Skyfall [James Bond]

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Kizoku Keenan

Great send off.

Send off?

I'm sure that James Bond will be back with Daniel Craig. They're shooting the next Bond film right now.

[Vegard Aune]

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Send off?

I'm sure that James Bond will be back with Daniel Craig. They're shooting the next Bond film right now.

Not for Craig's Bond, it was a send-off for...

Spoiler for MAJOR SPOILERS:

Judi Dench's M.

So I went to see this movie a few days ago... I loved it. It had enough classic Bond-elements to feel like a James Bond movie, yet it didn't stick so close to the formula that it just felt like them remaking Goldfinger for the 15th time either. I like how Daniel Craig's movies have given Bond a bit more depth and made him a little more than just a suave badass secret agent who gets laid a lot. That said though, I do have one pretty big nitpick about the movie...

Spoiler for This relates to the beginning of the film so it's not really a HUGE spoiler, but still...:

Okay, so Bond got shot in the chest. Then he fell off a moving train on top of a bridge and fell over a hundred feet. Then his unconscious body floated off a waterfall. How was he not dead after all that?! Any one of those things could easily have killed him, (heck, I dare say a fall like that would kill anyone) and while of course any viewer knows that he isn't actually dead, the movie never even tries to justify it. No "How did you survive that?!", nor even so much as a shot of him washing ashore and waking up or anything. They just show his very fatal-looking non-death, cut to the opening credits, skip ahead a few months, show what's going on at MI6 and then suddenly we cut to Bond in a bar somewhere, and it's played up so casually that it's like... then why did you even go all "OH NO BOND IS DEAD!!!" to begin with, if you're just going to casually go "Oh yeah, he's not actually dead. Oh don't act so surprised," ten minutes later?

[Kizoku Keenan]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

Not for Craig's Bond, it was a send-off for...

Spoiler for MAJOR SPOILERS:

Judi Dench's M.

So I went to see this movie a few days ago... I loved it. It had enough classic Bond-elements to feel like a James Bond movie, yet it didn't stick so close to the formula that it just felt like them remaking Goldfinger for the 15th time either. I like how Daniel Craig's movies have given Bond a bit more depth and made him a little more than just a suave badass secret agent who gets laid a lot. That said though, I do have one pretty big nitpick about the movie...

Spoiler for This relates to the beginning of the film so it's not really a HUGE spoiler, but still...:

Okay, so Bond got shot in the chest. Then he fell off a moving train on top of a bridge and fell over a hundred feet. Then his unconscious body floated off a waterfall. How was he not dead after all that?! Any one of those things could easily have killed him, (heck, I dare say a fall like that would kill anyone) and while of course any viewer knows that he isn't actually dead, the movie never even tries to justify it. No "How did you survive that?!", nor even so much as a shot of him washing ashore and waking up or anything. They just show his very fatal-looking non-death, cut to the opening credits, skip ahead a few months, show what's going on at MI6 and then suddenly we cut to Bond in a bar somewhere, and it's played up so casually that it's like... then why did you even go all "OH NO BOND IS DEAD!!!" to begin with, if you're just going to casually go "Oh yeah, he's not actually dead. Oh don't act so surprised," ten minutes later?

In response to your second bit of spoiler I will answer simply by saying HE'S BOND...JAMES BOND!

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

Not for Craig's Bond, it was a send-off for...

Spoiler for MAJOR SPOILERS:

Judi Dench's M.

Ah, I understand. I assume it was Craig's Bond since Kizoku Keenan said "main character". Also,

Spoiler for Character:

M is a supporting character, right?

[GDB]

Great movie. One of my favorite Bond flicks. Definitely restores my faith in Sony's ability to produce them after the crap that was Quantum of Solace.

[KiraYamatoFan]

I kinda expected

Spoiler:

that M (Judi Dench) would die.

However, I didn't expect Mr. Mallory to be the next M. I expected someone who's somewhat a little older for this job.

Now that we have Q and Miss Moneypenny reintroduced, it's safe to assume we'll have a more stable cast for some time among the MI-6 people.

Great movie anyway. It earns a spot at the top of all Bond movies.

[speedyexpress48]

Wanted to see it...but damn, did that sell out fast.

[Xion Valkyrie]

Just seen it. The villain was great, definitely one of the most memorable Bond villains. The first 30% and last 30% of the film were excellent. I had some problems with the middle section of the film though:

Spoiler:

The hacking scene kind of ruined a bit of the movie for me. It's such a movie cliche by now that villains will hack your system once you try to decrypt it. I think they could have made this part a bit more believable and a bit more ingenious on Silva's part.

The subway chase scene seems unnecessary, when Silva got his policeman outfit, he should have just went with his goons into the car, there really wasn't any reason to continue through on the subway unless he was planning to trap Bond underground. If so, then that should have been emphasized a bit more making it seem like Silva planned to have Bond follow him to that point and the area where the subway crashed through was supposed to be Bond's grave.

The scene where Silva bursts into the hearing and tries to kill M doesn't seem to fit very well. It seemed like his plan to kill M would not have been very successful even if Bond did not arrive, as there were just too many people there (Mallory even protected M from a shot) and Silva only had 2 goons. It'd have made a more significant scene if Silva used MI6's compromised computers to completely take over the building, and have an entire squad of Men take over the hearing and put on some grand show to execute M in front of the other committee members. It'd have seemed to fit his personality more if M's end was more grand, rather than a quick gunshot death.

Finally, the idea to go to Skyfall to lure Silva out was good, but they were missing some of the setup. They needed to emphasize how Silva's mastery of the electronic world made him impossible to fight with conventional means, and thus they will go to Skyfall where he can't use those advantages. They also need to explain why Bond and M don't call for backup as soon as Silva shows by explaining how Silva will know as soon as any kind of backup is alerted and will just return to the shadows to bide his time for his next chance, so they have to do it completely alone in order to finish things.

[james0246]

Quite an exciting and wonderfully shot film (which is quite glorious on IMAX). Well paced with some very good direction throughout, Skyfall is a far more traditional Bond film (far more similar to a Moore or later Brosnan or Connery Bond than the Dalton Bond that Craig's first two films were inspired by), which is both good and bad. Now that the full prologue for the update is over, the producers can go on to explore (or re-explore) the tried and true Bond cliches and tropes.

A lot has been said over Javier Bardem's amazing and fun appearance as the villain Silva, so I'll skip ahead (p.s. I've developed a slight crush on Ben Whishaw after seeing him concurrently in Cloud Atlas and now Skyfall ).

This film went above and beyond in its development and support of its various female characters. Judi Dench's M has finally become a three dimensional character, pushing past her limited appearances in previous films, and becoming a fully fleshed out individual. Dench truly sinks her teeth into these new layers to her character and she has a lot of fun slowly expanding the character. Meanwhile, Naomie Harris has a star turning role as Eve. Beyond her sheer physical beauty, Harris absolutely steals every scene she is in and help elevates Craig's Bond to levels only seen back in the days of Sean Connery (in many respects, the entire film is about making Craig into Connery). And finally, Bérénice Lim Marlohe delivers a very subtle performance as Severine, a tragic character is Bardem's plot for revenge. (Special shout out to character actor Helen McCrory who makes a small but pivotal appearance as one of the ministers in charge of the inquiry over M.)

That being said, the technical aspects of this film were quite wonderful. Great sound, superb location shooting (from the sets of Shanghai to Macau to Hogwarts, every place was beautiful), very good cinematography, very good editing and some decent scoring all help to make this a greatly entertaining film going experience. There are, though, structural and plot problems (it's unclear why Severine was involved in an assassination, the entire escape sequence makes little sense, and various other moments were not explained clearly enough), but nothing to bothersome. While it will not supplant Casino Royale, From Russia With Love, or the Dalton picture on my Best of Bond list, it is still easily in the Top 10. 82/100.

[GDB]

Originally Posted by james0246

A lot has been said over Javier Bardem's amazing and fun appearance as the villain Silvia

Silva, not Silvia. I remember, because I kept thinking they were calling him "Silver".

[willx]

So excited! I'll be seeing this in less than an hour!

So having seen Skyfall now, I have to admit that it was enjoyable and brought back many things that were great about the original Bond films. That being said, I have a number of criticisms about the film, the script, the plot, the action sequences as well as some of the characterizations .. that after some thought force me to lower my score. I give the film overall (with some trepidation) a 7.5 / 10, but not without reservations -- closer to 7 than an 8. It will be a Bond film that I enjoy, but I rate it below many of the classic films, as well as below Goldeneye and Casino Royal.

The highlights of the film are definitely 1) Javier Bardem's amazing portrayal of a truly twisted genius evil villain, albeit with a rather shallow motivation, and 2) the throwback to the Connery-era take on James Bond being simply a man with a gun.. A very dangerous man with a gun. Some weak points I would say would be the plot (which I felt was partially forced due to casting/personnel decisions), some of the dialogue I thought particularly weak and other minor quibbles that jarred me out of my suspension of disbelief. So ultimately I feel mixed.

Revised: Outcome is hazy

[HasuMasu]

Originally Posted by GDB

Silva, not Silvia. I remember, because I kept thinking they were calling him "Silver".

I didn't know it wasn't Silver until I looked at this thread after watching it.

[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Hasumi

I didn't know it wasn't Silver until I looked at this thread after watching it.

Just a quick browse of critics' reviews will show that Javier's character's name is Silva .

[drulo]

Originally Posted by Hasumi

I didn't know it wasn't Silver until I looked at this thread after watching it.

I thought it was silver too

Originally Posted by Obelisk ze Tormentor

Just a quick browse of critics' reviews will show that Javier's character's name is Silva .

I dont really read any critic's reviews so yeah

[SoldierOfDarkness]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

Not for Craig's Bond, it was a send-off for...

Spoiler for MAJOR SPOILERS:

Judi Dench's M.

It was expected actually

Spoiler:

from what I heard, Judi's health is deterioating so it was going to be sooner than later

So I went to see this movie a few days ago... I loved it. It had enough classic Bond-elements to feel like a James Bond movie, yet it didn't stick so close to the formula that it just felt like them remaking Goldfinger for the 15th time either. I like how Daniel Craig's movies have given Bond a bit more depth and made him a little more than just a suave badass secret agent who gets laid a lot. That said though, I do have one pretty big nitpick about the movie...

This Bond film differs from the previous ones in that it was a lot more personal.

But it does go back into its James Bonds roots, especially with Adele's skyfall song, it definetly felt like a Bond song.

Spoiler for This relates to the beginning of the film so it's not really a HUGE spoiler, but still...:

Okay, so Bond got shot in the chest. Then he fell off a moving train on top of a bridge and fell over a hundred feet. Then his unconscious body floated off a waterfall. How was he not dead after all that?! Any one of those things could easily have killed him, (heck, I dare say a fall like that would kill anyone) and while of course any viewer knows that he isn't actually dead, the movie never even tries to justify it. No "How did you survive that?!", nor even so much as a shot of him washing ashore and waking up or anything. They just show his very fatal-looking non-death, cut to the opening credits, skip ahead a few months, show what's going on at MI6 and then suddenly we cut to Bond in a bar somewhere, and it's played up so casually that it's like... then why did you even go all "OH NO BOND IS DEAD!!!" to begin with, if you're just going to casually go "Oh yeah, he's not actually dead. Oh don't act so surprised," ten minutes later?

Dude,

Spoiler:

apparently you missed the part during the opening song where we see a giant hand come up and pull him in...obviously some big fella came in and saved him

[JagdPanther]

I am undoubtedly colored by the fact that I am an unapologetic Connery lover... so it shouldn't really come as a surprise that I thought the film was kinda "meh."

The appearance of

Spoiler for something:

the Aston-Martin DB5

saved the film for me.

I give it a B-. I never looked at my watch, but I could feel it dragging more than necessary.

Originally Posted by KiraYamatoFan

I kinda expected

Spoiler:

However, I didn't expect Mr. Mallory to be the next M. I expected someone who's somewhat a little older for this job.

I thought that...

Spoiler:

it was pretty obviously that Mallory would be the next M. The script made a point to highlight his experience. He saves M at the hearing. He is fully complicit with the laying of the "bread crumbs." His last name starts with "M."

[Endless Soul]

I got a chance to see this tonight (free tickets FTW!) and I really enjoyed it. It really had elements of the classic Bond films, but also had a lot of dialogue and back story, including a fair bit of Bond's past at Skyfall. I thought the scene in Shanghai where Bond confronts Patrice was interesting, mainly because of the visuals, especially with the silhouette of the both of them fighting with a moving digital jellyfish behind them.

Endless "But why is the Aston-Martin gone?" Soul

[Lost Cause]

Originally Posted by Vegard Aune

Not for Craig's Bond, it was a send-off for...

Spoiler for MAJOR SPOILERS:

Judi Dench's M.

So I went to see this movie a few days ago... I loved it. It had enough classic Bond-elements to feel like a James Bond movie, yet it didn't stick so close to the formula that it just felt like them remaking Goldfinger for the 15th time either. I like how Daniel Craig's movies have given Bond a bit more depth and made him a little more than just a suave badass secret agent who gets laid a lot. That said though, I do have one pretty big nitpick about the movie...

Spoiler for This relates to the beginning of the film so it's not really a HUGE spoiler, but still...:

Okay, so Bond got shot in the chest. Then he fell off a moving train on top of a bridge and fell over a hundred feet. Then his unconscious body floated off a waterfall. How was he not dead after all that?! Any one of those things could easily have killed him, (heck, I dare say a fall like that would kill anyone) and while of course any viewer knows that he isn't actually dead, the movie never even tries to justify it. No "How did you survive that?!", nor even so much as a shot of him washing ashore and waking up or anything. They just show his very fatal-looking non-death, cut to the opening credits, skip ahead a few months, show what's going on at MI6 and then suddenly we cut to Bond in a bar somewhere, and it's played up so casually that it's like... then why did you even go all "OH NO BOND IS DEAD!!!" to begin with, if you're just going to casually go "Oh yeah, he's not actually dead. Oh don't act so surprised," ten minutes later?

Go back to 'You Only Live Twice' they "killed" Bond there too. It was just to get certain parties off his back. Might have been the same here.