This is a different kind of James Bond. This is the James Bond who is not really needed at his agency very much anymore. After his last battle, he’s now taken a forced sabbatical after being driven to clerical duties and then forced in to relaxation and wealth. There’s a brand new agent working for Universal that’s taken over his duties, and Bond is having a considerably hard time facing that.
It may seem like an eye roll and a groan to the average reader, but Bond is basically stir crazy when we first meet him at the beginning of “Devil Maycare.” He smokes foreign cigarettes, already has a routine that screams monotony, and a seemingly random murder of a young Middle Eastern man has suddenly become so important that it’s pulled Bond out of his sabbatical of woeful relaxation and considerable obsoletion in to the duties of 007 once again.
It’s always been said that an animal always knows when it’s about to die. And sometimes even humans can. So… are these apocalypse movies merely our perpetual fear of impending doom brought on by forces of nature? Or do we know something that we’re not yet willing to admit? Frankly, it’s nearly impossible for me to not enjoy a movie about the end of humanity (or civilization for that matter), so “The Happening” was an instant win. Pair that with the great cast, the brilliant story, and the taut ecological commentary brushed under the senseless sudden self-extermination of man kind and you have what I consider one of the finest movies of 2008.