Wishing for Skyfall, until...

Javier Bardem walked onto the screen right before Intermission.

Bond movies are formula films, that's part of their USP. They have broken the formula with 1. A lead actor who looks like a thug with two expressions in his armoury. 2. No gadgets and too much reliance on brawn.

Is it Sam Mendes' fault that we have a slow dance for the first half of the movie when we wanted that spectacular opening sequence? Remember the first shot in GoldenEye (where Pierce Brosnan gave us the best Bond with his beauty, toughness and vulnerability)? That was a lesson on how to make an impact, not Craig's endless fight with the bad guy on top of a train. Another shot of Craig giving chase on the SAME ROOFTOP in Turkey we saw in 'Taken 2' made me worry about the budget for this film.

I think it's Barbara Broccoli's fault for tampering with genius in the first place. She chose Craig, who wears no expression throughout 'Skyfall' – except when the word itself is spoken to him and his eyes change. Then Mendes comes along and we are deprived of so much acting skill that we almost don't realize it since all the actors seem to be suffering from the same ailment. Then comes Javier. But even his long entrance is too long, his monologue too tender – until it hits you. Tender? He then runs his hand over Craig's body in the slowest, scariest shot and you think: Genius is back. But it takes a long time coming, and only because you have an actor in Javier who will always transcend his material slash director. The smirks, the false solicitude, the crazed focus of “What have they done to you?” whispered to Judi Dench when he has come to kill her, it's breathtaking.

Berenice Marlohe gets the formula back on track as the hot chick who has a moment in the sack with the spy and then gets killed off. The black dress we first see her in makes more of an impact than she does; at moments she is fascinating to watch, at others she is as hazy as a sepia photograph. She also doesn't have the body required for the role, large hips and fat ankles? Come on.

Both Bond and M are horrible people in 'Skyfall'. She lets her agents down time and again, he watches people die. Now I don't know about you, but that does not hero material make. And this is supposed to be a Bond movie?

The one special effects shot where a train plows down on Bond missed the mark because it had no people in it, thereby through one careless inattention to detail leaving us indifferent instead of gasping in our seats. The young Q brings no kickass new toys, (I know we're backtracking but may I say again, this is a Bond movie), and the entrance of Miss Moneypenny is equally daft: She was never black.

The last shot in the house on a Scottish moor where the Aston Martin getting shot up finally moves Bond to violence is almost tragi-comic.

But in the end, it's a great film because it has character. It reveals how ruthless government can be. It has bad guys who are good and good guys who are bad. It has those gorgeous sweeps of location that move you to sighs. It has the wonderful title song from Adele. It has Javier. It has Javier. It has Javier.