Skyfall - Spoiler Free Review

Movies

Entry posted by Nathan Strum November 18, 2012

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So here we go again. This time I'm sitting in a properly huge IMAX theater, waiting for the latest James Bond epic to begin. No lack of a crowd this time - being a rainy Saturday night in Burbank. The movie kicks off in about 20 minutes, and as usual I'll be back with a review after I get home.

Or maybe tomorrow.

Either way, see you after the show.

__________________

(15 hours later...)

So, is Skyfall the "Best Bond Ever"?

Well, no. That would be Goldfinger. But I'll get back to that.

Skyfall is, however, the second best Bond film. And it's pretty close to being the best.

Let's run down the list:

Awesome pre-credits sequence? Check.
Great title song? Check.
Great title sequence? Check.
Gadgets? Check.
Guns? Check.
Girls? Check!
Car chases? Check.
Action? Check.
Stunts? Check.
Humor? Check.
Adversary worthy of James Bond? Check.

And that last one is critical.

Too many Bond films fall flat because the villains just aren't enough of a threat. They either aren't interesting, or menacing, or on equal (or superior) footing with Bond.

The villain in this film is every bit Bond's equal, and then some. Plus he's got some classic Bond-film quirks that make him memorable - which is also very important. You have to enjoy the time the villain is onscreen. They have to be fun, in their own way, to watch. And they have to be credible. The Bond villain in this film makes sense within the current world. What he's after makes sense. His lair makes sense. It's not some giant orbiting platform or submersible city. He's not bent on some completely over-the-top world domination plot.

As for Bond, Daniel Craig is at his best here, and at times he evokes some of the past Bonds in his actions and mannerisms, yet he's made the character his own. Bond starts off having a bad day, and the repercussions affect him throughout the film. We get a closer, more personal look at Bond than we have in a very long time (possibly since On Her Majesty's Secret Service). We feel like we're connecting with the man, not just a character or a facade (I'm looking at you, Pierce Brosnan).

In some ways, Bond has a character arc here similar to Batman in The Dark Knight Rises. However, where that film did everything wrong, Skyfall does everything right. Bond's problems aren't solved in a montage of him doing sit-ups (he also doesn't waste several hours painting a giant bat on a bridge using gasoline in order to let the bad guy know he's coming :roll: ). There's a welcomed humanity brought to the character.

The story is a good one, too. While Bond films generally aren't known for their depth, this one does a good job at keeping enough things under wraps long enough so that you're not continually just waiting for the next inevitable thing to happen (although some things are telegraphed in advance, the payoffs are worth it). There's just enough complexity to keep you involved without getting in the way of the action, as opposed to, say, Octopussy, which is so convoluted I've never been able to figure out what's going on in that movie.

The action scenes are top-notch. Over-the-top, yet without the silliness of some previous Bond films. The opening chase scene is classic Bond. The fight scenes are all first-rate too, although they've yet to top the fight on the train in Thunderball. There's just a brutality to that which seems like it's two guys fighting for their lives, and they've never been able to recapture that. The fights still seem too choreographed, but they are really well choreographed, and fun to watch.

Perhaps because this is the 50th anniversary of the Bond films, there are a lot of nods to previous films. How many of those are intentional, or just the inevitable result of there being so many films that comparisons are unavoidable, I don't know. But there are scenes, elements, shots, gadgets, characters, and so forth that evoke moments in other Bond films. Yet I didn't find them obtrusive. After all, when you're watching a Bond film, you're always aware you're watching a Bond film. So some self-reference is to be expected.

If I had any complaint, it's that the film is pretty long, clocking in at nearly 2 1/2 hours. But it keeps moving at a brisk pace, and rarely lags. It didn't feel overly-long anyway.

The film also does a nice job of setting us up for future Bond films. It starts off questioning the very relevance of James Bond, and by the end not only are we assured of his necessity, but we're also reassured that the franchise is safe and has a solid future ahead of it (something that was not at all certain with the bankruptcy of MGM).

I thought Skyfall was awesome. It was a fun action film, but better still, it was a great Bond film. It hit all the right notes, and was well worth seeing on a big screen (even at $17.50!!! a ticket). Its an event, and that's what a Bond film should be. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Skyfall gets a 9/10. Go see it.

And now a short list of Bond's "Best and Worst":

Best Bond: Sean Connery. He defined the role, although his run had low points as well, such as the cringeworthy sequence in You Only Live Twice where he's made up as a Japanese peasant, and pretty-much all of Diamonds Are Forever, which shamelessly paved the way for the campy 70's Bond films.
Worst Bond: Timothy Dalton. He's just bland. He actually makes a better villain when he plays one. He's only marginally better than Pierce Brosnan, who always came across as a vapid pretty-boy. Even when Brosnan was dirtied-up, it never felt honest - just another layer of make-up.
Best film: Goldfinger. This has the definitive Bond villain, the definitive Bond henchman (Odd Job), and the best plot of any Bond film. It's not about world domination, or starting World War III - it's about throwing the world's economy into chaos through an act of nuclear terrorism (and with that, I'd like to welcome the Department of Homeland Security to my blog - hope you enjoy the read!). There is no massive lair, or ridiculous doomsday machine. The final set piece at Fort Knox serves the same visual purpose/plot device as a lair, but it makes far more sense than somebody hollowing out a volcano or building an entire nuclear power plant on a private island. Although the film looks dated now, the story and characters could effectively be transplanted intact into a modern movie.
Worst film: Octopussy. Some will put View To A Kill as the worst, but at least that film had Christopher Walken, who was fun to watch. Octopussy was an incomprehensible train-wreck. The plot involved stealing jewels for some reason, and a Soviet General trying to blow up a U.S. Army base in order to force the U.N. make the U.S. withdraw from Europe to umm... something... and then there was Maud Adams and her army of spandex-wearing circus acrobats... and James Bond in a clown suit... and a hot air balloon... and... uh... yeah. So... Octopussy. Worst Bond film ever.
Best theme song: Live And Let Die. It rocks. It has french horn power chords. 'Nuff said.
Worst theme song: Tomorrow Never Dies. While Madonna's Die Another Day is a terrible, unlistenable mess, Tomorrow Never Dies takes the prize because of Sheryl Crow's nasally voice. While her singing may be suitable for her pseudo-country-barroom folk ditties, it just doesn't suit a Bond film at all. She set the bar so low that Madonna cleared it, for crying out loud. They need to get great singers for their theme songs. Ann Wilson (Heart) or Annie Lennox would be awesome. Adele was an excellent choice for Skyfall. Tomorrow Never Dies also loses out for another reason - it's a stupid title. The original title was supposed to be Tomorrow Never Lies, which would have fit in with the theme of the movie, where a media mogul manipulates events in order to... uh... sell newspapers. The newspaper was named "Tomorrow". Right. Great plot there. Anyway, there was a typo in a fax to MGM which led to the film being renamed. So there you go. Worst Bond theme ever.