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Now that was a whole lotta crap. I suspect the writer must have some, um, issues. Is it an article/part of an article from somewhere?
edited a bit later: Oh, it was indeed part of more of the same. Geez. I need a shower.
We know it's you Pierce. [-X Time to move on son, you aren't Bond any more. Accept it!
And Pierce, be careful how close you sail to the wind with your borderline homophobic comments.
I can't stop thinking he might be touchmybuttons v3.0
http://n007.thegoldeneye.com/film_commentary/skyfall_review.html
Regarding the Bond/Silva scene- The thing I found surprising about this scene was not the part where Silva caresses Bond, but that we actually get to see through Bond's eyes. How often do we get the first-person perspective treatment in filmBond? I'm guessing not often. In CR, we get it when he momentarily wakes up in the hospital to see a blurry Mathis and Vesper. I'm sure there are other occasions throughout the series- perhaps most of them involve Bond waking up after getting knocked out ie. Pussy Galore's face comes into focus when Bond wakes up after getting tranqued. I know it's off topic, and maybe not a big deal to some, but I, for one, find seeing through our hero's eyes quite fascinating- even if it's only for a few seconds.
That would be M's death scene.
My favorite sequence may have been when he and Bond were taking shots at Severine if not previously mentioned. The London subway sequence just seemed a bit silly at times. For the last and final time, the climax in Scotland and the 'Aris Kristatos'-esque ending with a knife to the back, was too quick, disappointing, left viewers dissatisfied, it was all those things. We went with the character through all that, and Bond just throws a simple knife, and that's it ? So many times mentioned, there should of been some struggle or battle - or something (better than what they went with)
Was Silva/Bardem a good villain ? Yes and No. There were moments that worked, and moments that failed to ignite or capture any suspense for example. The character, in the simplest terms, was a bit hit and miss. Simply didn't menace enough as I had expected from reviewers or write ups before a first viewing
Personally I love Silva as a character and I found him fascinating - complex, layered, nuanced, truly interesting... much more so than most villains in movies - Bond or otherwise. I'm still analysing him and having fun doing so. :) Amongst other things I'm also pondering what else to get out of his name - real or adopted one - than the obvious bit (Tiago=James) - the rest are hardly just some random names, either. Maybe what I've got so far is all there is, or maybe I'm missing something... I'm not getting anywhere much with his real surname, yet, but we'll see... If anyone has, I'll be glad to hear about it. I don't know if this stuff has been discussed here somewhere, I haven't had time to read through all potential threads, sorry.
The way Javier plays the role is, IMO, fantastic, and I'm grateful he accepted the offer to do it. Of course, he also had a lot of input into how the character was molded and ended up like eventually - I have no idea how different the character would have been in somebody else's hands, and how different the movie had then been, but I'm glad I didn't need to find out. I can see why Sam and Daniel wanted Javier for the role, and I'm sure they are happy they got him and what he did with it. And I certainly was. Silva is one of the many reasons I love Skyfall so much.
Agree totally. Terrific villain. I believed in his deadliness and sagacity from the start. The 'knife in the back' death was pitch perfect. Another fight would have been tedious after the long chase over the cold moors. Silva was a real danger and had to be despatched quickly. How would you have prised him away from M to start a fight anyway?
The Craig villains have to have that extra something to take on Craig anyway. Greene was physically unimpressive but turned into a whirling dervish in a fight.
I think Tuulia made an amazing spot with the fact that Thiago, Silva's real name is actually the Portuguese / Gallician equivalent of the name James.
I knew that the portuguese equivalent of James is Tiago because in the brazilian version of Harry Potter they translated Harry's father's name that way. But I never thought about that while watching Skyfall! Thank you for pointing that out, @Tuulia, REALLY interesting.
Isn't it Tiago, not Thiago (Brazilian)? :)
Not sure about Galician, but Portuguese for sure.
I seem to remember Javier said the character was of Portuguese origin. But I think the surname is spelled Rodriguez (=son of Rodrigo), which is the Spanish spelling. Silva is a Portuguese name, but Raoul ("counsel wolf") is French... Hmm. I assume the guy chose the name Raoul Silva for a reason, but I haven't figured it out. :P ...darn gotta go,,,
I assume he decided to adopt that name because he loves french songs? He was listening to that old Charles Trenet song, "Boum", in his island. If you love the french culture, you got to know who Charles Trenet is. Still a big influence in France. But that's just my opinion.
We have a disgruntled ex-spy out for revenge, using a supercomputer that allows him to do and know all. Everything is planned out to the second, allowing him to just roam around killing folks and being cool and smooth. I would expect something like that from a Michael Bay movie, but not in these new Bond movies.
A low point for me was when he blew up a wall using his radio (yes, a cute reference to Bond's earlier remark), causing a (seemingly empty) metro to crash down towards Bond. The whole preceding chase through the crowds was very unpredictable and Silva couldn't have known if and when Bond would catch up with him. So how did he manage to plan explosives on that specific spot way in advance, and then trigger them seconds before a metro passes by?
http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/3487/skyfall-fans-reactions-guaranteed-spoilers#Item_1861
Was M his actual mother? Was his despair at being abandoned due to the cyanide malfunction? Was he one of M's favorites at Hong Kong station? How does he escape/survive custody in China?
And, of course, if the film is about Raoul's relationship with M, whydon't they havea gutwrenching emotional confrontation?
It appears there was a badly drawn parallel between Bond's being shot by Eve and Raoul's situation, but they could have done better by having Silva point it out and then have Bond at least feign at joining Silva's cause.
Silva surely planned to crash the train with or without Bond beneath. Silva left that door open on purpose, wanting Bond to follow him (he was playing games with Bond all along), but even if that hadn't worked, I assume he still would have caused the tube havoc; causing destruction and chaos in one place gives more time to cause further havoc elsewhere - a tactic used by real life terrorists, too. The train was empty, yes, and it had to be - this was in London, and this was a Bond movie. The train had a "not in service" sign on front.
^This. Silva did not know that Bond would be following him and standing in that spot. But he likely knew his escape route from the alternate location of MI6 and wanted a) to create a horrific distraction that would mobilize emergency services, b) cover up his tracks as to where he was going and c) block off his route if any from MI6 - no matter who it was - was attempting to follow him. That fact that it was Bond and that he almost caught up with him was just icing on the cake (for Silva and for us viewers as well).
Damn I want to go watch it again. I hope it stays in town for another couple of weeks at least as I'm in no condition to go anytime soon (high fever and coughing internal organs out one by one it feels like...)
Sorry to hear that you're sick; the flu is spreading like wildfire here (at least according to the newspaper this morning).
I'm sure you'll get one more chance to see SF in the theatre :-)
(No need to send over those nice young men in their clean white coats... honest.)
Intimidating, chilling, and Bardem was brilliant. I think my brother summed it up well when we left the cinema, "That's the first Bond villian I could really believe in". For me I could fully see his character motivations, see that raw determination that makes characters 'real'. He wasn't a 2D cut out character even if you want to believe he's just a cookie-cutter depraved bisexual with Mummy issues.
I think the scene that most demonstrates my love for Silva is the end with M. At the end, after all the fanfare, the chase through London, the destruction of Skyfall, he needs her to kill them both, bring them both peace. The expressions on Bardem's face, the way he nailed that real desperation to just end it were heartbreaking in a off sense.
He's my favourite villain, too. A fascinating, layered, real character indeed, and yes, Bardem was brilliant and absolutely nailed it.