Skyfall (Mendes, 2012)

[citizen_darko]

Agree with all the positives that have been said. In addition as a tribute to 50 years, it succeeded very well. All the little nods to long time fans of the series were great to see. I love that they have finally put some of the fun back into Bond that the last two had just about removed. This film just felt so much more fun and not so grim that the last two had been. I still think they need a little more humor and smartassery out of Bond. Is this the best Bond film? No not that great. But easily the best since "Goldeneye". For myself who has seen every bond film at least 3 times, and some far more. And that grew up from a young age loving them this film felt more like a Bond film than the last two. I think they had tried to make Bond too modern and a bit too Bourne like. I know we will never get a Bond film of old with total slutwhore bond, huge armies with crazy gadgets and stolen nukes. I still hold out hope of a return of SPECTRE and Blofeld and Bond saving the world from destruction.

[siowafc]

The only word I can think of to describe this movie is: "tolerable". Maybe "competent" would also suffice.

I'm kind of baffled by the overwhelming praise this film seems to have gotten because it's ultimately an incredibly safe attempt to further re-reboot this franchise, flailing about aimlessly and aping elements from other films, both within and outside of the Bond universe. The major problem is the script, which seems to lack any kind of imagination at all both in terms of plotting or characterization, but also so utterly fails at being an action film. The set pieces are horrible, lifeless, and largely devoid of tension. It's like a group of people got together in room and said "Let's make a movie about killing M." and then proceeded to do so in the least interesting way possible.

Deakins is a saving grace, but his work is in service of a gloomy and lifeless endeavor. And this is coming from someone who thought Casino Royale was one of the best films of the decade.

[makemeameteor]

The only word I can think of to describe this movie is: "tolerable". Maybe "competent" would also suffice.

I'm kind of baffled by the overwhelming praise this film seems to have gotten because it's ultimately an incredibly safe attempt to further re-reboot this franchise, flailing about aimlessly and aping elements from other films, both within and outside of the Bond universe. The major problem is the script, which seems to lack any kind of imagination at all both in terms of plotting or characterization, but also so utterly fails at being an action film. The set pieces are horrible, lifeless, and largely devoid of tension. It's like a group of people got together in room and said "Let's make a movie about killing M." and then proceeded to do so in the least interesting way possible.

Deakins is a saving grace, but his work is in service of a gloomy and lifeless endeavor. And this is coming from someone who thought Casino Royale was one of the best films of the decade.

Are you kidding? This is the most satisfied I've felt leaving a Bond film in some time.

Re: Scotland, I loved this sequence. I love that after all the gadgetry and explosives and a cyber terrorist villain, the final showdown is so simple, but packs so much more of a punch than the fight in Quantum of Solace did despite being placed in some fancy desert hotel.

[lazarus]

Exactly, meteor. It's practically in Western territory. All the violence in that final stretch of the film (with the exception of the unnecessary helicopter) is very organic and old-school, and felt like a frontier showdown.

[makemeameteor]

Still, the helicopter blasting John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" was kind of wonderful.

[lazarus]

It's hard to see a music-blaring chopper without thinking of Apocalypse Now. And I'm not crazy about Bond referencing other films other than its own.

[makemeameteor]

True. Still, since the idea of Silva playing completely inappropriate music had been developed before, I liked it in a "Only a James Bond villain would. . ." kind of way.

[Hatshepsutely]

Still, the helicopter blasting John Lee Hooker's "Boom Boom" was kind of wonderful.

Especially if you think of the lyrics as being a "love note" from Silva to Bond.

[GR3]

Pretty cool:




How they blew up the Aston Martin

[Aaron Leggo]

This was fun. Good stuff, mostly. But even at their best, Bond movies tend to be pretty flat affairs for me. Enjoyable while they last and that's about it. I have no major complaints here, just that I never cared one bit about anything going on and this felt like a merely slick, decent Bond pic that certainly fits the mould of the franchise. It's probably in the top ten of Bond movies for me. I still slightly prefer Casino Royale of the Craig flicks. But I loved the theme song and credits sequence. I'll give it that. Anyways, here's my review:

SKYFALL

Movie franchises that last for fifty years are incredibly rare things and even rarer still when their output breaks down to approximately one movie every two years. So a big congratulations to Eon Productions and franchise headliner James Bond seems to be appropriate. The British super spy has stood the test of time and proven his staying power across a shifting pop culture landscape that has lasted for half a century. It's an almost overwhelming achievement. And now that I have that out of the way, it's equally important to observe the downside. Watching Bond hit the screen in his fiftieth year is certainly exciting, but also oddly dulling, a reminder that the franchise may have easily defined highs (Goldfinger) and obviously identified lows (License to Kill), but it also always caps out at merely good. At his peak, Bond is a fine entertainer whose resonant reach is only enough to bridge the gap between sequels. His latest supports this sentiment, because for all intents and purposes, it's good. Almost very good. It's just empty, too.

Skyfall opens impressively with Bond (Daniel Craig, still steely-eyed) in the middle of a mission to retrieve a stolen hard drive that's storing an encrypted list of active MI6 agents. It's absolutely imperative that he get the hard drive back, so he embarks on a big chase, now with temporary sidekick Eve (Naomie Harris) along for the ride. Bond eventually catches up with the villain, but a time-sensitive situation and some determinedly barked orders from M (Judi Dench in her seventh Bond picture) result in Bond being accidentally shot by his fellow agent. This current Bond is a pretty humourless fellow most of the time, but he knows how to turn a bad situation into a good one, letting MI6 think he's dead while he parties off the grid, swapping time between a beachfront hut with a beautiful woman and a bar where he garners attention for riskily taking a drink with a scorpion on his hand. Yes, Bond is the liveliest dead guy around. Weekend at Bond's? I smell a spin-off franchise!

Well, not so fast, unfortunately, because a terrorist attack on MI6 pulls Bond out of his afterlife retirement and puts him back in the field with a fancied version of his classic Walther PPK pistol and an unmistakable chip on his shoulder. Angry that his superior and suddenly surrogate mom of sorts authorized the shot that nearly killed him in the line of duty, Bond is forced to accept that sympathy is hard to come by, so he shelves his emotions and goes looking for the cyber terrorist who keeps infiltrating MI6 servers and making life difficult for the British Secret Service.

Many fun action sequences ensue, the highlight of which involves a nifty elevator stunt and then a fight within a glass labyrinth high up in a Shanghai skyscraper. Animated advertisements dance off the glass and create a surreality that toys with the grimness of the deadly situation. It's not a particularly lengthy sequence, but it's easily one of the finest set pieces in the Craig era. Lending this sequence (and the movie as a whole) a particularly striking visual edge is cinematographer Roger Deakins, whose veteran skills put him in an elite league of lensers usually out of Bond's reach. Deakins brings great touches of class to the picture, while also displaying a grand confidence when it comes to effects-heavy action sequences. The third act greatly benefits from some stunning lighting, silhouetting actors against glowing orange backgrounds on a Scottish moor.

Perhaps most difficult to come by in the last several Bond pictures is a good villain. Skyfall gets part of the way there thanks to director Sam Mendes' decision to cast Javier Bardem as a nasty bad guy with his own shoulder chip that's big enough to crush Bond's one from earlier in the movie. Bardem plays Silva, a man seeking revenge against M for crimes in their collective past. Silva takes a while to actually show up, but he's eventually introduced in a strong scene where he slowly approaches Bond from one end of a long room and then proceeds to flirt with the famously macho hero. It's a surprising bit of comic relief in a movie that's short on chuckles and long on men beating each other up.

But for all that Bardem brings to the role, there's just not much to the character, despite the attempts of screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan to try something fresh. Silva has a backstory that suggests he's deserving of some sympathy, though if Bond couldn't get it from M, Silva probably isn't getting any from us. The guy is a monster with a soul, someone who desperately wants to complete his cycle of revenge and won't let anyone get in his way. Of course, Bond gets in his way, quite often really, and Silva keeps demonstrating the breadth of his power. It's a fine try by the screenwriters to fabricate a villain worth remembering, but other than an oddly comical special effect and a reliably careful performance by Bardem, Silva isn't much more interesting than his franchise contemporaries. More time spent developing the character could have possibly helped, but given the series' penchant for icy detachment, I doubt forging the intended dramatic connection was ever within Mendes' grasp.

Bond at 50 certainly looks great on the surface, but he hasn't really changed much at all over this period. Beneath the surface roils a character whose franchise occasionally undergoes plastic surgery, but still comes away with an only mildly memorably facelift. Even at the best of times, Bond is a bit vacuous, which puts Skyfall in a strange place. It provides many a thrill and does so with dashing exuberance, but it remains a rather underwhelming experience, a fun ride that never shakes us from our seats. Even then, it's still quite good, especially by Bond movie standards. The gorgeous theme song performed and co-written by Adele is joined by a lovely credits sequence in what amounts to a solid opening to the picture.

Craig has now surpassed Timothy Dalton's number of Bond flicks and he's only one away from tying Pierce Brosnan's. That's a fine accomplishment alone and Craig still has some mileage left, both in his ability and in his contract. Skyfall certainly sets things up for future instalments, opting to perform its own resurrection on certain famous franchise elements that fans may or may not have missed. One thing that's relatively new to the fold is Bond's brief trading of a martini for a Heineken in a silly bit of product (re)placement. But the corporate shilling is as transparent as everything else. His drink may be temporarily different, but this is the same ol' Bond. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe that's a bad thing, or maybe it's somewhere in between. Either way, you're looking good at 50, James. It's just that the older you get, the more you stay the same.

[Vincent Blanchett]

I loved this hell out of this. I thought both Dench and Bardem are nomination-worthy, the former especially. And Deakins' work in the Shanghai scene (especially the fight in that empty office building) alone is deserving of a nomination and perhaps even an Oscar win. The Scotland part was my favourite

[Gregory]

I saw it this evening, and rather than write a summary review, I'll just list my thoughts.

Best thing about the film: Deakins' cinematography.

Other positives: Craig is still a very good Bond, the closest to the novels' character; the acting in general, especially Dench, Harris, and Fiennes; numerous well-done individual set pieces; a really light, engaging way of bringing in earlier Bond elements, especially Miss Moneypenny

Negatives: about a half-hour too long--as I said above, the set pieces were often great individually but there were too many of them and they became tedious; Bardem's look was at first compelling but became increasingly garish in effect as his character faded in impact; the Scotland portion was photographed superbly, though the scene was stretched too much

Other reflections: I had never liked a film that Mendes had directed so I was eagerly anticipating his first film to appeal to me and it did, but not as much as I had hoped; this is much better than Quantum of Solace though not as good as Casino Royale; while Craig's Bond is much more like Fleming's description and he is a solid actor, he does not have the charisma of Connery (few actors do or have) so he is simply not as much fun to watch in the role--he is still more than enjoyable, though

Final comment, but it is not a cinematic one: didn't anyone else notice that M's speech to that committee justifying her and her agency's role could have been written by George Orwell for Big Brother? It offers a legitimation of the never-ending need to defeat a "shadow enemy" that, precisely because it changes constantly and cannot be permanently identified, requires a persistent, secret, powerful state force that should use violence to its heart's content? After all the (in my opinion, misplaced) anguish generated by The Dark Knight Rises' alleged endorsement of state power, it seems strange that there is so liitle comment on M's far more sinister advocacy of that same power.

[Voyeur]

After watching Skyfall, I decided to revisit both Casino Royale (still my favorite...except for Chris Cornell's godawful theme) and Quantum of Solace. I'm starting to think QoS is a little underrated. I enjoyed (perhaps more so than before) at least two set pieces. The bell tower fight scene, and the entire opera house scene. Craig is just as fantastic here as he is in the other Bond films, as he continues to suppress his feelings for Vesper. The villain is a little underwhelming but enough of an annoying little punk to want Bond to kick his ass. Also I think I appreciate the fact it's not a typical Bond film now.

One thing all three Craig films have in common is they seem to kill off a Bond Girl early-to-midway into the film. In CR and QoS, the films give Bond an opportunity to register their sacrifices. I was VERY disappointed that Skyfall just treated the same moment like an afterthought.

[makemeameteor]

Eh, I think that's a weak criticism. The only connection Severine had with Bond was a one night stand. Like, did you want him to kneel down after Silva shoots her and thank her for the great sex they had just had a few hours prior?

[siowafc]

Eh, I think that's a weak criticism. The only connection Severine had with Bond was a one night stand. Like, did you want him to kneel down after Silva shoots her and thank her for the great sex they had just had a few hours prior?

The real point might be: why kill her off at all?

[makemeameteor]

The real point might be: why kill her off at all?

What other purpose would she possibly serve? The film relocates from China to the UK for the rest of the film following her death.

If anything, she probably could have been cut from the script altogether and another way for Bond to get to Silva's island could have been developed.

[siowafc]

I'm glad that meteor agrees that this film is a poorly plotted disaster.

[makemeameteor]

I'm glad that meteor agrees that this film is a poorly plotted disaster.

[Artimus]

I'm glad that meteor agrees that this film is a poorly plotted disaster.

It must be lonely on your island of embarrassingly wrong by yourself.

[Voyeur]

Eh, I think that's a weak criticism. The only connection Severine had with Bond was a one night stand. Like, did you want him to kneel down after Silva shoots her and thank her for the great sex they had just had a few hours prior?

I didn't expect him to cry over her or anything, but I would have hoped for is a little moment of remorse by 007...at least a small reaction shot of Craig. He's a great actor who can be quite expressive with his eyes alone. After all, he was the reason she was beaten then killed. I'm not saying she was a strong character by any means. However, I thought she did a nice job conveying her fear of Silva.

Whether my criticism is "weak" or not, it's feels like an unfortunate way to treat that moment.

Also, is there something in the MGM contract that says a Bond Girl now has to be killed in every movie? It's weird is all.