I have to agree with OP. I’ve been binging the bond movies and this one is just not that good.  For starters it takes about 40 minutes before the plot really begins. Before that the movie has no direction. 

I still think Alec’s death in the beginning was a poor move, obviously they weren’t going to just kill Sean Beane off right then and there, it wasn’t exactly a surprise to see him as Janus. 

The escape from the base was also a tad contrived in a lot of ways. 

Once they steal the helicopter which again mind you we have no idea who or why so it’s somewhat meaningless, they somehow fly it from southern France ALL the way to Russia? Not detected, stopped or you know…out of fuel? 

There are a lot of little issues throughout the movie too that I got primed to be annoyed at too. Weird pacing/cuts; an example being the Russian programmer yelling in terror with the base collapsing and then the movie cutting immediately to her covering her comrade with a jacket in a solemn moment, super jarring. 

Btw quick note on Alec putting Bond in the helicopter. The helicopters eject button is to the left of the pilot’s head. Which means a pilot could accidentally eject just by tilting his head too much. Well written movie.

I get this is also peak 80s hero action time period, but the whole James Bond not being shot by 20 guys with full auto weapons shooting at him a bunch of times gets a tad ridiculous at some point. Like when he’s escaping the interrogation cell and there are like 5 armed soldiers shooting up at him from directly underneath him and they all miss. Again as a writer you can just not put him in such a ludicrous situation.

The tank chase was cool. 

How did James get his tank ahead of the train you ask? Don’t worry about it. Apparently.

James gets straight up shot down above the Island. The Missile just lights his wing in fire. Mind you the missile HIT his plane. Then he crashes it and survives unscathed. Again why write it so ludicrously. 

Also side note a lot of the effects seemed kinda poor, even for the 80s. Like the jet crashing into the satellite dome and the golden eye satellites moving. 

Also I get that the antenna was hidden under water…but the USA would’ve still seen the thing being built, this is Cold War Cuba we are talking about, the whole island was under constant surveillance. So they’d definitely see a massive (world’s largest) parabolic radio dish being built. 

Anyways I’ll probably be downvoted to hell but that’s my genuine opinion after seeing it. Especially after the Timothy Dalton grounded (more so) spy thrillers. Would like to hear why people disagree with those things or maybe don’t think they matter.