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True. Flat and very strangely paced.
Thanks for this Dimi. I thought much the same thing but you beat me to it. DTK makes a few good points but it's like you said, you can poke holes in almost any movie including CR if you've already convinced yourself you can. You could drive a semi through the plot holes in QOS. Most of his and other criticisms can be answered intelligently with an opposing view and thusly seen in a different light. What does amaze me is that SF gives us so much of what people have been asking for, new M, Q, Moneypenny, humor (which was perfectly done just like Sir Sean, but some want that old Moore/Brosnan superspy goofiness which didn't occur in a Fleming novel and was antithetical to Connery and Dalton and does not belong anywhere near a proper Bond film), locations and not too many, no shaky cam/quick cut editing, I genuinely for the most part cannot understand why someone would still be unsatisfied with the effort and the improvements, it's obvious EON is listening and trying to give us the best product they can, let alone prefer the crappier entries of the 70's (3 out of 5) and the 90's "let's tick the 70's boxes".
The positive fan and critical reviews far outweigh the very pushy minority here, who for the most part aren't listening to counterpoints when presented. Those who aren't willing to equally note the positives alongside the negatives aren't my definition of a good fan, that's for sure. It's to the point with me that certain posts I automatically skip, if you can't say something positive then state your peace and step off the soapbox instead of boring me half to death.
But, one thing that irks me: why is Silva flying in with the music blaring 'made for little kids'? Bond himself states that Silva likes to make an entrance, and that's what he does: he's so over the top about everything, and he wants his revenge the way he wants it. Silva could have EASILY pulled what Bond did and just broke in to M's flat and waited for her. But, he spent years concocting a well laid out plan, just to have her in one location that he could kill her in. It didn't work, so he went to attack where he thought he would have the advantage. He wanted what he wanted, and it apparently wasn't the easy way to achieve his revenge.
Funny how people scream bloody murder because SF does so many things that makes it not feel like a Bond movie... Looks to me like it's quite original al right.
I'd say it takes a pretty dumbed down (I think is the expression) mind to start quoting Home Alone as a possible source of inspiration...
Let's see. Since we (DRESSED_TO_KILL and I) both love CR, I don't feel guilty to set that film as an example.
Airport mayhem: Die Hard 2
Black-and-white in modern film: Schindler's List
Another lead coming out of the water as a big moment: DAD
Car driving by night in Miami: Miami Vice (or many other Michael Mann films)
There's the young 'hero' who proves to be too reckless and emotional: Se7en
The bad guy takes money from someone and wants to make a profit on that: TLD
A black man wields a sword: The Mummy Returns
A fight in a house that gets flooded: Hard Rain
Our hero has come for a loose end (Mr. Whyte): Blade II
The hero's boss disapproves of his conduct: Dirty Harry
The hero is talking in a cell phone while chasing someone: 24
...
Face it: it's but a matter of trying hard enough and we can all get there.
I could not agree more, you took the words right out of my mouth @getafix. you just totally owned dimi
You still didn't answer my question. And really, I think you just gave some poor examples. How can you compare an example like this: ...to my examples? Yes, in CR you have a car driving in Miami like in many other movies, but that's not ripping anything off or copying. Many scenes in SF look like they were directly inserted from other movies. If Nolan for example hadn't made the Batman-trilogy, we would probably never have had the rooftop-scene in SF.
Actually he doesn't. You see, I have no problem with people disliking SF. I do, however, have a problem with people who are trying to prove that SF is a most terrible film by throwing up the most ridiculous arguments like how P&W went to Home Alone for inspiration or who spin things around in a most creative manner in order to fit their pallet of issues with the film like how Silva's obsession with getting even with M is a poor case of mommy issues for a grown up man.
Funny to mock the death spewing lasers of old and then call a film that has nothing of that the worst plotted one in the series...
Mutual respect is no problem as far as I'm concerned. However, I seem to read a lot of 'dumb' and whatnot about SF and its fans...
Come on. You gave me this:
there's the fight where some creepy animal deals with our hero's foe (Star Wars)
Similarly far-fetched, no?
Also, which question? I seem to have missed something.
EDIT
I see. Like what 'other stuff' they tried to bring in?
Fine, let's start with the fact that our baddie isn't about making money or imperialism or even anarchy. This one tries to get even, nothing more. That's a first.
No Bond girl, either damsel in distress or 'Bond's equal' we need to drag along towards the end. There's an implied sex scene at one point and that's all we get in this film. I don't mind. It certainly is a first.
Bond's never been so active on British soil. I love the London mayhem! Finally we get some domestic trouble for a sufficiently long time.
Bond fails the tests. He's not that perfect superagent any more. He needs to slowly recorver. I recall some comments about vulnerability?
Q, MP and (the male) M get a story for once, rather than being mere superficial characters which allow some boxes on the Bond Formula checklist to be ticked off. I'm not saying they had tremendous weight, but we learned some things about them that qualify as previously undiscovered territory, no?
We actually dig into Bond's past with more tangential elements (house, graves, ...). Never seen before. By the way, to prove I'm not a SF slave I would like to add I don't want them ever to go that far anymore.
I asked: Like what?
And actually - the first thing on my mind in the komodo-dragon scene was "Rangor" ;-)
The first thing on my mind when Bond drove to the Body Worlds excibition in Miami from the airport was certainly not "Miami Vice" or "Scarface" for the matter.
Forgive me. It had escaped my notice. Please read my edit of the post above. :-)
Whatever- can't wait to see that damn movie again! Can't stop thinking about it! 8-}
Same here. I've seen it three times already and I want to get back at it. ;-)
I think we need to understand that Bond influenced a lot of franchises in the past, which in turn started influencing Bond. I don't mind them coming full circle. It happens. After 5 decades and 23 films (25 if you count very liberally ;-)) which franchise wouldn't suffer from a little been-there-seen-it-all dust? :)
I will admit that there are obvious elements in SF which could be spotted as having been inspired by existing films. But let us be honest about some things. Silva gets kept in a cage, for example. Silence Of The Lambs does spring to mind, I agree. But X-Men 2 did something similar and even Resident Evil 4 does it. No doubt more obscure and lesser known films have gotten away with it as well. In one film someone draws a gun. Next thing you know, a hundred films show characters that draw guns. And very soon it's become an acceptable something. If you steel, and you steel from the best, and you use it to serve your story, what's the harm done? I mean, it's not like we get the classical music from Silence or a line about paintings...
Furthermore, Silva's caught. They need to detain him and talk to him. Any other way we can think of would have been used before too. Just a prison cell? Been there. A prison cell in a moving vehicle? Been there. Strapped on a table? Been there. Crucified? Been there. Interrogation room with semitransparent mirror? Been there. Surely there are other ways still, but I can't think of any of them that wouldn't be prone to comments of plagiarism if so desired by the commentators. And now they went with a more dramatic option. And it so happens they tie many of us back to a film from the early 90s (which, by the way, won't be the case with every boy and girl of under 25, mind). They could have, perhaps, gone for something less conspicuous but I doubt they could have gone for something completely original. Look, we're talking to a villain who's detained. To be fair, the fact that we have this opportunity, to talk to an imprisoned villain a Bond film, is fairly original. Only Sanchez springs to mind.
I was really looking forward to this when I learned the fact that almost half the movie would take place in London. Sadly most of the scenes were shot in Pinewood.
Q getting a story? I must have missed that. What did we learn?
And M getting a story is not really a first. She already had to much of a "story" in TWINE, IMO. I like for M to be the boss who gives orders and sends Bond on a mission. Nothing more. Subtlety should never be replaced with heavy-handed sentimentality, IMO. It almost - just almost - did, in the Scotland-scenes.
A simple @ followed by the username would suffice, but it always happens in arguments, it appears.
It's instantly in my top 3 Bond films behind FRWL and CR.
Daniel Craig has also reached the same level as Sean Connery as far as my favorite Bond actors go. Craig delivers so many different emotions and has a much wider range than any of the previous 007s. He's able to hit the one-liners in stride and also shed a tear when it's called for.
Javier Bardem makes a fantastic villain, and his portrayal of Silva is also one of the best in franchise history. His words and actions make audiences laugh and squirm at the same time, which is a good thing.
And then there's Dame Judi Dench, who gets plenty of screen time and makes the best use of it. While I tend to dislike having M get out from behind the desk, her eventual outside-the-office adventures in 'Skyfall' serve a purpose and Dench plays it beautifully.
The callbacks to Bond history were done well, in my opinion. The use of the DB5 in 'Skyfall' made for the biggest laughs each time I watched it, and the return of Q and Moneypenny offer the perfect mix of tradition and modern influences.
The film, as many have already said, is beautifully shot. Roger Deakins worked his magic and some of the visuals are stunning. The fight scene between Bond and Patrice in the bathed-in-blue skyscraper stands out to me.
It's hard for me to find faults in 'Skyfall'. I suppose Severine could have been used more, and how Bond recovered from his wounds in the PTS is left for us to decipher, but this is one of the most complete Bond movies ever.
With the final moments of the film again blending tradition with the contemporary, 'Skyfall' tips a cap to 50 years of history, while keeping a steady eye on continuing Bond into the next half century.
If this is truly how you feel, @DRESSED_TO_KILL , how can you possibly like any, and I mean ANY, of the Bond films? They are riddled with minute plot loopholes...even Casino Royale.
I can understand some criticisms like the CGI, music, what have you, but this is going overboard. For example, I find it really hard to legitimize saying that they're copying Home Alone just because Bond boobietrapped the house? Really? That is the argument? For the record, Home Alone is not the only film to feature someone boobietrapping a room/house/whatever. Maybe I could agree with you if the motives were the same, but this is completely a different situation in Skyfall than it is in Home Alone. Context matters.
You could argue that everything else has been done before no matter what movie you're talking about. Just because there was a fight on top of a train already doesn't make it suddenly un-original. I thought the backhoe, VW beetles, the fact that Eve was chasing them (not on railroad tracks) were all nice touches that separate it from anything that was done before in a Bond film. I think there needs to be a lot more similarities other than "a train rooftop sequence" to accuse the moviemakers of copying anything. By that logic, there was a casino scene in Skyfall. Well, guess what, there's a casino scene in nearly every Bond film. I guess they just stole the scene from one of the other films...
I hope to see a good realistic espionage movie one day that artistically and realistically portrays the life of a field agent, because after seeing skyfall, my hopes for a casino royale 2.0 are all gone.
Another thing in skyfall that literally made me laugh (and for all the wrong reasons ) was when Bond is just casually standing next to Silva outside on his island (a villain with a private island...wow thats real original ! not really) and is wearing sunglasses. I mean come on now, Bond wearing shades making jokes about a wasted cup of scotch while a woman is dying ?? who wrote this shit? I'm really disapointed in Daniel Craig for accepting the direction of this mainstream dumb downed politically correct thrash called skyfall and have lost respect for daniel.
And for the record, Silva is a sociopath. He's not meant to be logical. He wants his revenge. To me, the mindset is like that of one of those who did the Columbine shootings or the Batman shooting. It's revenge against society because of their own selfish twisted reasons. In this case, Silva is trying to right the "wrongs" done against him.
@DRESSED_TO_KILL , I'd like to see what your idea of an original Bond film is.
@DRESSED_TO_KILL (or let's be honest), @TouchMyButtons, I love how you have some illusion that SF and CR are completely separate. CR has some completely over the top moments, as does Skyfall. Though Skyfall has more, they are present in full in CR. You can have your little pout sessions all you want, but there has and never will be an original film in any genre. Every director/producer/crew has an inspiration they bring into their film, and there is nothing you can do about it. And you know, I see deaths every day on the TV, from shootings to car bombs. I watch people my age throwing their lives away and am surrounded by ignorant texting teenagers. Day in, day out I wonder what damage my generation will do in the future and look cynically at my own life and wonder what the hell I will do with my life, and I am completely lost. And yet, just knowing that you are miserable brings a smile to my face. Thank you for that.
FINAL NOTE-
Why? Why the hell were there so many retarded nods to the past bond films? for christ sake . EVERYTHING OR NOTHING the documentary of Bond was made to talk about bonds past history . So why did they include past homage in the movie? I was expecting a fresh movie with new innovation, not stupid silly little kiddy teenybopper scenes of Bond hiding in the DB5 shooting guys with his cars machine guns. dear god skyfall was a joke. I'm gona go watch CR and forget skyfall was ever made
This coming from the person who said Bond 24 was going to be called. "Wave-Link." :-))
And the collapse of the Venice building, I really cant name any other scenes that seem too unrealistic to me. CR was more serious and didn't have Daniel Craig making stupid ass little jokes and quips every 10 minutes. It showed the ruthlessness of modern day terrorism and my god the torture scene was just executed so wonderfully. IT FOLLOWED FLEMINGS FORMULA. and thats why it blows skyfall away.
*Bond flipping his car over and over and over and over and over and over and over and barely getting hurt
*The entire Miami airport sequence
*The embassy shoot out
Basically most of the action outside of the card game. And CR had plenty of hilarious quips straight from Bond, who is a grade A smart a@# in the film 24/7. I love CR, but even I can see the holes in your argument. @TouchMyButtons, Hopefully EON can rock your world with WAVE LINK 2014. I know it. I just do.
Buzz off troll.