Movie Mondays: Didn't Fall For Skyfall

Disclaimer

I want to lead off by reminding everyone that when it comes to my opinions about movies, they're just that, opinions. Obviously each person has different taste, so please don't ever take it personally if I don't care for your favorite film or vice versa. The important thing with cinema is that it provides entertainment for you, and that's all that matters. With that, let's get to this week's review.

For my first ever Movie Monday, I'm tackling Skyfall (and I know I'll get a lot of heat for this, just be sure to read the disclaimer before attacking me) which I have seen twice in theatres. Before I begin, let me first provide you with a little bit of my personal background with James Bond as to highlight any personal biases which I might have:

Bond and me

I have been a James Bond fan as far back as I can remember. My dad has every Bond movie (including the non-cannon Never Say Never) on VHS (and originally Beta... ah, I miss Beta), and as a kid I would watch them all over and over again. My favorite "Bond" was always Sir Roger Moore because, to me, he did a great job of balancing the action and romance of the films with the comedy that made them witty. I understand some people don't care too much for him because they think his films were a bit over the top, but 'over the top' is something I always liked with Bond. To me, if you wanted to watch a straight up punch someone in the face, shoot their head off, spy-action thriller, then there are a million other movie series you could watch (Mission Impossible, the Bourne series, Die Hard, just to name a few). I always liked how Bond did such a good job of balancing action, hot women, crazy awesome gadgets, and comedy into a movie that truly allowed a person to suspend reality and forget the world as they went hand in hand on an awesome adventure.

Roger Moore to date is still my favorite Bond because to me he was able to balance the adventure and humor I love with the role.
 
The first Bond movie I actually saw in theatres was Tomorrow Never Dies, but this was after countless hours of playing GoldenEye at my cousins' houses of course. For the most part, I really liked the Brosnan films. My favorite Bond is still Moore with Connery just barely behind, but Brosnan is a solid third. Of course the only movie he majorly tanked in was Die Another Day... gosh that was a terrible film.


Like I said, I like over the top, but invisible cars and surfing a giant wave in the arctic on an electronic surfboard is just a little too much, even for me.

This brings me to the current Bond-incarnate, Daniel Craig. I'm not a fan. Now before some of you come for me with pitchforks, just remember my disclaimer: if you love him, that's fine, but to me Craig is just not Bond. People could argue night and day about Bond being blonde (and there is a right answer, he is not according to Mr. Flemming), but what is more important to me is that Daniel Craig's version of Bond has stripped away so much of what I loved about Bond to begin with: the crazy gadgets, the humor (it's all dry now), and the sophistication. In many respects, he reminds me more of a mobster than a spy-member of the aristocracy with a penchant for trouble and the finer things in life. So unsurprisingly, none of his films rank at the top of my Bond-list.

Now with my biases out of the way, let's take a look at the actual Skyfall movie:

Skyfall: The Good

1. The Villain (Acting)

 Something I REALLY liked about Skyfall, actually, probably the biggest thing I liked was the acting of Javier Bardem in playing the villain, Silva. While I do have some major issues with the character (see The Bad below), Bardem's acting alone instantly has made him one of my all-time favorite Bond villains. (For me he ranks right up there with Blofeld.) I felt like he truly captured the personality of a deranged, highly intelligent, ruthless psychopath, and I mean all of that as the highest complement. So many Bond villains find themselves either on the border of being too obnoxious or simply forgettable. It's a difficult line to tip toe, but Bardem did it perfectly.

2. The Cinematography

 There are some truly beautiful scenes captured in Skyfall and I'm not just talking about panoramas. I love the delicate way some scenes were filmed, most notably the one where Bond is shadowing the assassin inside a Chinese skyscraper at night. The use of glass, lighting, and color in that whole sequence is breathtaking. Even though there is little in terms of action, it's mostly suspense, it's easily my favorite part of the movie just for it's visual artistry. Other grandiose scenes include the Chinese casino and the yacht as it approaches Silva's island (lair?).

3. The Song

 This is a bit of a cop out, everyone loves the song. I don't have much to add other than to say that I'm really glad they returned to a "classy" sound and I hope that they use that more often in upcoming adventures. The song ranks in the top 7 or 8 for me for Bond songs all-time.

4. The Family History

 I've heard from several different people how much they liked learning more about Bond's history in Skyfall. I did too, though I think it's important to say that it's not like he's been a complete enigma throughout history. There actually has been a lot revealed in other films, including his family crest, family motto (The World is Not Enough), etc, etc. Still, it was nice seeing them delve into that realm again.

5. Nostalgia

 I'm not so much referring to the parts of the movie that seemed "forced" (see below), but rather the overall "feel" of the movie. There was an air of sophistication which the other Craig (and even later Brosnan) films lacked and which I greatly missed from the franchise.

6. Someone Dies

On the off chance you haven't seen the film yet, I won't say who, but if you have, you know who I'm referring to. I never liked that person in that role and I may have been the only person in the entire theatre that smiled when they died. The next person up for the role looks to have promise.

Skyfall: The Bad

1. The Villain (Background)

 Now what I'm referring to here is not the acting (see above) but rather the lack of character development. While the film goes to great lengths to build up the motivation of Silva in seeking revenge, it does almost nothing whatsoever to develop him as a person.

2. The Plot

 I'm not going to go too much into the plot (just like the film, zing!) but I will say that I found the whole premise of trying to kill M a bit of a weak plot for an entire 2.5 hour movie. I mean, seriously, if all Silva wanted to do was to kill M, why not just blow her up in her office early on? Why all the crazy elaborate schemes? It's almost like he wanted to fail... I've heard people make the argument: "Well he wanted to kill her in a personal way, sadistic way." To that I say, why did he distinctly try to outright shoot her in the middle of the proceedings then? Really, there is no explanation.

3. Unexplained and Unresolved Issues

 Every movie has it's plot loopholes and unresolved issues, and I'm ok with accepting those, but Skyfall has so BLASTED many of them, it gets truly annoying and distracting. There is such a huge number of these, I'll just list the biggest ones I noticed:

1. Who did the assassin shoot from the building? Why did Silva want him dead? What was the role of the girl in having him killed? Why the painting? Why couldn't they just shoot him INSIDE the room instead of from one building to the other since everyone in the room obviously knew it was happening (except the guy that got shot).

2. Why did Silva provide MI6 (and Bond) with a map of the underground tunnel system when he escaped? It obviously didn't help Silva at all since he was running around on his own. Why encode that into the virus? On top of that, how did Bond magically appear on this map allowing Q to track his location?

3. Why does the Chinese island-city look like it's been abandoned for 50 years?

4. What happened to the list of names of undercover operatives? Maybe I'm missing something, but wasn't the entire original mission (besides the side mission of rescuing M) to re-acquire the list? I understand Silva is defeated, but never once do they ever mention what happened to the list. I guess they just forgot...

4. The Bond Girl?

The Bond girl for Skyfall was Severine. (I had to do a web search just to remember the name.) Moneypenny is NOT a Bond girl. Let me reiterate that, Moneypenny, while a recurrent character in the films (just like Q and M) is NOT a Bond girl. She never sleeps with Bond, that is the whole point (and inside joke) of the role. To say she is the Bond girl in Skyfall would be forcing her to be the Bond girl in practically every movie she appears in (which is all of them minus the prior two Craig films). So once again, that leaves us with Severine. The second time I saw the movie in theatres, I made it a point to time her longevity in the film. In real time, the time between her appearance in the movie and her prompt exit is... 25 minutes. That's right, 25 minutes of a 143 minute long film. If you count how long she's actually on screen, it's more like 6 minutes. I'm sorry, but her lack of screen time and complete and utter irrelevance to the movie itself is mind blowing. Honestly, they would have done better just to not even attempt to have a Bond girl for sake of better plot development.

5. The "Gadgets"

 Not every Bond movie has to have super fancy gadgets. One of my favorites all time, From Russia With Love, has the incredibly high-tech gadgets of a watch with a metal wire to strangle someone with and a suitcase with a hidden storage compartment. Ooooooooo! But in all seriousness, we're now entering our third Craig-Bond film which has lacked any sort of cool gadget whatsoever, and the best they can give us is a personal-use gun (that is used once) and a radio transmitter... I'm calling lame on this one.

6. Forced References

The final major issue I have with Skyfall is its attempt at forcing nostalgic Bond references into the script without any regard whatsoever as to whether they make sense. Case in point, as Bond is about to leave Q after receiving his super high tech accessories (a gun and a mini radio transmitter), Q pauses and then tells him to "Please bring back ALL the equipment in once piece." First off, what's this ALL? Q just gave him a gun and a radio, that's it. Secondly, how do you even break a gun? I mean, I know you can, but into pieces? It's almost like you have to try to do that... and on top of that, who really cares if he does break it? Surely losing a lame gun and a radio isn't going to damage anyone's pockets... That's just one example, but whether it's referencing "For her (Your) Eyes Only" or a couple of other things, I felt like they just tried too hard at some points and they made it feel like they were trying to sell the movie on the series past... and not it's future.

-JT