Watching Skyfall

Watched Skyfall, the latest James Bond, yesterday. A review, you say? Sure.

My review

First ten minutes of the movie, there were so many product placements I thought I’d go blind.

Then James encounters a young woman, and figures out that she has been a sex slave since she was 12, and now is that to the bad guy. His remedy, for all the bad things she has been through?

Let’s have sex with her, I’m sure she’ll like it.

Then at the end it turns into Home Alone, with booby-traps and all…

A friendlier take

Ok, so, let’s be friendlier. It’s an ok movie, and we said the normal thing:

It’s very good! For a Bond movie.

Which is fair, but when I watch a movie in a series/franchise, I don’t want it to just be better than earlier versions – I want it to be great, compared to all movies!

Skyfall has a decent plot, it’s a good James Bond movie, staying in style, and well-produced and acted. Personally, though, I almost found me rooting for Javier Bardem‘s character…

But by all means, if you want a good regular action movie, I’m sure Skyfall will make you happy.

14 Comments

  • I was very disappointed that it had _nothing_ to do with the story built up in Quantum of Solace. That movie did not make any sense whatsoever without a conclusion in the next one and Skyfall just reset the whole story. I also found the character of M to be woefully underrepresented. She kicked butt in all the Pierce Brosnan bonds and in this one needed to be protected by Bonds elderly caretaker.

  • Teylor Feliz says:

    I agree with everything you said. The only thing I need to add is that the first 10 minutes were the most exciting of the whole movie.

  • Pete says:

    So you have this super smart villain who prepared his plan (he even placed a bomb exactly at the location where a subway can fall on Bond’s head) for two years to do what? Kill M.? Why does he not simply go into her apartment? The whole story makes no sense. 1/10 for this movie.

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Christian,

    I never watched Quantum of Solace, actually, but I’ve heard the same thing from people who did. Apparently it had something to do with writers on strike when that was written, so now they just moved on without following up…

    And totally agree on M. Never felt any connection to her, and I think they failed to get viewers to care about her fate, whatever it would be.

    Teylor,

    Oh, absolutely, it has some exciting bits, it’s well-produced and some parts are quite good.

    Pete,

    Yes, I had a few questions like that myself… 🙂

  • Andreas says:

    “It’s very good! For a Bond movie.”

    What does that even mean? That older classics like gold finger, license to kill, moonraker etc sucks according to you?

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Andreas,

    Just what it says. 🙂
    It’s good for a Bond movie, meaning a movie stuck with a bunch of old cliches, certain type of action, certain type of bad guys etc. The setup has been the same for a long time.

    I’m not saying that the old ones suck. I’m saying that this is a good addition if you liked those movies.

  • Andreas says:

    Fair enough:)

    But home alone is pure quality.

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Ha ha! Yes, of course. 🙂

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Cson,

    Yes, I’ve heard that too. 🙂

  • Aidian says:

    I read a Roger Ebert review once where he said that you watch a Bond movie the way you drink a new vintage of wine… you sample the crazy chase scene at the beginning, you analyze the flavors of different Bond Girls, you judge the complexity of the supervillian’s lair, etc.

    By that standard, I guess Skyfall works for me. The crazy chase at the beginning was arguably the best element, but it usually is.

    A couple other thoughts:

    Judi Dench always worked for me as M. I thought she brought something to the role. Hell, at least there’s a personality there, which is more than you can say for most Bond’s.

    I don’t know if I like the new, modern, more hardbitten Bond. It makes sense for the future of the franchise, but it feels like something’s lost there. There was a certain playful absurdity to the oldschool Bond that I’ll miss.

    Roger Ebert’s formula for analyzing Bond movies is considerably more creative than anything I’ve seen in a Bond movie.

    P.S. Found your site for some of the technical examples you’ve posted. A big thanks for those. For the first time I feel like I understand the use of local/session storage and web workers and it’s mind-blowing the possibilities it opens up. Much appreciated.

  • Robert Nyman says:

    Aidian,

    Thanks for the comment! And yes, Roger Ebert can be great. 🙂
    Personally, I think Judi Dench is an excellent actress, but somehow this time around, I didn’t feel any connection to her whatsoever. And you might be right, that playful absurdity has gotten lost somewhere along the way.

    Also, thanks, glad you found some technical useful information!

  • I was really disappointed when I saw Skyfall. It wasn’t what I was expected 🙁 Previous versions was much, much better, I would say.

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