Rather weak as a movie in its own right, but if viewed as a massive fourth act added to "Casino Royale", not bad at all. And likely it is more or less intended to, judging by its not only sharing both a director and a main plotline, but by making virtually no effort to catch the audience up on the myriad of story elements it picks up from the previous film. If these are fresh in mind, the continuations of the story and character arc are rather pleasing and emotional -- and if they are only vaguely remembered, the film falls more or less flat. As I prefer viewing film series like this in short succession anyway, this is not a big problem for me, and my rating reflects that. ( )