Skyfall (spoilers)

For what it's worth Lamer, I felt the same way when I walked out of it initially, but it's grown on me a lot re-watching it on Blu-ray and watching the special features, and I think it's pretty awesome now.

The plotting is sloppier than Casino Royale, no question, but Skyfall has such a striking aesthetic and cinematic pulse driving it. I love the idea of Bond having to return home and face his past, and the ending setpiece is like something out of a Western. The movie just feels incredibly confident throughout, and each individual section is so well executed, that plot specifics don't bother me as much.

Like, yes, Bond's plan isn't necessarily the smartest (although it could be argued, pretty confidently as Zarban has pointed out, that they can't really trust anyone at MI-6, hence the going it completely alone. If MI-6 was hiding in the bushes somewhere to come save the day, Silva would find some way to exploit that), but the more important thing to me is how well it works cinematically and thematically. It's cool how it ends with Bond and his Mother and Father figures having to defend his home from this outside force, who is basically the dark version of Bond. I dunno, for me if you end up saying "It's a great movie but not a good bond movie" , that's in no way a negative, it's still a great movie, no need to pigeon-hole it.

Ya you can argue plot nitpicks, but everything about it aesthetically as well as camera placement and editing, is outstanding.

QOS....if you think that movie makes more sense story-wise...I dunno, I honestly remember so little about it that I'm in no position to argue the point. It felt mostly like a total mess at the time, not standing on its own as a good bond story, and failing miserably as an epilogue to Casino Royale by having bond get side-tracked into some stupid water economics storyline instead of chasing the people responsible for Vesper's death.

And it's practically a war-crime against action staging and geography, so there's that. I don't HATE that one, but it's really weak.

Every character is dumber and instead of letting Daniel Craig do his own thing with the character they forced 50 years worth of history on him. Watch the Casino parkour chase when Bond enters the embassy. He's like a human weapon in there. Goes in, gets the guy, shoots his way through the building and escapes without missing a beat. All with laser focus and military precision. Now in Skyfall they have him make funny faces in the middle of a fight just because he's seen a big lizard. It's not something this Bond should be doing.

Then you have all the references to the old films which are wrong and pointless. The scene where M and Bond talk about ejector seats feel like a skit from the MTV Movie Awards with Judi Dench as the host. This shouldn't be in this movie. Bond shouldn't have the gadget filled Aston and Q shouldn't be a smug asshole about explodng pens. If anything Skyfall has a vibe of a very very high budget fanfilm made by someone who didn't really like the character established in the first film. It goes out of its way to push us back into the 60's as much as possible and it doesn't work.

EDIT:
Also Craig looks stupid with the Walther PPK. He's a big guy and the gun looks like a little toy in his hands. I know it's canon but come on...

Last edited by Lamer (2013-02-20 00:49:35)

Yeah, they introduced it and did nothing with it. Makes me wonder if they'll pick up that thread going forward, or if they're going to use brand new villains. The next 2 movies are said to be closely tied together, so perhaps they do something where bond has to take Quantum down over 2 movies, bringing things full circle to Casino Royale.

Last edited by bullet3 (2013-02-20 06:07:10)