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Comments
the gunbarrel is beautiful, better than craig running away in quantum of solace
we get a male M and a Miss Moneypenny back!
great great ending, reminder of the big ending battles
humor!!!
I really liked Severine, Silva and Kincade
Great to see Bond's childhood and background, I would have loved some info on his swiss mother too
Great small (insider) references to the franchise's past (people not too familiar with the franchise won't notice them, but I stopped counting at about 8-9)
Good song and soundtrack by Newman, I was never a fan of Arnold, but I would have loved a real slowed down version of the skyfall theme (like "wine with stacy", ...)
the filming is simply beautiful
one positive thing that struck me particularly was the style of M's (Judy Dench's) house and the new M's office (which reminded me a lot of the old style, it really looks like it was in the old movies (especially Moore era))
interesting to see bond in the UK/London
the story is both exciting, touching and adds comic elements
Craig was never bond for me, but now he convinced me!
no excessive cell phone use! (I know, it sounds strange ;) )
the bad:
CGI during bike race, helicopters, glasswindows of metro don't break when it crashes through the wall and why was the metro empty??
the placement of the gunbarrel at the end still looks weird to me...
the part after the TS and before Shanghai was the weakest to me imo (not very convincing)
the relationship with the bondgirl should have been developed a bit further (would build the Moneypenny-Bond relationship even funnier) and Severine died too quickly. The Moore era relationships were more developed.
Silva's island was kind of useless to me, he could have done the same anywhere else
Q is back, but I would have loved one additional more exotic gadget (that radio tracking device was too basic for bond imo, everybody can nowadays buy a small gps tracker)
Overall a very good entry in the bond franchise, I am really excited for Bond24.
I will see it again tonight, so far I can't give an exact rating. Best Craig Bond, clearly top half of the franchise, but I will wait some more time to give it an exact ranking.
You see Bond running towards Whitehall crossedited with Silva disguised as a cop approaching the enquiry within the building, while you hear M citing Tennyson. I love when directors do stuff like that.
Fantastic - mostly because on paper it sounds stagey and self conscious, whereas in execution it was natural and well done
The thing I love most about it was Bond's absolute desperation to reach the building in time, he just wasn't gonna give up. It perfectly mirrored what M was saying about the necessity of operatives like Bond.
I think this is another example of Mendes just wanting to tick off all the boxes as they did in the Brosnan era. After the casino he's suddenly in Severine's room then they get it on immediately. It's too rushed and tightly cut. I think they should have jsut cut this scene all together then they would have had more room for another scene like one of the following that I would have liked to have seen in the film as per the Mi6 article:
"- A shot of Bond running through Regent's Park as he prepares for his MI6 evaluation.
- An exchange between M and Mallory when she quips Bond being in the South China Sea is precise intelligence.
- A procession of hearses and producer Michael G. Wilson's cameo as a pall bearer at the funeral service for the MI6 agents.
- Shots of dead & wounded MI6 agents following the explosion were cut."
I did like Harris in Skyfall but why they made a field agent a secretary is beyond me. Since they did she should have gone into more explanation as to why she chose to take a desk job at the end. I thought it was corny the way she said I haven't told you my last name or something like that, then she says "Moneypenny."
Pity there couldn't have been some dialogue exchanged between Bond and his girlfriend at the beginning and I wish they had have lingered on the two drinking scenes with the scorpian and when he's on the beach at the bar. I thought that Greek girl (Greek is she?) was going to have a bigger part. She was merely a featured extra.
In terms of the one liners, I just don't think Craig is the type of actor who should be delivering them. He can't deliver them with the flair of Connery and Moore even though he is a great actor and they just seemout of place in Skyfall. They really hinder my enjoyment of the film. The worst one was "put all my money on red" after the casino.
Anyway, I'm always a bit too criticle of a Bond film upon first viewing. It was the same with Casino Royale too. I do like SF but at the moment I feel like it doesn't quite live up to the hype created by the critics. It's a good film but not that good. Well, I'll see how I feel after the second viewing next Sunday.
I think the James Bond franchise does have an advantage over shorter length film franchises in that it's very easy for film film critics to forget the detailed content of the last 22 Bond films. It's very easy to see Skyfall or a recent Bond film and automatically assume it's got the best pre-credit scene or the best villain or 'the best whatever' or Craig's Bond is the best blah blah blah rather than go back over the last 50 years and study the content of the previous films and put Skyfall into some context. For example, a film critic could write "Skyfall might be the best James Bond film ever" but a fan could counter that by saying "but Moonraker had James Bond falling out of a plane without a parachute. Does Skyfall have anything comparable to that?"
You see how critics hyping each new Bond film is sort of counter productive or a bit shallow because it's simple to come up with endless examples of why previous Bond films might have content as good or better than Skyfall. The franchise has been going so long I doubt any future James Bond film will ever be 'the best' nor do I think any future Bond actor will ever become 'the best'. Too much has come before but that doesn't stop film critics forgetting that and hyping each new film - well, Craig's ones - to a very large extent! ;)
So much the better if it can bring new people to seeing it, but I think most of critics are missing the most interesting things about Skyfall, which is its excellent direction and its unexpected approach on Bond.
Liked the fact it was a straight forward, stripped down plot and the use of the ending in Flemings YOLT at the beginning. Also loved the build up at the enquiry- actually thought Silva was going to pull it off then.
The score was only serviceable- was expecting much more from Newman. I did like his use of the violins for the Bond theme though.
She thinks SF is one of the best, loved the second part more than the first one, found it the most realistic Bond so far, she could believe everything, was completely surprised by the twists of the story, praises the whole cast but especially Bardem who she says is one of the best villains ever and Craig, who impressed her immensely (she says he is so real she could see what he was thinking/feeling just by looking at his face/eyes) and either would be worth an Oscar for this. Dramatic but still funny at times, this time everything made sense. My grandfather agreed with his "little girl's opinion" and added that the film had some "mighty blasts" and had a perfect mixture of serious and fun. Both adored the photography and said Scotland was the best part.
Additional opinions by two accidental (=forced) Bond fans that had to endure their significant halves' fandome through the years were interesting. My grandmother doesn't really care for violent films but loves Craig (funny story for another time), "loved the house and the part about his family and his mother" (? didn't quite get it as my mother stopped her at that moment). My father approved it, saying he didn't even feel like taking a nap (that means 5* film by him) and he could even smell the gunpowder. He approved Bond's clothes by the way (former tailor).
I can't believe I have to wait until next weekend to watch it, knowing their opinion increased even more my curiosity since they were the ones who made me the Bond fan I am today!
(she says he is so real she could see what he was thinking/feeling just by looking at his face/eyes)
Yes, she was very specific about it, she was very impressed about his acting.
I also forgot to say she thought Silva's entry scene was the best entry of any Bond villain, and that the film was completely different from any other Bond film but at the same time completely classic. She couldn't shut up about it :)
I think, its great, that the film was able to satisfy the older fans as well and that maybe more people will finally discover DC as an actor in a Bond movie, which would be funny, but why not.
Yep a lot of good entrances actually- the opening shot, although i’d have loved to have seen the gun barrel at the start (but it doesn’t seem we’re gonna get that with Craig’s films) and his casino entrance – great how they take the time to announce the “resurrection” of Bond. Very Dark Knight-esque.
I just like it when their brave enough to throw the Bond formula rule book out (like CR) and play around with the pacing of the film a bit. We don’t want to see the same film repackaged each time - hitting the action timer on every 15 minutes. They made use of great actors and let the scenes evolved – nothing was rushed.
The dynamic of the younger Q to the older Bond worked really well. And seeing the set at the end, the double doors, the more “traditional” Bond/M set up has got me a bit excited for the next one already!
"Now all they eat is rat!"
It sure was menacing, especially the conclusion and the way he said that.
The rats now only eat other rats! :-O
The reason why the tube was empty, was because it was not in service. Just pause the video in the end, where you can read the sign on the front of the tube.
I liked the PTS and thought the title sequence was good, I do think Muse's Survival would have been a better choice of song. However, can see the relevance of Adel's song by the time we got to the third act.
The enjoying death scenes although short we kind of got the picture of what Bond had been doing for the last few months.
I liked the scenes where Bond had to be assessed and we are all use to Bond being this indestructible hero who never sweats and to see him a physical wreak was good and how he had to bounce back.
There was little screen time with Sévérine and to me that made up for the story arc focusing on the situation yet to come with Silva and showed how bad and the way he treated her.
I liked Bonds view of Mallory as desk jockey and then winks at him when he joins in the gunfight against Silva, to me this was setting up a respect for future films; as it did with Q and Bill Tanner.
Silva was classic and he fitted in with Fleming's blueprint for badguys. What made him scary was the scene where he said to Kincade don't as I did think he might shoot him and when he didn't it was like what he had done regarding M was right to him. Thus, this was like Bond who has a mission, this was Silva's mission.
I loved the scene when Bond went into the new M's (Mallory) office and it was in the Universal Exports Building and the style of office Bernard Lee use to have. When Bond was given the case file I though we are going back to classic scenes with M and this will be something to look forward to for future films.
The film was saying goodbye to the old and welcome the new and this was referenced in the old dog new tricks reference and the destruction of the DB5 and Dench's M leaving the franchise in the way she did. This also is referenced with GBS and I do like it at the start of the film, however can see why it is at the end of the film as to me it was closing that story and getting ready for the new story Bond 24 and 25.
The future of the franchise is they have a blank canvas now and can go where they want and like Goldfinger which set the mold for future Bond Films, Skyfall has done the same.
Classic Bond and it's there with Goldfinger, The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldeneye and Casino Royale.
This is not meant as a sarcastic comment (honest!) but couldn't they have done that in Casino Royale? Casino Royale was supposed to be 'Bond Begins' so that would/should have been "The film was saying goodbye to the old and welcome the new." Why would you need three Craig Bond films to reach a new 'beginning' for the franchise? Seems a bit weird/pointless. Eon could have had the end of Skyfall - new M, Moneypenny, new Q, new world order blah blah blah - in the first 10 mins or so of Casino Royale. Why spend three films to get to that point? The point of Casino Royale was Bond becoming a fully fledged 00 agent so that should have been the 'new', surely?
True but there has been a four year gap and they've rebooted DCs bond to match his age.
SkyFall was not the disappointment that i had worried about, in fact it was a good 007 flick, but it wasn't sensational.
PTS was good, nice strong return to the screen. Can't say the same about Adele's song however im not a fan and think a number of other choices could have worked better.
Bardem was great as Mr Silver (Silva?). Thoroughly enjoyed his overly theatrical nature, played the role with real class.
Nice introduction of M, Moneypenny and Q ...not sure quite why we needed three movies to do so but hey.
Craig's performance was very strong as usual, he has played it well in all three of his movies and i hope for another 2 or 3 with him. He understands the character so well now, even more so than before and plays down and out 007 with real humanity.
SkyFall gets a solid 8/10 from me. Good bond adventure. Welcome back sir!