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Having said that, I do agree the plot of a film is not everything. The thing is, apparently some punters did feel Skyfall pushed its luck too far. Me, I can watch it and not be too bothered about its plot shortcomings, but they are there. Of course, it's not the only Bond film that has problems in that respect, but its higher artistic aspirations do make them a bit more noticeable.
Personally, in a Bond film, I don't look so much for absolute consistency of tone, though of course I do want the film to have a tone that it generally sticks to. I do look for a sense of slightly exaggerated reality, and of inventiveness. Even Licence to Kill, a down-to-earth entry, has iguanas, drugs hidden along worms, etc. Similarly, Skyfall has Komodo dragons, skyscrapers with Jellyfish billboards and abandoned Japanese islands.
Five years later: Why SKYFALL might be the best Bond film
Enjoy!
Birth Movies Death: Return to Skyfall - by Phil Noble Jr.
Surfing the channels last light. Hopeless selection, Morcombe and Wise re-runs, chatty man junk, strangers baking xmas cakes etc etc, but on ITV2 , SF !! a family favourite,
accessable for kids and Bond geeks alike ; "Welcome to Scotland" shouts the family and Kincade dishes out the action. It really is a classic IMHO.
I've reviewed Skyfall already in the Bondathon thread. So what can I add.
Daniel Craig's run as Bond is probably saved by this film. Another QoS disaster and with SP following it, Craig probably would be forgotten fast, I would assume.
I love Bond scruffy. Craig spends quite some time with the scruffy look and I really wish he would have kept it until the end of the film.
The DoP has created a masterpiece.
For me the Gold lies in the lengthy Skyfall sequence in Scotland. That whole part is original, unique (to Bond) and gripping, dramatic, action-loaded and in the end very moving.
Dench, Finney and Craig deliver performances that are unforgettable. Bardem comes across as menacing, dangerous and psychotic. The over the top act from earlier scenes is gone, which in my opinion helps a lot.
I've heard that SF was the most successful Bond film ever. I'm not surprised. This film ticks all the right boxes.
If anything then the film may take itself too seriously, the usual balance of fun, wit and action/drama isn't delivered here. This is a regular drama/thriller. But why not.
Bond is a lot of things, which is proven by 27 films. Even if you only count the EoN films Bond never stays the same and there are many variations on the theme. And I would guess, that's why it is so successful, even after 50 years.
Skyfall is my No 10 Bond film. That may not seem very high but in my ranking only 4 films in the Top 13 are newer than 1977 !
And only CR and GE is higher than SF.
I agree that it's definitely an 'action-lite' film, and if recent reports are to be believed, B25 will be similar. I wouldn't be surprised, because I can't see Craig jumping around like he did in CR/QoS in the next one. In fact, I think SF was a response of sorts to QoS (which was very action heavy), just as CR was a response to DAD.
So that begs the question which is on everyone's mind: What lessons will EON take from SP and how will B25 be tweaked to respond?
Hopefully no more personal drama and a more thriller type of vibe. I'm OK with the "action lite" thing. Action is boring, on repeat viewings, but riveting dialogue is, well, riveting. Personally I will take small scale, tense and claustrophobic film over an action heavy, spectacular one.
Oh, and I agree with your Harris comments. The only one of the Scooby Gang I can't stand.
I'm looking forward to the director announcement because that will really give us a strong hint about the direction they are going to take with this film. The script 'doctor' will be quite important too. I'd like Haggis back because I thought his contributions to CR/QoS were quite good.
SF the first true disappointment in the Craig season, it made QOS look good.
SF is very different from any Bond movie. Some love it for that and some don't.
The argument about some people seeing the "deeper themes" always struck me as quite pretentious and very amusing as the Fleming series is anything but an series of adventure novels.
For me Mendes did film a beautiful movie but he did know diddly about creating a plot that makes some sense. The characterization of 007 and other character do feel a bit forced and did make no sense at all. But it is hard to admit that perhaps an actor does so well and seems to get such shite movies to work with. And while SF has some moments that are really decent the SP movie that followed was a sheer mockery of anything to do with a decent movie.
If the next Craig installment is close to this one I would rather that they picked a new guy and enter a less pretentious era where we get workman directors instead of pretentious folks like Mendes or Nolan. We need a decent installment that combines fun, action with a decent plot, something the last two movies did not offer at all.
For me the fact that James Bond decided to protect his boss and the service ends up getting her killed, he could just as well stayed in his beach bar and drunk himself into a stupor and she would have died at the hand of Silva s well, makes this movie poorly thought out.
It felt like the director thought that the opening of the TMWTGG where Bond is returned from the dead and is aimed at his own boss was just not good enough, it would have been a Fleming opening at least and shows that Mendes and Craig just have no affection with Fleming whatsoever. They want to prove that they can do better and their effing trainwreck of a movie showed it. The Apocalypse Now moment in the movie was just a show how poor Mendes understood the characters and the movie that including the Aston Morgan DB in every movie for popular and easy scoring.
SF & SP show how a popular character is taken into an alley and get the living daylights kicked out of him.
On the other hand he miraculously survives the most certain deaths all the time.
But I think the films still work fine. Bond is fantasy and Craigbond is fantasy depicted "realistically", not sure how I can word this better.
Perhaps the Olympic bit with Craig and the Queen was just fantastic and the best ad they could ever make.
The measure of box-office never woed me, I saw Blade Runner in its original release and it was not as loved as it is today. The reverse is also true if certain movie were released today they would bomb incredible at the box office..
For me the popularity of a movie can be flash fire and is not determined by quality. CR is the far better made 007 movie and deserved a far better BO IMHO. The general audience is fickle mistress that makes little sense. Did not Mamma Mia outperform CR at the British BO?- If only Craig had sung the title song I would say. ;)
Here's the missing third one below...
It will always be repeated because the denial has just less ground to defend. ;)
You didnt see the mini-film with CraigBond and our Queen ..the real Queen ?
NO! To be honest, I never knew about Bond at all before early 2017 :)
Get on Youtube and ENJOY !!
That made SF the most pro-British Bond film ever....and why i love it and created this thread Andi.
And why i love my Queen's spirit to join in with our national hero.
I was referring to the UK naturally. Isn't it the most successful film ever in the UK?
Skyfall ticks all the right boxes, definitely. And I think coming after QoS, helped a lot too. The Craig era desperately needed SF and it got it.
I just don't believe that had anything to do with its success outside of the UK.