Bond 23 - SKYFALL - November 2012

[U2girl]

Saw it today. Thankfully much better than the one dimensional Quantum and a lot closer in tone to Casino Royale, just a little less engaging. Was curious to see if they'd reveal the whereabouts of M White after Quantum...

Another reboot, or rather, this is a more typical Bond movie with winks to the series, and introduces the old characters of Q (a little odd to see a young Q...did John Cleese not want to be in this one ?) and Moneypenny. And finally a good Bond villain again. The "two sons" story worked well. Superb visuals in the opening credits (and the best Bond song since Goldeneye) and especially the Shanghai neon light fight sequence. And then there's the cianide effect on Silva's face...

One of the best, but the "best Bond ever" hype doesn't hold water. A little slow paced until Silva's breakout in London, and a little too busy being nostalgic about being Bond. That said...Craig continues to own the role.

 

[Catman]

The only bit I disagree with is saying the film was "slow paced until Silva's breakout." One of the things I was worried about prior to seeing the movie was its' running time - the longest Bond film to date, I think? But yeah, I was actually surprised with how well-paced the movie was considering its' length.

Anyway, excellent movie -- can't wait to see it again!

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I believe that On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the longest Bond movie. Too lazy to look it up right now, though.

 

[powerhour24]

Well, again, he's very talented. I just fine him lacking in versatility, which isn't in itself a negative, except when I find so much of his work merely serviceable artistically while being that kind of Hollywood attractive. His work with the Coens is definitely some of his most stimulating, but even some of the time not very interesting. Jesse James I find a bit affected, eh. Just not really a fan of that film in general.

Savides popped into my head just because they're somewhat contemporaries and he's been on my mind lately, RIP. But he was a continually explorative and challenging DP, his work with Van Sant varied and wonderfully textural, always evocative. Then his work with Fincher in a different register, same with Coppola and Baumbach from that and so on. Not to make it all about versatility, in general he's more of an artist to me, whereas Deakins is a measured expert journeyman.

I do have his digital work really stimulating so far though and he's a great interviewee.

Thanks for this, I know I asked about it weeks ago & disappeared. I don't disagree, I guess that outside of his work with Fincher I haven't seen many of Savides' films multiple times, just once close to their release & they didn't stick with me as much. That said, Zodiac was the first all-digital film that really challenged the dominance of film for me, so he certainly has that in his favor.

 

[Catman]

I believe that On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the longest Bond movie. Too lazy to look it up right now, though.

lol, just checked IMDB... OHMSS: 142 minutes; Skyfall: 143 minutes

 

[the tourist]

lol, just checked IMDB... OHMSS: 142 minutes; Skyfall: 143 minutes

Annnnnnnd Casino Royale: 144 minutes.

 

[lazarus]

BOOM.

 

[cobl04]

I once played Goldeneye for 145 minutes so fuck y'all

 

[powerhour24]

 

[deep]

no one is disputing that Skyfall has length
where it is lacking, is girth.

 

[AchtungBono]

I could listen to the song all day long.........FANTASTIC!


Adele - Skyfall (Lyric Video) - YouTube

 

[monkeyskin]

Better than QoS, but I prefer Casino Royale for the Craig films. Really enjoyed it though, with the only major being Eve. As the audience, we have reason to dislike her from the start due to her shooting Bond, but she was well on my nerves before even that. Horrible character, wretched performance, gutted that she will presumably sticking around.

Very entertaining other than that. The action scenes barrel along and the final assault in Scotland felt very fresh for the series. Shanghai was gorgeous on screen and as Lance noted the silhouetted scrap in one take was a highlight. Bardem was great value, definitely a but Joker-ish as others have noted but more grounded with an actual motive / emotion. Not really a Bond girl to speak of, but with M getting more screentime there wasnt much room after whatshername got shot.

It's also great whenever we get some more insight to Bond as a person. Keep a lot as mystery for sure, but the small insights we got here go a long way. I did find it odd how after only gaining his double-0 status two films ago he's now considered antiquated. Not like they can go back to his younger years now either, they're stuck with an older Bond for as long as they have Craig.

So yeah, a triumphant return after the initial production issues. I'm sure the obscene product placement throughout helped meet the budget. Looking forward to the next one, which I hear will be the first of a two parter.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Saw it on Saturday. They've really gone unorthodox, but did it well.

 

[Lancemc]

Unorthodox? The entire film was about becoming more orthodox.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Unorthodox? The entire film was about becoming more orthodox.

They established a completely linear track (something the Bond franchise has really not done). They flushed away every pre-Casino Royale film with this one. They had a lot of serious, personal drama. That's another thing you never see in a James Bond film.

They had James Bond doing a lot of non-James Bond things.

More importantly, involving M... highly uncharacteristic of any James Bond film to develop it like that.

 

[U2girl]

The question is how they intend to mix the more serious, Bourne-inspired stripped down/reinvention secret agent movie tone of Craig Bonds with, no doubt, follow up Bond movies with plenty of Q toys.

 

[Lancemc]

I'll give you the M material even though

Spoiler

The very end of the film set up the series to return to extremely familiar territory with the male M and Moneypenny in a nearly identical looking office and so forth from the early films

Not to mention the entire theme of this film had to do with the vitality (or questioned lack-thereof) and relevance of the "old ways" restated with each umpteenth wink and nod back to the old films. The whole thing invariably boiled down to a return (part way) to more traditional Bond thinking. If anything the last two Craig films had more "serious drama" than this one, and a more thorough break from tradition in the Bond personality.

Like, a lot a lot more.

 

[powerhour24]

Better than QoS, but I prefer Casino Royale for the Craig films. Really enjoyed it though, with the only major being Eve. As the audience, we have reason to dislike her from the start due to her shooting Bond, but she was well on my nerves before even that. Horrible character, wretched performance, gutted that she will presumably sticking around.

I stopped reading after this, Naomie Harris is fantastic as I've been saying for the past 10 years.

 

[powerhour24]

They established a completely linear track (something the Bond franchise has really not done). They flushed away every pre-Casino Royale film with this one. They had a lot of serious, personal drama. That's another thing you never see in a James Bond film.

They had James Bond doing a lot of non-James Bond things.

More importantly, involving M... highly uncharacteristic of any James Bond film to develop it like that.

Um, all the Craig films have been like that (which is what makes them more interesting beyond just the niche kitsch entertainment value the old ones had), if anything this is the one that hews closest to the old Bond era, especially given how it's folded neatly together by the end & hits some missing hallmarks beat by beat in its final few minutes.

 

[monkeyskin]

I stopped reading after this, Naomie Harris is fantastic as I've been saying for the past 10 years.

I liked her well enough in 28 Days Later, but she was crap in this. It's probably more to do with her character doing nothing but deliver quips and retorts, but I still feel Harris came off badly in the role. Maybe it will work better in a short scene with her and Bond outside M's office going forward. Constantly cutting back to her during the opening and that awful dialogue exchange in Macau was terrible though.

Feel free to go back and finish the rest of my post sometime, doesn't mention her again.

Also, M had a larger than normal role in TWINE, right? Getting kidnapped by an old acquaintance or something.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Um, all the Craig films have been like that (which is what makes them more interesting beyond just the niche kitsch entertainment value the old ones had), if anything this is the one that hews closest to the old Bond era, especially given how it's folded neatly together by the end & hits some missing hallmarks beat by beat in its final few minutes.

Both QoS and Skyfall have been very unorthodox. They don't follow the same Bond story arc that most Bond movies follow. Casino Royale absolutely does.

The Craig series is a reboot though. There's a reason that they've gone off the charts a bit. They still paid a ton of homage to the previous films and had what is essential of James Bond in a lot of it, but that's not to say this is by any means a typical Bond film.

 

[powerhour24]

Well QoS hardly counts on the traditional story arc but, in all actuality it's the final act of CR.

 

[Saracene]

Finally got around to watching it tonight. My overall feeling is the same way I feel about Adele's theme song - good, with all the right elements seemingly in place, but just not as engaging as I'd wish and somehow missing the spark. There was still heaps to enjoy; like most people mentioned it looks gorgeous, Daniel Craig is still awesome (and dead sexy!) as Bond; very good performances from most of the cast particularly Bardem, whose wonderfully creepy Silva is probably the first truly memorable villain of Craig's films. Just overall the film didn't quite grip me. Apart from the opening sequence none of the action scenes really stuck in my mind, and they may have tried to do something new with that final showdown in Scotland but it just struck me as, I don't know, too dowdy for a James Bond film. And the whole old/new theme was about as subtle as a sledgehammer.