I liked this one a lot and, as I posted in the spoiler-free post, Craig is the best Bond to date, even topping Connery. The reason for this is simple- Craig is much more believeable. I really believe he could do all the things Bond is supposed to do (or at least, I believe he's far more capable of it than the other Bond actors). He's physically menacing and downright scary in a couple scenes, but he still has the 007 charm, when he wants to use it. I think M's reference to him as a "blunt instrument" was appropriate- Bond is a killer. That's what he does, he kills people, with little remorse or second judgement.
My problem with the movie was that it felt like 1.5 movies- it got to the point where any other Bond film would end, and then it kept going, but in a completely different direction and style. I also think some of the dialogue in the "falling in love" sequence was downright atrocious, which didn't help, and that there wasn't enough of a sense of foreboding in those scenes. As an audience, we know that something's gonna happen, something's gonna change, and there's no way Bond'll ride off into the sunset with the girl. Not once he's resigned and says he's leaving it all behind- as soon as that happens, everyone in the audience knows she's gonna die. It was dramatic irony without the drama. I felt like I was just sitting there, waiting for the film to continue- yes, yes, they're happy, that's great, but we all know it won't work out, so let's get a move on.
Besides that, I had few problems with the structure and pacing, and my only other main issue is a couple lines of dialogue- I *hated* the Moneypenny reference. Hated. The reason why is that I spent the entire first part of the movie thinking they were introducing Vesper as a reimagined Moneypenny and thinking how awesome it was and how it explained a lot of their interactions and sets up their relationship perfectly, and how wonderfully refreshing it would be to have a Bond film where he actually *doesn't* get the girl- where a girl is somehow able to withstand his charms. I thought it was great that he respected her enough to back off, and figured they were gonna have Le Chiffre's girlfriend be the stereotypical Bond girl for the film, if they were even having one. Sure, the way they chose to go with it explains Bond's attitude towards women, but I think that's something they easily could have saved for the next one and it wasn't terribly necessary for this one. There was enough plot and character development without it. And when they didn't do that, but went the predictable route, with Vesper forgetting her bf (or did she really? Discuss.) and moving on to Bond, I was terribly disappointed. If they weren't doing a Moneypenny character, they shouldn't have referenced it- it was distracting and an eventual letdown. Course, maybe that was unintentional and I'm just ubersensitive.
Oh, and the product placement was blatant.
Overall though, a highly entertaining film I strongly recommend.