My Belated Thoughts on SkyFall
Loeffelholz
The United States, With LovePosts: 8,988Quartermasters
I have suddenly realized that I never did post a SF review back in ’12 when it came out, as my life was in a great state of flux at the time. Now that I’m finally back, and so many things have been sorted (including the 100% ownership of Oscar Jade, the protagonist of my still-fledgling 1940s private detective series), and now that we’re suddenly leading into SF’s follow-up, I thought I might weigh in, with the permission of my friends in power…
For me, SkyFall represents the true maturation of Craig’s Bond---following the two-picture introductory reboot arc of CR and the oft-maligned QoS (see my DVD review of Quantum, “A Bullet Fired From a Gun,” under AJB’s ‘Articles’ tab!)…and it’s not surprising that it polarizes. The Craig Era goes into film #3, once again, without a gunbarrel in the beginning, but teases it with a musical cue, and in the way Craig approaches the camera as we begin, backlit by an open door to outside. The message: We’re not really done introducing this Bond yet. The opening sequence is of course a sprawling thriller across the rooftops of Istanbul and onto a train at speed, with Bond being shot(!) and still managing a debonair cuff adjustment at just the right moment---signaling that our man, undeterred, is finally ready to step into his rightful place in legend. It’s a true ‘Bond moment’ for Craig.
And there are a lot of Bond moments here: Craig drinking a shot with a scorpion on his hand, hanging from the bottom of the elevator and his remark about the circle of life at the casino all bespeak a Bond in full-stride.
Of course, Dame Judi is once again at the forefront of things, as we all might expect a world-class Academy Award-winning actress to be, and it’s her call for the field operative who’d accompanied Bond to “Take the bloody shot!” that accidentally takes 007 out of the picture for the time being; presumed dead so that Adele can serenade us through Danny Kleinman’s able-as-always titles. Plot-wise, it can certainly be argued that the whole notion of M’s past dealings coming back to haunt her and MI6 is a retread from TWINE’s backstory with Electra King’s father, and even prior to SF I had long grown weary of Dame Judi’s ubiquitous presence in the field (in TWINE and every film since, actually), as though an agent of the 00 Section needs a babysitter whilst abroad
…which is why I was possibly one of the first on these boards to outwardly call for the death of this particular M---certainly before the script for SF was written. All of that being said, this particular story redeems itself somewhat in that it gives her a satisfactory exit, much along the lines of what I’d been hoping for…
(One can only hope that Ralph Fiennes’ M will stay at home a bit more, but here again we have an award winner here, so my guess is that M showing up in every back alley in Tangier, or every cave in Kashmir, is now the new normal.)
The villain of the piece, Silva, is as creepy and loathsome as anyone Bond has ever run up against---and when he finally shows up at the exact mid-point of the film, his opening monologue, capped as it was with a dash of homoeroticism, set the table nicely even though his goal of merely getting revenge on M by arranging the deaths of intelligence agents is a bit pedestrian. Still, Javier Bardem chews the scenery with an enjoyable panache and is great fun to watch. Never mind the bogus non-lethal(??) effect of cyanide; that scene gets over on the power of revulsion. It’s interesting that all three of Craig’s foils thus far have had a definite slime factor: Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene and Silva all come off like they were hatched by reptilian egg. Still, in my opinion Silva was a strong and interesting villain, and he seems to be enjoying himself here.
The women are beautiful, if IMO a bit under-utilized. Eve Moneypenny’s reveal was nicely played, but Berenice Marlohe is criminally short-shrifted in terms of screen time. Still, her scene in the casino with Bond is a brilliant bit of acting and dialogue, and her deeply frightened femme fatale is a richly interesting one. And of course she’s stunning :x
The action was top-notch, naturally. A favourite moment of mine is the final fight with Patrice, in silhouette, against the ‘Blade-Runner’-ish neon advertising. The film simply looks beautiful, from the skyline and highways of Shanghai at night to the arrival at the casino via water in Macau, to the desolate highlands of Scotland…and so Sam Mendes and his DP Roger Deakins both deserve kudos on a film well-shot…and after the frantic pace of and staccato editing of QoS, it’s nice to see some moments be allowed to breathe, and for dramatic beats to play out before moving along.
There are of course, issues with the story; but the bold, naked illogic of running off to Bond’s ancestral home in the middle of Scotland for the finale is outweighed---for me, at least---by the sheer drama of the confrontation, even though I’d have expected Bond to at least have a few more weapons stored in the boot of his DB5, for the love of God! But it all works adequately, and SkyFall’s destruction is truly spectacular.
As I’ve remarked elsewhere on these boards, it seems as if Daniel Craig’s function, starting from the reboot in CR, is to serve as the ‘Backstory Bond’ via which we are intended to understand Our Hero’s motivations as he works through the issues of his past, and clearly SPECTRE will take us further along that path. It’s going to be quite a tall challenge for whoever succeeds Craig in the role, when Bond’s history has been laid out and the missions, by default, become more conventional than they have been thus far in the current tenure, which will likely bring the franchise full-circle back to the Precious Classic FormulaTM, which has been shaken up considerably since 2006. If Craig indeed sticks around for #25 as it appears he might, it will be interesting to see what new skeleton they will manage to pluck from his closet. Still, he’s certainly the best James Bond since Connery boarded that ocean-liner with Tiffany Case in DAF and the credits rolled…
All in all, I put SF in my top ten Bond---perhaps top five, depending on my mood. Thanks for indulging me. Cheers! -{
For me, SkyFall represents the true maturation of Craig’s Bond---following the two-picture introductory reboot arc of CR and the oft-maligned QoS (see my DVD review of Quantum, “A Bullet Fired From a Gun,” under AJB’s ‘Articles’ tab!)…and it’s not surprising that it polarizes. The Craig Era goes into film #3, once again, without a gunbarrel in the beginning, but teases it with a musical cue, and in the way Craig approaches the camera as we begin, backlit by an open door to outside. The message: We’re not really done introducing this Bond yet. The opening sequence is of course a sprawling thriller across the rooftops of Istanbul and onto a train at speed, with Bond being shot(!) and still managing a debonair cuff adjustment at just the right moment---signaling that our man, undeterred, is finally ready to step into his rightful place in legend. It’s a true ‘Bond moment’ for Craig.
And there are a lot of Bond moments here: Craig drinking a shot with a scorpion on his hand, hanging from the bottom of the elevator and his remark about the circle of life at the casino all bespeak a Bond in full-stride.
Of course, Dame Judi is once again at the forefront of things, as we all might expect a world-class Academy Award-winning actress to be, and it’s her call for the field operative who’d accompanied Bond to “Take the bloody shot!” that accidentally takes 007 out of the picture for the time being; presumed dead so that Adele can serenade us through Danny Kleinman’s able-as-always titles. Plot-wise, it can certainly be argued that the whole notion of M’s past dealings coming back to haunt her and MI6 is a retread from TWINE’s backstory with Electra King’s father, and even prior to SF I had long grown weary of Dame Judi’s ubiquitous presence in the field (in TWINE and every film since, actually), as though an agent of the 00 Section needs a babysitter whilst abroad
…which is why I was possibly one of the first on these boards to outwardly call for the death of this particular M---certainly before the script for SF was written. All of that being said, this particular story redeems itself somewhat in that it gives her a satisfactory exit, much along the lines of what I’d been hoping for…(One can only hope that Ralph Fiennes’ M will stay at home a bit more, but here again we have an award winner here, so my guess is that M showing up in every back alley in Tangier, or every cave in Kashmir, is now the new normal.)
The villain of the piece, Silva, is as creepy and loathsome as anyone Bond has ever run up against---and when he finally shows up at the exact mid-point of the film, his opening monologue, capped as it was with a dash of homoeroticism, set the table nicely even though his goal of merely getting revenge on M by arranging the deaths of intelligence agents is a bit pedestrian. Still, Javier Bardem chews the scenery with an enjoyable panache and is great fun to watch. Never mind the bogus non-lethal(??) effect of cyanide; that scene gets over on the power of revulsion. It’s interesting that all three of Craig’s foils thus far have had a definite slime factor: Le Chiffre, Dominic Greene and Silva all come off like they were hatched by reptilian egg. Still, in my opinion Silva was a strong and interesting villain, and he seems to be enjoying himself here.
The women are beautiful, if IMO a bit under-utilized. Eve Moneypenny’s reveal was nicely played, but Berenice Marlohe is criminally short-shrifted in terms of screen time. Still, her scene in the casino with Bond is a brilliant bit of acting and dialogue, and her deeply frightened femme fatale is a richly interesting one. And of course she’s stunning :x
The action was top-notch, naturally. A favourite moment of mine is the final fight with Patrice, in silhouette, against the ‘Blade-Runner’-ish neon advertising. The film simply looks beautiful, from the skyline and highways of Shanghai at night to the arrival at the casino via water in Macau, to the desolate highlands of Scotland…and so Sam Mendes and his DP Roger Deakins both deserve kudos on a film well-shot…and after the frantic pace of and staccato editing of QoS, it’s nice to see some moments be allowed to breathe, and for dramatic beats to play out before moving along.
There are of course, issues with the story; but the bold, naked illogic of running off to Bond’s ancestral home in the middle of Scotland for the finale is outweighed---for me, at least---by the sheer drama of the confrontation, even though I’d have expected Bond to at least have a few more weapons stored in the boot of his DB5, for the love of God! But it all works adequately, and SkyFall’s destruction is truly spectacular.
As I’ve remarked elsewhere on these boards, it seems as if Daniel Craig’s function, starting from the reboot in CR, is to serve as the ‘Backstory Bond’ via which we are intended to understand Our Hero’s motivations as he works through the issues of his past, and clearly SPECTRE will take us further along that path. It’s going to be quite a tall challenge for whoever succeeds Craig in the role, when Bond’s history has been laid out and the missions, by default, become more conventional than they have been thus far in the current tenure, which will likely bring the franchise full-circle back to the Precious Classic FormulaTM, which has been shaken up considerably since 2006. If Craig indeed sticks around for #25 as it appears he might, it will be interesting to see what new skeleton they will manage to pluck from his closet. Still, he’s certainly the best James Bond since Connery boarded that ocean-liner with Tiffany Case in DAF and the credits rolled…
All in all, I put SF in my top ten Bond---perhaps top five, depending on my mood. Thanks for indulging me. Cheers! -{
Check out my Amazon author page! Mark Loeffelholz
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Comments
It's a well-directed, beautiful cinematic film with lots of great action, and a few emotional moments. On the other hand, it's not very intelligent, it's formulaic and the story isn't very original.
AJB007 Favorite Film Rankings
Pros and Cons Compendium (50 Years)
All we learn is he's a reckless orphan who has authority issues.
I don't feel we need to peel back the layers of the character, not within the time constraints of a movie anyway, it would be better done in a TV series.
So we go forty years without a backstory and they come up with one....and you don't like it
I have a suggestion.Lets turn him back into a walking cliche. He drinks vodka martinis. Wears a dinner jacket. Bonks girls. And thats it. Without doubt you end up with DAD
One way to keep the actor interested in the role is to give him a backstory?
No I'm saying they should expand on it. All they did in skyfall was show us the tombstones and have the line "how old were you when they died?" "you know the whole story". Well us the audience don't!
A few films give us Bond backstory snippets. GE "your parents had the luxury of dying in a climbing accident", CR orphan mention.
And btw Bond does drink vodka martini, wear a dinner jacket, and bonks girls in SF -{ :007) :x . Is Bond a walking cliche in Skyfall? No. What I like about Skyfall is that it has all the familiar elements, but done in a refreshing way. And Spectre looks to be following the same road...really looking forward to it -{
Basically I really enjoyed it.
As for plot holes, mistakes bad CGI ..... I leave that to others to
Notice and discuss. For Me for those couple of hours, I'm off with
007 on an adventure, all troubles and cares drift away. All I notice are
The action sequences, funny one-liners and beautiful women. :x
How do you like the Tom Ford Clothing?
Dalton - the weak and weepy Bond!
Well, I know that much is made by the clothing afficionados here about the tight cut of Craigger's suits...all I can say is that if I wore it as well as he does, I'd do the same :007)
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I'm basically with you there, TP. There is no shortage of people who will dissect these films down to the smelly entrails, and put every plot hole and line of dialogue under a microscope. I tend to try to illuminate what I feel they do best, whilst ackowledging some of the more prominent (to me) flaws. The fact of the matter is that my opinion of Craig's Bond is high enough that his mere presence elevates the film. I just saw QoS again two days ago, and quite enjoyed it {[]
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Well said
1) Silva is so over-the-top in his behavior that he comes across as a caricature, and there's very little real explanation offered for how James tracks him down or why he's doing the things he's doing
2) The story bogs down once we get to Shanghai because there's very little transition between Bond's trip there and everything else that happens afterward
3) Severine is pretty much useless as a character, and there's absolutely no explanation for why Bond has any interest in her or how he connects her to Silva
4) Moneypenny's involvement in the story after Shanghai seems 'shoehorned in' in a number of places because she just 'shows up' out of the blue and doesn't really have much, if any, connection to what James is actually doing
5) James just glosses over the fact that Moneypenny shot him with a few lines of dryly delivered dialogue that don't really fit the character
Like yourself, I never posted a review of Skyfall on AJB and I do feel a certain distance time-wise will provide me with a fresh outlook. Indeed I haven't watched it since I bought the DVD.
I may just be warming to the idea...
Interesting points all. My take:
1) I thought Eliott Carver in TND much more of a caricature, but didn't care as I was swept up in the fun. Silva was effective for me.
2) I feel the opposite - that the movie becomes more Bondian here, and in fact accelerates.
3) As I said, she was underused (probably edited down). Pity, that.
4) I didn't mind that at all. Better than M showing up!
5) I think this is Bond being a professional, and accepting that s**t happens. He knows M ordered her to take the shot - knowing it wasn't a clean one.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
The only Bond films I feel are worse are DAF and NSNA.
I am probably very much against the general consensus with this opinion, but I just felt it was a very weak entry and not even a good film (let alone a good Bond film).
I am also under the impression that if it was not a "Bond" film, and just a run-of-the-mill actioner, it would not get anywhere near the love that it does.
For example, I believe that Taken which was a relatively low-key action film, was far superior to Skyfall despite having far less budget and top-line stars in it.
I found Skyfall to be a bit of a bloated mess which really did not seem to know what direction it wanted to go in. For that reason it bored me a bit (I found myself checking my watch in the cinema).
Also it seemed to be very overloaded with product placement and felt like a bit of an exercise in marketing and sales. I know that is pretty much the norm for a Bond film nowadays, but I never felt it so much with any of the previous films.
The whole thing just didn't work for me I am afraid
I felt exactly the same way about the gypsy camp scene.
About the lack of exposition in Skyfall as an echo of the franchise, I may have to put myself through watching it again to see what you mean
If you did not happen to know, Skyfall was a 50th Anniversary film, so it does have many nods to the previous ones.
Why do you dislike the gypsy camp scene? Kerim Bey uses to gypsies to spy on the Russians. He gets Bond out of Istanbul for the night
It's about character development of Kerim Bey to show what his life is like beyond the office, and to develop of the atmosphere of Istanbul. It adds another layer to the plot that I appreciate.
Its explained in the "I used the gypsies like the Russians use the Bulgars"
For me personally it did nothing to move the narrative along, and actually detracted from the pacing of what is an already relatively slow first half.
The removal of it, I think, would have tightened the narrative and made for a better film overall.
It's just one of those times where I thought "the story could have really done without that bit".
But that's just me
Its a key moment in the novel. Bond gets to know the gypsies and its the first time the Bulgars attack on mass. He follows the Bulgars back to Istanbul to take out Krilencu when he tries to escape..
Have you read the original Fleming novels, Digi? FRWL follows the book reasonably well until Act 3; Fleming put Bond in the gypsy camp as well, I believe, to illustrate Kerim Bey's intelligence infrastructure. It was convenient for the filmmakers to insert an action sequence there, naturally.
Re: SkyFall...I'm interested by the very strong negative reaction it elicits from a slice of Bond fandom. Perhaps my biggest issue with that film is that the bridge from Act 2 into Act 3 happens within London, and I prefer Our Hero to be abroad.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
I can't recommend the original 14 Fleming books highly enough. Read them in order:
CR
LALD
MR
DAF
FRWL
DN
GF
TB
FYEO (collection of 5 short stories)
TSWLM
OHMSS
YOLT
TMWTGG
OP/TLD (2 novellas in one volume)
They will give you a perspective on the character that you won't get from the films---although IMO the Craig Era gets closest---but be warned: the films (for the most part) pale by comparison.
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
For me it's probably the best book out of the lot that Fleming wrote.
"Greatness From Small Beginnings."
Look forward to your SPECTRE review!!! {[]
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Nah - I can't have you missing me for that long
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Well said.