Bond is after revenge, but along the way he's caught up in international intrigue involving oil. In fact one British agent was killed with oil. I should note that this film begins right at where Casino Royale ends.
Tangent: Not only was I not there for the beginning of this movie I was a lil under the weather. I didn't see the exact 1st moment of the film just the part where Bond kills an enemy agent by shooting him right off of a cliff. I left primarily because the film hadn't started and I was tired of the trailers especially tired of the one for Will Smith in Seven Pounds.
In any event the movie was at times slow but certainly in the action sequences very, very fast. Bond does use his classic charm, indeed he bagged a woman the ill-fated British agent who was supposed to send Bond back to London when he arrived in Bolivia. There was another lady who he should've bagged a Bolivian secret agent who sought to exact revenge on a budding Bolivian despot who was responsible for the murder of her father and he also raped and then murdered his mother and daughter right before he burned their house down.
Those two certain had something in common. Both wanted revenge the Bolivian agent got hers, but Bond apparently took another path. While this film started with revenge the major theme of this movie was trust. Could M trust 007 to do his duty?
M couldn't trust her bodyguards. One tried to kill her at the beginning of the movie although Bond dispatched him fast. M admonished Bond for being quick on the "licence to kill". In the end M trusted Bond in the long run.
So we find ourselves in Italy, Haiti, Bolivia and finally Russia which is where the films final act was played out although the major plot was largely resolved before Bond dropped off one of the villains in a Bolivian desert. And the woman he didn't bag, she was gorgeous, even used as a bargaining chip. Especially when Bond procured the use of a DC-3 aircraft, although Bond offer the Land Rover he was driving around in on the way to this airstrip. She was even offered to this same Bolivian dictator who proved himself a creep, especially near the end when he was about to have his way with a servant whom he had tied up in his suite. This was one guy who needed his comeuppance.
Finally while Craig's Bond is a very ruthless character, he seems at times very tender. As a secret agent with a licence to kill, indeed a secret intelligence agent hitman, one wouldn't normally expect a hint of warmth in him. This Bond displays that and for some reason it doesn't bother me.
Go see this film!
