachute /and
survives/ seems a little too far-fetched even for a Bond movie. All we
ask is for some consistency – this isn’t Crank, this is Bond.”

Being an action stickler, this isn’t good news, and reminds me of all the talk about Chris Nolan not being able to direct action. And although i loved the Dark Knight, there were action scenes in it that really didn’t flow.