OK, I said some bad things about QoS in some previous posts on this forum, about QoS being too simple, about Bond being not as convincing - not as plastic - character as he was in CR. But after I saw QoS for the fifth (sic!) time, and after I saw it half an hour after CR, I came to realize it works really well as some sort of an extended grand finale of CR. And not only that, I also realized QoS adds something to CR that CR didn’t have before, at least not in so articulated way.

Before CR and ESPECIALLY before QoS, Bond was someone who went along with the flow, who was going along with the main stream, with "Queen and country" that served as an excuse for everything he does or everything he is. In short, Bond was - before CR and QoS - hiding behind the flag of England. But, no more! With QoS, he grows into a moral character. He does stand up to both GB and USA government and their politics, and he - what a great surprise after 40+ years fighting against communism! - stands on the side of the Bolivian Marxist government, against GB and USA! All of a sudden, first only partially in CR and than fully in QoS, agent 007 develops into a morally conscious character.

And to all those who keep whining about the "good old 007" who was funny, witty, detached from what he was doing, to all those whining about "Bond becoming a killing machine with D. Craig playing the role", this should serve well in order to shut them up. Yes, Bond did become colder, but at the same time more vulnerable and more reflexive of himself and of the world; he did become more aggressive than ever before, but this "becoming of a killing machine" did just the opposite to his moral stance from what many would like to impute to him - it changed his moral stance by improving it by far.

Craig not only does not portray Bond as a cynic (and cynics are those who are hidden behind flags and stuff like that, and it is precisely because of that that they feel safe to mock everything else), he also pushes him (and not only Craig but the other great authors of the new 007 in CR and QoS) to the very opposite of cynicism - to responsibility, and to morality par excellence.