Spoiler free thoughts.
It's a mess. The action's mostly great, everything around it is shambolic. Very Star Trek Into Darkness-y, overburdened with poorly considered references to previous movies. Links to Craig's previous entries don't work at all, and the key continuity decision behind the villain is catastrophically misguided. The first half of the movie is generally good, especially the sensational pre-titles sequence (wonderful to have the gunbarrel back where it belongs), but the whole thing rather collapses in on itself in the second half.
Daniel Craig is occasionally good, often bored. Lea Seydoux does charismatic, sweet work in a nothing role. Christoph Waltz is badly miscast. Monica Bellucci is barely in it and Dave Bautista, while a great presence, is only there for the muscle. Naomie Harris' Moneypenny gets the least to do of all the MI6 staff, despite being the most action capable. Andrew Scott has nothing to work with, and gives nothing back.
There's some good stuff in there, with humour that mostly works (thanks to Ben Whishaw's dry delivery) and a willingness to have fun which Craig's movies have often lacked. Could do with being half an hour shorter - the narrative structure moves Bond from point A to B to C, etc, lacking any variation or surprise - having one location fewer, and finding a willingness to be its own thing rather than constantly referencing the past and trying to tie everything together, usually very badly. The score is forgettable and the film looks nice, but not especially distinctive. The ingredients for a great film are all there, and with even token consideration, could have at least equalled Skyfall (which I love). Instead, it's marginally ahead of the joyless Quantum. The highs are very high, the lows very low.
6/10, I think. Can't imagine repeat viewings would help it much.
EDIT: To answer two questions from this thread, no, the NOC list from Skyfall is not mentioned in any way, and the OHMSS theme/remix is not used.
