SKYFALL: FANS' REACTIONS - GUARANTEED SPOILERS

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  • RC7RC7
    Posts: 10,512
    Getafix wrote:
    RC7 wrote:
    Germanlady wrote:
    Then I am sure, you can exactly tell us, what part of above said is untrue.
    They all know nothing, except you and some others. Oh boy..seriously?

    You know what I can't really be bothered to answer as you're incapable of understanding anything or seeing anything other than in black or white. Are you really saying that if an actor says they are working with a good script it is absolute Gospel truth? Everyone can have an opinion, minus yourself obviously.

    Stop using Box Office stats, or reviews as your safety net and tell us what you think. This thread is full of decent discussion then you pop up trying to disprove people with your B.O. stats and your reviews and god knows what from twitter. We're discussing, no one is wrong, no one is right. That's the beauty of it. Stop playing Big Brother.

    @RC7, you're on a hiding to nothing, I'm afraid. I suggest you try memorising the phone book. You'll find it more enjoyable and considerably less time consuming than taking on the resident thought police.

    Never a truer word spoken. I think that's me done on that front.
  • Here's my video review of the film:



    Reviewed it after my first viewing but have since seen it 3 more times (including once at Imax) and I can't say my opinion has changed much! It's still fantastic on multiple viewings.
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 6,601
    RC7 wrote:
    Germanlady wrote:
    Then I am sure, you can exactly tell us, what part of above said is untrue.
    They all know nothing, except you and some others. Oh boy..seriously?

    You know what I can't really be bothered to answer as you're incapable of understanding anything or seeing anything other than in black or white. Are you really saying that if an actor says they are working with a good script it is absolute Gospel truth? Everyone can have an opinion, minus yourself obviously.

    Stop using Box Office stats, or reviews as your safety net and tell us what you think. This thread is full of decent discussion then you pop up trying to disprove people with your B.O. stats and your reviews and god knows what from twitter. We're discussing, no one is wrong, no one is right. That's the beauty of it. Stop playing Big Brother.


    Just tell me and the rest, who still reads this, why you dismiss what 80% including me, think. Should be easy or is your opinion the only relevant one?
  • RC7RC7
    edited November 2012 Posts: 10,512
    Germanlady wrote:
    Just tell me and the rest, who still reads this, why you dismiss what 80% including me, think. Should be easy or is your opinion the only relevant one?

    Please, stop replying to me. I have no idea what you're talking about. 80% of what? (You can reply to that, and then you must stop. Ok? :-w )
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 11,425
    Zekidk wrote:
    Getafix wrote:
    In that case I probably disagree with you. I don't want 4 massive action scenes - this just overwhelms the film. Two is definitely enough, with a few short sharp bursts of action/fisticuffs where the plot requires it.
    Each to their own. I don't mind if a Bond movies only have one or two major action set pieces, but then it has to have a story/plot that really draws me in. SF didn't.

    And I see your point. That one minute action scene in DAF where Bond is fighting Franks in the elevator is just way more "gasping" than the action set piece with the moon buggy, IMO.

    Exactly. I love the rooftop chase/fight at the docks in YOLT. It's not very long or even particularly 'action-packed', but it's beautiful and sticks in the mind. I think Marc Forster was going for something like this in the Tosca kitchens chase. The shot where Greene looks across the hall to Bond before the chase starts is brilliantly tense. I'm not saying QoS is a masterpiece, but IMO some of the scenes in terms of impact and a beauty are far superior to anything in SF. The elevator fight in DAF is also an excellent example of less is more, as is the fight with Red Grant in FRWL.

    I think the shoot out at Skyfall had loads of potential but I just found it dull. As with much of the film, I felt no real sense of danger and I never cared enough about the characters to be very engaged in their fate. By that point I was counting down the explosions to the end credits. To be honest, I was egging Silva on to get the old trout at last. Frankly, she had it coming. Would have been a nice twist actually if Bond had denied Silva his satisfaction by killing M himself - very poetic.
  • Posts: 6,601
    Deal.
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 3,276
    Getafix wrote:
    By that point I was counting down the explosions to the end credits. To be honest, I was egging Silva on to get the old trout at last. Frankly, she had it coming. Would have been a nice twist actually if Bond had denied Silva his satisfaction by killing M himself - very poetic.
    He he. Of the two elders I was hoping for the Nolan Alfred-clone, Kincaid, not to be the one to die. Luckily he didn't. So a happy ending ;-)
    Getafix wrote:
    I think Marc Forster was going for something like this in the Tosca kitchens chase. The shot where Greene looks across the hall to Bond before the chase starts is brilliantly tense. I'm not saying QoS is a masterpiece, but IMO some of the scenes in terms of impact and a beauty are far superior to anything in SF.
    I agree. If it hadn't been for the shakycam mayhem and the short runtime, QoS would be one of my favorite Bond movies.
  • Creasy47Creasy47 In Cuba with Natalya.Moderator
    Posts: 40,976
    @Getafix, I agree with everything you stated in your last pos, up until not caring for the characters. I cared for Bond, M, and Kincade, but I also felt that the whole film built up to this mindblowing conclusion at Skyfall, and it just fell short. Silva's first group comes in, and the three make quick work of them. Once Silva and his other goons arrive via helicopter, it's just a waiting game. I was hoping Bond would have concocted a better scheme to take down the helicopter; I was under the impression he may have managed to take it out with a rifle, and I even hoped Silva and his men may have stormed the lodge to fight Bond. But, it's just him running and hiding until he blows up the tanks and runs off.
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    Here's my video review of the film:



    Reviewed it after my first viewing but have since seen it 3 more times (including once at Imax) and I can't say my opinion has changed much! It's still fantastic on multiple viewings.

    I thought you were on the community Calvin. Great review, and I agree with most of what you said.
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 11,425
    Creasy47 wrote:
    @Getafix, I agree with everything you stated in your last pos, up until not caring for the characters. I cared for Bond, M, and Kincade, but I also felt that the whole film built up to this mindblowing conclusion at Skyfall, and it just fell short. Silva's first group comes in, and the three make quick work of them. Once Silva and his other goons arrive via helicopter, it's just a waiting game. I was hoping Bond would have concocted a better scheme to take down the helicopter; I was under the impression he may have managed to take it out with a rifle, and I even hoped Silva and his men may have stormed the lodge to fight Bond. But, it's just him running and hiding until he blows up the tanks and runs off.

    I know. I was bored senseless. It had all the imagination and excitement of a Scooby Doo denouement.

    In fact, if only Dench had whipped off her mask at the end to reveal Ernst Stavro - now THAT would have been truly classic.

    I'm still not sure how deliberate it was, but she is definitely the true villain of the piece.
  • Posts: 6,601
    Here's my video review of the film:

    Reviewed it after my first viewing but have since seen it 3 more times (including once at Imax) and I can't say my opinion has changed much! It's still fantastic on multiple viewings.

    Agree on the opening credits being not the most exciting, even though, they do tella story, which is an interesting take, but still..

    The CGI I only noticed at the PTS, which I thought was unnecessary. Arnolds music was better IMO, but other then that. Yup, great entertainment.
  • doubleoegodoubleoego #LightWork
    Posts: 11,139
    RC7 wrote:
    NicNac wrote:
    Many think it is a modern Bond masterpiece, but hey ho.

    Yes, I see your points @RC7, and appreciate them. But where you mention the 'wow' factor, well there will never be any of those ever again, because the internet is too powerful and rumours abound long before we see a movie like SF. Very few were surprised by M's death simply because we were all half expecting it.

    I just think that to award the accolade Masterpiece to a film is to consider every aspect and process involved as being of the highest level possible. SF falls short in some but I can understand that some people feel otherwise. Maybe in a year when the hype has subsided or when Bond 24 hits that will be their new favourite.

    I totally get your point about the internet, I was actually going to mention it. I was thinking more along the lines of specific instances rather than big plot points such as M's death. As an example, something as simple as Bond accidently killing an unarmed civillian or hitting the greek girl in his deluded, alcoholic and run down state. Something driven by the character. One thing I really wanted to happen was 'M' to pull the trigger, now that would have been some ending. I think they should push the envelope while they can.

    In our dreams. We could only wish for such envelope pushing but the press, feminists and other pressure groups would have a field day in the worst way possible. Unfortunately, the world's gone too soft. I remember in spider-man 3 when Peter was under the influence of the symbiotic and got into a fight at the jazz club and accidentally hit MJ and knocked her to the ground, the press, geeks and numerous others went into a fit-like state. To say they were having kittens was a massive understatement.

  • SandySandy Somewhere in Europe
    Posts: 4,012
    I opened this page to find load of comments, gone through them and here's what I have to say. Prepare yourselves for a long thread full of quotes.
    Zekidk wrote:
    RC7 wrote:
    And still no actual response to @Zekidk.
    I don't know if I find it funny or sad.

    Sandy wrote that the plot should make sense.

    I pointed out various reasons and key plot events that I found didn't make sense.

    No one has has yet argued why these should make sense.

    Were you expecting an answer from me? I had posted my previous comment during my coffee break and then had a lot to do. Believe it or not I spent the whole afternoon cutting testis with a laser and I am swear to God I am not jocking.

    Here is my answer, point by point:
    Zekidk wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    I think the plot is sound, it makes sense to me. The story is straight forward, we know what is happening, why is happening.
    Do we? Really? Please elaborate.

    Three henchmen have someone in a room they wanna kill. Do they simply kill him on the spot? No they don't. They fly in a hitman and pay him 4 million euro, so he can shoot this someone from the nextdoor skyscraper. Does this really make sense to you? You said that you know what is happening and why. So please explain this scene.

    It doesn't matter to the story, it's as simple as this! Patrice was hired and he was there, that's all we need to know. That whole scene is an excuse for Bond to find him, fight him, and eventually (though accidentally) killing him and also for him to see Sévérine for the first time. Did you expect for them to give a backstory of why this is happening? To spend 10 minutes in a story line that literally "dies" there and explaining why a character who ends up having no relevance to the main story dies? Honestly I couldn't care less.

    @NicNac sums it up quite well in his comment
    NicNac wrote:
    I can't explain why Patrice was used as a hit man (unless it made it more difficult for the people associated with the assassinated person to trace the deed back to Silva), but I also struggle to care!
    Any more than I can explain where a bunch of ice hockey assassins come from in FYEO, and how they even knew Bond was going to be there, or why they anticipated they would fail anyway (because they left a clue to who murdered Ferrare for Bond to find). And that was a 2 minute segment.
    Zekidk wrote:
    And we are led to believe that Silva is motivated by revenge? His plan - "years in the making" - consists of blowing the cover on his island lair, lose some of his men, lose the computer network he spent years building, Bond getting back to shape and catching up to him through Patrice and later Severine, blowing up MI6 and knowing they would move its headquarters underground, where they would built a cage where they would connect its doors to their network so that he could later escape with the assist by Q at the exact right time using the explosives he had planted at the exact same place and time that he knew Bond would later catch up to him...

    All a part of his plan so he can what? Release a deadly virus holding the world for ransom? Cause international stock-market panic? No!

    All so he can kill his metaphorical mother by walking in from the street guns blazing storming a congressional oversight hearing at which she is present. (!!!) It does not make any sense to me, so please explain this, too. To me all this only happened because Silva apparently realized he was in a James Bond movie and decided to carry out his master plan in the most ridiculous, contrived and unrealistic way possible.

    People do all kinds of crazy things over revenge, like the police inspector who stole a gun from a colleague months in advance so she could kill her husband's grandmother because had she refused to give them money once, and this is a real example. Revenge (and greed) are powerful forces, they can make some insane people do unimaginable things. Were you expecting a deadly virus? That is so 1960's, they don't do that anymore.
    Zekidk wrote:
    And in one of the final scenes, after Silva has tried to kill M at the enquiry and then at Skyfall with two attack crews and an armed helicopter, we learn at the chapel that he suddenly has a death wish? I mean - wtf? - did Purvis write the first part of SF, Wade the second and Logan the third without them ever comparing notes?

    Look. When it comes to Bond-movies, I don't mind plot holes. I don't mind a script that makes no sense. I don't mind absence of logic. Why? Because I never thought any of this to be very important when watching a Bond movie until I heard Mendes and MGW raving about how they were gonna make SF "serious", " more believable", "more realistic" and "down-to-earth" because "the days where Bond saved the world from a megalomaniac villain are over."

    So my implausibility tolerance was drastically reduced when I first went to see SF. And because the plot was hyped that way, it should make sense to anyone, that the usual "but there are always plot holes in Bond movies"-argument that a lot of true believers use against those who criticize SF's plot, isn't valid here. They never argued that Moonraker or DAD had a plot that largely made sense. So one shouldn't criticize the plot of these two movies for not being realistic and make sense.

    But SF should be.
    Feel free to start your plot complaints at any time.
    Well, I just did.

    It's not just Bond films that have plot holes, even life has them. I don't know what you were expecting but obviously you didn't get it and now you are angry about it. I got what I wanted, it's not a perfect Bond film but for me there are no perfect Bond films and no perfect films in general. But I cannot find the big problems that you find, I tried but I don't see them. This is my final answer, I'm moving on. If someone else wants to continue be my guest.
    Here's my video review of the film:

    Reviewed it after my first viewing but have since seen it 3 more times (including once at Imax) and I can't say my opinion has changed much! It's still fantastic on multiple viewings.

    I had posted your review the day you uploaded it on the Youtube thread, good to see you here @calvundyson. I don't agree with your opinion about every Bond film, my list has little similarity to yours but I do agree wholeheartedly about Skyfall and I enjoy your videos a lot.
  • Posts: 1,407
    Here's my video review of the film:



    Reviewed it after my first viewing but have since seen it 3 more times (including once at Imax) and I can't say my opinion has changed much! It's still fantastic on multiple viewings.

    Calvin I actually very recently discovered your reviews so it's fantastic to see you here. Great videos I really enjoy them! I can't say I 100% agree with all of your opinions (what two Bond fans will) but I'm looking forward to discussing Bond with you.
  • Posts: 3,276
    @Sandy
    Thank you for your answer. It's cool with me that "you don't care" about the things that I didn't think make any sense. I just got the impression, that you thought everything made sense in the plot.

    And correct, I "didn't get" why Silva went through all this trouble just so he could walk in from the street at the enquiry guns blazing, but as you said "people do all kinds of crazy stuff", so let's just leave it at that.
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 3,494
    Z, my responses below, in bold
    Zekidk wrote:
    Sandy wrote:
    I think the plot is sound, it makes sense to me. The story is straight forward, we know what is happening, why is happening.
    Do we? Really? Please elaborate.

    Three henchmen have someone in a room they wanna kill. Do they simply kill him on the spot? No they don't. They fly in a hitman and pay him 4 million euro, so he can shoot this someone from the nextdoor skyscraper. Does this really make sense to you? You said that you know what is happening and why. So please explain this scene.

    This is difficult to explain and I understand your point. The only thing that makes sense to me is that whatever the reason for the murder, as others have said, Silva didn't want to be so obvious as to have his henchmen do it. Plus it creates an obviously great fight scene between Bond and Patrice. which indeed it was.

    And we are led to believe that Silva is motivated by revenge? His plan - "years in the making" - consists of blowing the cover on his island lair, lose some of his men, lose the computer network he spent years building, Bond getting back to shape and catching up to him through Patrice and later Severine, blowing up MI6 and knowing they would move its headquarters underground, where they would built a cage where they would connect its doors to their network so that he could later escape with the assist by Q at the exact right time using the explosives he had planted at the exact same place and time that he knew Bond would later catch up to him...

    What I've bolded here is one way of looking at it, but you can also look at it the way I do. Which is that Bond is the wild card. Silva doesn't know Bond has located Patrice and killed him. Nor does he know about the transmitter. I thought he did expect someone but I also think he didn't plan to allow that person to live, yet alone capture him. But the rest could have been planned if case he was captured. In other words, if we accept he's planned this for years then we have to understand some of this he may have anticipated through years of research and his hacking abilities. The Churchill bunker for example was an emergency location in case such am attack on MI6 happened. That makes sense. And he obviously set up Q to launch everything that happened. Seems to me he had planned for a lot of different scenarios and had quite a few contingency plans. Could it have been explained though in better detail? Of course.

    All a part of his plan so he can what? Release a deadly virus holding the world for ransom? Cause international stock-market panic? No!

    All so he can kill his metaphorical mother by walking in from the street guns blazing storming a congressional oversight hearing at which she is present. (!!!) It does not make any sense to me, so please explain this, too. To me all this only happened because Silva apparently realized he was in a James Bond movie and decided to carry out his master plan in the most ridiculous, contrived and unrealistic way possible.

    I agree, I don't have a logical reason for how he knew where M was going to be when the rest of his plan went down. But it did seem to me that wherever she was, this was the time he had chosen to kill her, amidst all the chaos he had caused.

    And in one of the final scenes, after Silva has tried to kill M at the enquiry and then at Skyfall with two attack crews and an armed helicopter, we learn at the chapel that he suddenly has a death wish? I mean - wtf? - did Purvis write the first part of SF, Wade the second and Logan the third without them ever comparing notes?

    After looking at the physical and mental makeup of the character from his introduction to this point in the movie and hearing his motivations, there is no question he lived to get revenge on M. And in the context of the conclusion, that was his only reason for living. Once he felt he truly had her in a position to fulfill that desire for revenge, he could end his miserable existence as well. No issues with any of this.

    Look. When it comes to Bond-movies, I don't mind plot holes. I don't mind a script that makes no sense. I don't mind absence of logic. Why? Because I never thought any of this to be very important when watching a Bond movie until I heard Mendes and MGW raving about how they were gonna make SF "serious", " more believable", "more realistic" and "down-to-earth" because "the days where Bond saved the world from a megalomaniac villain are over."

    So my implausibility tolerance was drastically reduced when I first went to see SF. And because the plot was hyped that way, it should make sense to anyone, that the usual "but there are always plot holes in Bond movies"-argument that a lot of true believers use against those who criticize SF's plot, isn't valid here. They never argued that Moonraker or DAD had a plot that largely made sense. So one shouldn't criticize the plot of these two movies for not being realistic and make sense.

    But SF should be.
    Feel free to start your plot complaints at any time.
    Well, I just did.

    In closing, the best point you have made is that one should expect more logic and less guesswork in a story that there was lots of extra time to work on and perfect. But I don't think it's far fetched to think that the decisions made in the cutting room could have adversely affected this movie. It will be interesting down the line to see because we do know that there were cuts made to shorten the run time to 2:23.

  • Skyfall was amazing! Sam Mendas was a perfect choice to helm the 23rd Bond film. Jon Logan needs to get credit as well, because he did great job writing the script. And once again, Daniel Craig is awesome as James Bond. Javier Bardem gave (IMO) a Oscar caliber performance as the Bond villian Silva. Easily one of the best Bond films of all time. Skyfall gets a 10/10.
  • Posts: 3,276
    @SirHenryLeeChaChing
    Thank you for trying to make things clear for me. I think you nailed this part:
    After looking at the physical and mental makeup of the character from his introduction to this point in the movie and hearing his motivations, there is no question he lived to get revenge on M. And in the context of the conclusion, that was his only reason for living. Once he felt he truly had her in a position to fulfill that desire for revenge, he could end his miserable existence as well.

  • NicNacNicNac Administrator, Moderator
    Posts: 7,582
    At the risk of offending the anti-SF people I would like to think that we have now concluded this business about plot holes. Maybe save it for another day. It's noticeable that a big porton of the people who love the film have deserted the thread, and others besides, almost as if they should be embarrassed for liking the film. If they are like me they probably feel a little bit beaten into submission.

    As a result I would love to see them encouraged to come back and discuss aspects of the film they love, just to restore some order.

  • Posts: 3,276
    The crossediting. Wonderful. I remember Mendes was interviewed about his approach to this. Anyone remember if it was in any of the production diaries? Perhaps some article somewhere?
  • Posts: 3,327
    Getafix wrote:

    Funny, my wife said it was the worst Bond film since the Brosnan era. And she's bloody clever.

    It's funny, my wife is very clever too (she's a Doctor) and she hates Brozza as Bond, and thinks SF and CR are the two best Bond films in the franchise.

    I guess our wives won't get on...... ;)
  • Posts: 3,327
    NicNac wrote:
    At the risk of offending the anti-SF people I would like to think that we have now concluded this business about plot holes. Maybe save it for another day. It's noticeable that a big porton of the people who love the film have deserted the thread, and others besides, almost as if they should be embarrassed for liking the film. If they are like me they probably feel a little bit beaten into submission.

    As a result I would love to see them encouraged to come back and discuss aspects of the film they love, just to restore some order.
    I don't think its been embarrassed by liking SF....its just that its getting plain old boring in this thread now. The one or two haters of SF are repeating themselves like broken records......
  • Posts: 3,276
    its just that its getting plain old boring in this thread now.
    Yeah. People should really stop telling stories about their wives! ;-)
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 1,220
    My long overdue review...

    Old Dog, New Tricks: A Review of Skyfall
    by BattleshipGreyGT
    In Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig introduced a younger, arrogant, inexperienced version of Bond at the beginning of his career as a 00 agent. In Skyfall, we appear to find Bond later on in his career, older, wiser, and more experienced, in the middle of a mission gone horribly wrong. We open to a blast of the signature James Bond blast of brass with Bond's silhouette walking down a dark corridor towards the camera stepping out of the shadows into a slim ray of light illuminating his eyes. Straight from the get go, we can see that the imagery is more poetic than one would be accustomed to in a Bond film, and all time great cinematographer Roger Deakins makes his presence known. The pre-titles sequence quickly erases any doubts about Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes' ability to direct action. As Bond must recover a stolen drive containing the list of all NATO agents embedded undercover in terrorist organizations across the globe, he is thrust into a car chase which turns into a bike chase, which turns into a rooftop bike chase, and finally turns into a fistfight on top of a moving train. The sequence is colorful, invigorating, and kinetic, while offering tension through the juxtaposition of M (Dame Judi Dench) calling the shots in her office back in rainy London and Field Agent Eve (Naomie Harris) following alongside Bond in a Land Rover. The tension builds to a boiling point as M is forced to make the decision of her career. Order Eve to fire at the mercenary, Patrice (Ola Rapace), and risk hitting Bond or leave Bond to fight Patrice on the moving train and recover the drive. With a flinty toughness, M orders Eve to take the shot, which she reluctantly does, and misses as we watch Bond plummet from a 300 foot bridge into a river and Patrice disappear into the tunnel with the drive. We sit in agonizing silence, as M, Tanner, and MI6 staff await the outcome of the decision... "Agent down." The sky is falling. James Bond is dead.

    Daniel Kleinman's title sequence is his best work yet. His nightmarish title sequence is eerie, elegant, and haunting with the best modern Bond theme and possibly the best Bond theme of all, Adele's Skyfall, poetically dancing with the images on screen. We see Bond's arm floating underwater being grabbed by a woman's hand pulling him into the realm of the dead. The morbid images of knives, graves, skulls, and blood are shown through the sequence, and during the first chorus we see a crumbling manor house, slowly revealing the quivering eyes of an adolescent Bond, hidden behind the stone walls. Bond continues exploring the cavernous depths of the underworld as Kleinman incorporates much of the film's symbolic imagery of shadows, graves, and mirrors, as Bond shoots at his reflection in a hall of mirrors.

    While the plot synopsis and the opening of the film do suggest that the film is about recovering the stolen drive, the true story of the film arises when Gareth Mallory, the new chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee (Ralph Finnes) is introduced into the story. M is under scrutiny from Mallory for her questionable handling the Istanbul mission and the loss of a drive containing sensitive information which should not have been on record in the first place. M is told she will "voluntarily retire" and recieve the GCMG with full honours, but she's not having any of it. Now with her best agent dead, and with the lives of her other agents in danger, M must now fight to defend MI6 and her "out dated" way of doing things. Meanwhile, Bond is living in a beach side hut in Turkey looking haggard, disheveled, and unshaved, getting drunk, having sex and feeling sorry for himself after M's decision to risk sacrificing him for the good of the mission. Rarely ever do we get to see Bond off duty, and here we see the bored, depressed, and somewhat miserable Bond Fleming often wrote of. After MI6 is attacked by a shadowy figure from M's past, several agents are killed and Bond returns to England from his early retirement. Upon returning home, Bond finds his world has been turned upside down. His flat is sold, MI6 is in a new place, with new staff, and now he and M are a thing of the past. Bond is once again put through physical and psychological examinations, all of which he fails, but M lies to him, telling him he barely passed and proceeding to put him on active duty. The idea of a Bond who is aging and seems to have lost a step is an interesting concept, as we now have doubts about Bond's ability to perform in the field and operate at the level which he needs to survive. For once we actually fear that Bond may not be able to pull something off. Unlike his shoulder injury in TWINE that only popped up when it wanted to, we see Bond missing the target in his marksmanship test, collapsing after doing pull ups, struggling to hold on to the bottom of the elevator in Shanghai, panting after swimming laps in the pool, and his hand shakes when he takes aim with his pistol. It seems that Bond is not only rusty, but may even be a bit of a liability in the field. Awaiting the meeting with his new Quartermaster in the National Gallery, Bond stares at "The Fighting Temaraire", a painting depicting a grand old warship being hauled away to be used for scrap. The painting serves as an interesting parallel towards Bond and M's dilemma as they have become relics, now being phased out in favor for a new breed of Intelligence, such as Q (Ben Whishaw), who is a young computer expert who gives Bond a simple palm reading gun and a palm reader. Q Branch is no longer in the business of exploding pens, because in a world where every 16 year old has GPS, and all sorts of technology available to them on their cell phone or iPod, what practical gadget is there to give?

    The Shanghai sequence may be the most visually striking action scenes in a Bond film or even in any film at all. In a maze of neon, shadows, and reflections, Bond's fistfight with Patrice is a hypnotic as it is one lingering shot as the two men beat and batter each other in silhouette, with only flashes of gunfire illuminating their faces for milliseconds. In Macau, a playful little scene once again reminds us of the theme of the old and the new, with Eve shaving Bond with a cutthroat razor, filled sexual tension that could be cut with a butter knife. The following scene is pure cinematic Bond glory. Bond is once again shaved, donning the tuxedo, triumphantly gliding through fiery dragon heads against a firework lit sky, with Komodo Dragon, Newman's instrumental take on Adele's theme, in the background. James Bond is back from the dead. The casino sequence feels like a deliberate nod to the James Bond of old. We are introduced to Severine (Berenice Marlohe), a haunted, vulnerable femme fatale working for Silva. As inexperienced as Marlohe is as an actress, she absolutely shines as Severine given her minimal screen time, masking fear with a false sense of confidence. Mendes throws in a slightly cheeky fight in a Komodo Dragon sequence towards the end of the casino sequence, giving a fun, playful nod to Live and Let Die but still managing to maintain the signature brutality of Craig-era fight sequences. In classic Bond fashion, Bond drops a one liner to Eve, and strides out of the casino with panache. Any doubts about Daniel Craig's ability to portray the classic elements of Bond's character are put to rest. Meanwhile, agents are being exposed on YouTube, and she and MI6 publicly come under scrutiny. Mallory informs M that the Prime Minister has ordered an inquiry which she must attend later in the week.

    The franchise was lucky to have an actor as talented as Javier Bardem to play the villain of Skyfall, and I can confidently say that those talents are not put to waste. Silva's introduction is among some of the most memorable villain introductions in history. In one long take, Silva slowly walks from the back of the room towards the camera while telling a chilling story about cannibalistic rats, referring to he and Bond as the last two rats. Silva is about as over the top and flamboyant as any villain in the series. With bleached blond hair, blue eyes, strange facial features, and an outfit straight out of the 1970's, Silva's appearance is absolutely alien. Silva is quirky, with a bizarre onomatopoeial way of speaking and slightly goofy mannerisms, but manages to drip with charisma and come across as strangely likable. Silva and Bond engage in a homo-erotically charged mental chess game, where Silva begins to feel up Bond's face, body, and thighs, which will go down as one of the franchise's finest scenes. Speculations about Silva's sexuality are debatable, but one thing that is certain is that he uses sexuality (one of the many weapons in Bond's arsenal), against Bond in order to get in his head, but after suggesting that it is Bond's first homosexual encounter, Bond plays right along asking Silva what makes him think it's first time. Silva's otherness is once again reaffirmed by his playing of Charles Trenet's "Boum!" over the loudspeakers during a William Tell duel involving a shot glass on Severine's head. While the use of CGI is apparent, the production team did a great job creating "The Dead Island", an abandoned island modeled after Hashima Island in Japan.

    When Silva is captured and sent to London we, along with Bond, hear Silva's backstory for the first time. A former MI6 agent working under M during the handover, was caught hacking by the Chinese, and M hands him over to the Chinese for six agents and a peaceful handover. Silva is tortured for months by the Chinese and is left only with his cyanide capsule in his molar. Silva bites the capsule, only to find it has become defective and the hydrogen cyanide ends up burning away all his teeth, the left side of his mouth and his left cheekbone. His grotesque and heartbreaking deformity is revealed when he removes his prosthetic mouth and cheekbone in front of Bond and M, once again, superbly done by the VFX team. What is truly fascinating about Silva is that he is a distorted fun-house mirror image of Bond. He and Bond were both top notch agents who were sacrificed for the greater good by M, who appears to both as a maternal figure. While M is a legitimate mother figure to Bond, Silva has a warped infatuation with her which deepens his plan past a simple revenge with he, Bond, and M entangled in a complex relationship between two rival siblings and their mother. With the information he had, he likely could have killed M long ago, but deliberately made sure to spare her during the MI6 explosion. It is his perverse love for her that gives him a new purpose to his life, rather than simple rage and thirst for revenge. Silva's being sent to London wasn't an accident, he wanted to be brought to her. He effectively uses the stolen drive as bait for MI6 to pursue and apprehend him, ironically using himself as a Trojan horse, bringing him into the heart of MI6 and reuiniting him once again with "mommy." Silva's plan isn't about exposing agents on YouTube, and neither is the film as a whole; it's about his suffering as he sees himself as a suffering son left to die by his own mother, and his desire to not only kill her but to hold her and look into her eyes before they both die together.

    Silva uses his technological resources to hack MI6's computer system, after Q shows his youth by carelessly connecting Silva's laptop to their system via ethernet cable. After opening all the doors and escaping into the underground, with his embedded associates giving him a police outfit for disguise. Bond and Silva embark on a cat and mouse chase through the tube system into the catacombs of underground London. Mendes effectively uses juxtaposition and parallel action as Bond's pursuit of Silva is intercut with M's Board of Inquiry hearing, where she is grilled by the "bitchy politician", Clair Dowar (Helen McCrory). In a world of internet surveillance, predator drones, heightened transparency, and skilled computer hackers like Q, what use is there for clandestine men with guns going out into the field and risking their lives gathering intelligence? A case could be made that Bond, M, and their ideologies are a thing of the past and that there isn't a place for them in the new age of espionage. Perhaps the world no longer needs James Bond. In a speech that encapsulates the very essence of Skyfall, M takes her stand expressing that the world is no longer transparent, enemies are no longer easily identifiable, and do not have loyalties to nations. The new danger is in fact in the shadows, the places where most people do not and cannot see, and the place where Bond exists to protect the world from the enemies that are not known to us. In the most poetic scene in Bond's history (literally and figuratively), M quotes the ending of Lord Alfred Tennyson's "Ulysses" to the members of the hearing, while the poem is intercut with Silva and his men approaching the hearing, and Bond sprinting through the chaotic London streets to rescue her.

    "We are not now that strength which in old days
    Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
    One equal temper of heroic hearts,
    Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
    To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

    While they may be old fashioned and aging, they are not obsolete. It is through perseverance and power of will that Bond and M continue to fight in the shadows, defending the realm against the new threats posed against us. In the ensuing shootout, Bond must now defend MI6 in a more literal sense as Silva opens fire on the Inquiry, and all hell breaks lose. In this scene, we see Mallory's true colors show. In a act of heroism, he jumps in front of M, taking a bullet to the shoulder to protect her, and showing us that perhaps he isn't a pesky, spineless, bureaucrat, and that behind his charm and courtesy, lies a man of steel. Bond gets M off to safety and whisks her off in a company car. They have been playing catch up from the day this started and it's time the ball was in their court. Bond tells Q make an off-the-books plan to create an unauthorized false tracking signal that only Silva can see, but small enough where he does not smell a rat. In the process of this Q and Tanner are unexpectedly interrupted by Mallory, who recognizes what they are doing and commends them for it, telling them to carry on with their business, behind the Prime Minister's back. We're left thinking that maybe Mallory isn't so bad after all. Bond makes a stop to change vehicles since the company cars have trackers installed, so he switches to his personal car. The DB5 has a symbolic value in this film representing the Bond of old, and it's reveal is a true fist pumping moment for Bond fans, with the classic Bond theme and the roar of the DB5 in the background. Bond's car appears to have been upgraded by the old quartermaster since we last saw the DB5 in Casino Royale, with the usual gadgets, machine guns, and the ejector seat offering a nice bit of self referential humor.

    The final act of the film is the most polarizing among fans, where the film departs from the conventional Bond structure and becomes a thing of his own. Bond and M set off to Skyfall lodge, an old manor house in the moors of Scotland, in which Bond grew up. One may wonder why Bond would take M to a such place, but because Silva's niche is the use and manipulation of computers and technology, the only way he can gain an advantage is dueling Silva in a familiar place, which is completely off the grid, and thus giving Silva no tactical advantage. In a brief scene Bond and M gaze out into the moors and M asks him about the death of his parents. Predictably, he's unwilling to talk, and silently prepares himself as he will be forced to relive with the childhood traumas he had pushed under the the table for most of his life. When we arrive at Skyfall lodge, Bond slowly walks through the empty rooms of his childhood home, and appearing to have memories of his childhood coming back to life. We then meet Kincade (Albert Finney), an old gamekeeper of Skyfall lodge, who became somewhat of a paternal figure after Jame's father, Andrew Bond, had passed. He shows M a priest hole on the property in which James hid after hearing of his parents passing. When he reemerged two days later, he was no longer a boy. For a moment, we and M hear about a side of Bond that not many know of: Bond the orphan boy, rather than Bond the international superspy. In their dialogue, we see glimpses of the humorous, warm relationship between Bond and Kincade which feels organic and wouldn't be hard to imagine a saucy young Bond verbally sparring with his old gamekeeper. Bond discovers that the lodge has been sold, and along with most of the guns in the gun room, severely diminishing the advantage of coming to Skyfall. They are only left with Andrew Bond's old hunting rifle, and a few sticks of dynamite and a knife, with Kincade once again expressing the films theme that, "Sometimes the old ways are the best." There is a bit of a Home Alone type vibe as we see the three of them rigging the house with improvised bombs and booby traps for the coming battle. Once the attack begins, they manage to hold off the first wave of attackers but M is left wounded. Silva then arrives in true over the top fashion, in a helicopter, blaring The Animals' "Boom Boom" with the fitting lyrics;
    "Boom, boom, boom, boom,
    Gonna shoot you right down,
    Take you in my arms,
    I'm in love with you..."

    One moment that brought a tear to the eye of many men in the cinema was Silva's blowing up of the DB5, setting Bond over the edge and leading him to rig the mansion into a gigantic bomb, and running into the priest hole for safety. Although it may not seem to significant, this sequence holds a lot of symbolic value. By destroying the DB5, the film says "We recognize the past of the franchise, and while it was great, it's time to move forward into a new age of Bond." Similarly, Bond is forced to go back into that priest hole and conquer his demons, completely destroying Skyfall and everything it represented. The final showdown in the Skyfall chapel ranks up with Tracy's death as one of the most moving scenes in Bond's 50 year history. As Silva approaches the chapel he stops to look at Bond's parents' grave, signifying a family reunion of sorts. Silva finally reaches the moment he's lived for since his failed suicide. He can hold "mommy" in his arms, look into her eyes, and finish the task by killing them both with the same bullet. Bond intervenes before Silva reaches his goal by throwing a knife into his back and saying telling him "Last rat standing." before Silva collapses and dies. Unfortunately, Bond is too late, M falls into his arms as she bleeds out from her gunshot wound. Poetically, Bond will now lose his mother for the second time, just steps away from where his parents are burried. M says, "Well I got one thing right." expressing that through all the mistakes she'd made throughout her career, she got one thing right in the arrogant, "blunt instrument" she promoted in Casino Royale. In the most touching moment of the series, Bond closes her eyelids after she fades away, and kisses her on her forehead as he weeps. The film then cuts from the dark, firelit chapel to the bright rooftops of London where Bond stands heroically overlooking the empire which he defends.

    It is a new day, not only for Bond, but for MI6... the "new" or rather the "old" MI6. Eve tells Bond she declined her offer to go back into the field, and decided to take a desk job after she realized she wasn't cut out for field work. When Bond mentions that they'd never had a formal introduction, Eve introduces herself as Eve Moneypenny, and the Bond theme begins to play as she sits down in a familiar looking office with a desk and a coat rack by the door. As Tanner emerges from behind the large padded leather door, a feeling that could not be described in words arises. Bond enters the room into the classic M's office with Gareth Mallory sitting behind the desk and a drawing of the former MI6 building behind him. After a long battle with proving his place in a modern world, Bond comes up victorious but only after his world was completely torn down, and been rebuilt and re-proven with himself back at the center, but surrounded by a new team with elements of the old and the new, headed by his new M, Mallory. Bond's journey in Skyfall also mirrors the journey of the series as a whole. After the franchise had lost it's way, and the disappointment of Quantum of Solace coupled with MGM's financial struggles, many Bond fans and moviegoers alike felt that maybe James Bond was a thing of the past, and that his best days are behind him. Skyfall proves that not only is James Bond relevant, but he's needed now more than ever, and while respect must be paid to the old guard, it is necessary to adapt and evolve in order to survive. On the wall of the new M's office is a painting of old warships, like in "The Fighting Temeraire" but this one rather, a new fleet lined up in the waters, ready and able to protect and defend.

    All in all, Sam Mendes has made the best Bond film to date, combining the fun, beloved elements of classic Bond, with a new contemporary edge and at the same time integrating a thematic depth, and solidarity not yet seen in the Bond franchise. The team has once again raised the bar, this time making it evident that it is possible to not only make a great Bond film, but a great film in it's own right. With great performances, stunning cinematography, and an emotionally charged story, Skyfall will go down as one of the classics.

    MI6 and James Bond will prevail.

    9.5/10


  • NicNacNicNac Administrator, Moderator
    Posts: 7,582
    Lovely, thanks for the review @battleshipgreygt. Also, thanks for putting it in the Review section as well. I would encourage everyone to go to the Review section, and add their own Skyfall reviews, good and bad, as soon as possible.
  • Posts: 6,601
    I think, this review sums it up pretty well. Very eloquent and insightful. Thanks..
  • bondbat007 wrote:
    Here's my video review of the film:



    Reviewed it after my first viewing but have since seen it 3 more times (including once at Imax) and I can't say my opinion has changed much! It's still fantastic on multiple viewings.

    Calvin I actually very recently discovered your reviews so it's fantastic to see you here. Great videos I really enjoy them! I can't say I 100% agree with all of your opinions (what two Bond fans will) but I'm looking forward to discussing Bond with you.

    Thanks! I'm very much looking forward to discussing Bond with you too! And thanks @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 as well!

  • edited November 2012 Posts: 11,425
    [
    In closing, the best point you have made is that one should expect more logic and less guesswork in a story that there was lots of extra time to work on and perfect. But I don't think it's far fetched to think that the decisions made in the cutting room could have adversely affected this movie. It will be interesting down the line to see because we do know that there were cuts made to shorten the run time to 2:23.

    Most sensible and reasonable comment I've heard from the pro-SF lobby for some time.

    I think there are parts of the film where the editing has definitely impacted the flow of the story. I suspect Berenice was the biggest victim - her character is so under explored. The whole build up through Shanghai, the casino and the arrival at Silva's island is well done, but the abrupt death of Severine and slightly lame and badly CGI'd rescue by the helicopters kills the tension for me. The film doesn't recover after that. More of Severine would have been the perfect way for us to learn more about Silva's operation and motivations and some actual Bond seduction would have livened up the movie. I can only think that either Mendes ended up regretting his casting choice (i.e. her scenes weren't as good as he'd hoped).

    I personally would have preferred less generic PTS action, less dreary tedium in London and fewer explosions at Skyfall and more meaty exposition towards the middle. What surprised me most was how little the characters evolve in the second half of the film. Mendes sold SF as character-driven but I didn't get this at all. I'm all for character-driven Bond, but if you're going to do it, you need a better plot and script than this. Still can't quite believe that they took two or three years to come up with this, but as I've said from the start, the plot has P+W down the middle like a stick of rock. A thin coating of Logan can't conceal that. It's TWINE-the remake, with extra Dench.
  • edited November 2012 Posts: 6,601
    NicNac wrote:
    At the risk of offending the anti-SF people I would like to think that we have now concluded this business about plot holes. Maybe save it for another day. It's noticeable that a big porton of the people who love the film have deserted the thread, and others besides, almost as if they should be embarrassed for liking the film. If they are like me they probably feel a little bit beaten into submission.

    As a result I would love to see them encouraged to come back and discuss aspects of the film they love, just to restore some order.


    @Getafix: Still, you had to pic up on it again. Are you offending the mods deliberately?
  • Posts: 3,327
    Getafix wrote:

    I personally would have preferred less generic PTS action, less dreary tedium in London and fewer explosions at Skyfall and more meaty exposition towards the middle. What surprised me most was how little the characters evolve in the second half of the film. Mendes sold SF as character-driven but I didn't get this at all. I'm all for character-driven Bond, but if you're going to do it, you need a better plot and script than this. Still can't quite believe that they took two or three years to come up with this, but as I've said from the start, the plot has P+W down the middle like a stick of rock. A thin coating of Logan can't conceal that. It's TWINE-the remake, with extra Dench.
    Nothing new with your comments here. Enjoy repeating yourself much?

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