The film has some strong scenes and a reasonably strong narrative until the last 30 minutes, when it all slightly falls to pieces. What she does is fine, but I fail to understand why they needed to keep her, when almost every other aspect to the franchise was revamped? I also never quite got why they insisted on releasing the movie in late December 2006, when waiting three weeks would have launched the movie in a year with 007 in the year number.

The only part of the acting jigsaw that doesn’t quite fit for me is Judi Dench, the only survivor from the Brosnan era. Eva Green is one of the few Bond girls who had real sex appeal, and Mads Mikkelsen offers a sufficiently mercurial Le Chiffre. As for the players I liked Daniel Craig, his Bond is sufficiently removed from Bronsan, Dalton and Moore to gain my approval, although I don’t think he’s Connery class.