Steven Seagal is a highly skilled Aikido practitioner (so good that he actually opened a dojo in Japan and taught for a while). I wouldn't say that he acts, though. That's just stretching the definition of the word.
Back on topic:
Pierce Brosnan as Bond is good. Halle Berry as the sidekick/Bond girl is good. The villain is not so good.
Actually, let me rephrase that.
*SPOILER ALERT!!!*
Will Yun Lee made a pretty good villain. And he does play the main villain...for a few minutes. Then the villain has his gene therapy thing and turns into yet another snooty European guy. Will Yun Lee was edgy, memorable. He could clearly handle the part (his "find me another anger management counselor" was not only the villain's best line, it was also delivered well). The guy who plays the villain after gene therapy just couldn't stand out. He was always eclipsed by the action or special effects going on around him. He even gets upstaged when there's a good looking woman nearby. I almost never found myself really watching him the way I paid attention to what Pierce Brosnan or Halle Berry were doing.
Besides, Will Yun Lee is a Tae Kwon Do expert. I like Tae Kwon Do experts.
The plot was ho hum. I actually liked the trend of the last few Bond movies in which the villain doesn't want world domination but something still very potent (like absolute control of the media). It made the plot somewhat more believable. Now, we're back to taking over the world. And the tools that the villain plans to use are a satellite that rains destruction down from above (been there, done that) and a glove that electrocutes people (yawn). Whatever happened to guided torpedos that chew through a ship or sending a nuclear warhead through an oil pipeline?
I'm of two minds about Bond's car. On the one hand, it's very stylish and used very well. On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of its invisibility. Previous cars have always had tricks that are more or less possible today (self destruction, remote control, inbuilt rockets etc.). Invisibility is not possible today and might not be for several more decades. It just spoiled my suspension of disbelief a bit.
The opening was fine (the exploding diamonds was especially satisfying), and the title sequence was good, too. I hated the theme, though. Bond themes aren't supposed to be pop songs with strong beats.
This is not to say that it was a bad movie. It entertained me well enough. The sword fights (ok, one is technically a sword and knife fight) were good. The car battle was also good (though I have to wonder about flipping a car with the ejection seat). The women were fun to look at, and as someone else has mentioned, they can act. And the introduction to gadgets with Q was brilliant.
Overall, though, there are too many problems with the movie for me to give it a perfect rating. I still rate The World Is Not Enough as the best of the recent Bond movies as it doesn't have any of the problems mentioned above (although to be fair, it has Denise Richards). Still worth $7.50 to see on the big screen, though.
Rating out of 5:
P.S. It's good to know that I can still write long posts.