Before I begin with my review of ‘Skyfall’ I have to say
that I really enjoyed the two previous Daniel Craig Bond movies. I found that after decades of more and more campy
and ridiculous plots and gadgets and silly villains Bond had become very stale
and boring to watch. However, when ‘Casino
Royale’ was released it, for me anyway, completely wiped the slate clean off
all that had come before it, giving us a clever, sleek, real-world depiction of
James Bond.
‘Casino Royale’ made Bond great again, it showed him as a
real man, in real world situations. Gone
were the exploding pens and laser watches and car chases over glaciers that
were being melted by satellite weapons, instead we had the real world and
someone who whilst clearly above average, some one still very much a human
being. He was even able to get hurt
fighting people taking more beatings then I can ever remember Bond having.
Followed up by ‘Quantum of Solace’, a first real sequel to a
Bond film, the new films looked to be getting better and better. They were even working on establishing this
new global terrorist threat in the form of Quantum, a group that was everywhere
and could be anyone. I loved this, the
sense of scale and mystery was great, and held a lot of parallels to
S.P.E.C.T.R.E. in the original Bond films.
Unfortunately this plot thread does not continue on in ‘Skyfall’
at all. The film doesn’t even mention
Quantum in passing, almost as if the first two films never happened. Instead ‘Skyfall’ focuses its story on a
former British agent who has a personal vendetta against M. Rather than tackling a global threat or
massive conspiracy Bond instead becomes more of a bodyguard than a secret
agent.
Whilst the plot itself isn’t bad it feels like more of a
generic action movie rather than what we’ve come to expect from Bond,
especially from Daniel Craig’s time in the roll. Unfortunately this change in direction, by completely
dropping the Quantum plot, and focusing more on a small personal threat rather
than global danger takes away from what could have been a much better film, it
just feels out of place.
The action sequences in the film are adequate, but once
again not as entertaining as Craig’s previous outings in the roll, and seem to
be focused more on creating pretty visuals than enthralling fights.
One of the best things about the movie though is the
pleasant surprise of seeing the whole of the second half set in England.
It’s great to see Bond fighting the
villain in his home country, rather than defending it from afar and the final
set piece at Skyfall Manor in Scotland
is beautifully shot and well executed.
The film also has Bond teaming up with the best ‘Bond Girl’
yet, Judi Dench’s M. Teaming up Bond and
M makes for some great moments, both for beautiful character moments that
explore the mother/son relationship they have and some comedic moments.
Unfortunately this relationship comes to a close in this
film as *SPOILER ALERT* M is killed. M
is then replaced by a new M, complete with his secretary Moneypenny, bringing
the series back round in tone to the original films. This change in the status quo wipes away
everything we have seen in ‘Casino Royale’ and ‘Quantum of Solace’ and instead
gives us a stand alone story that just seems to be used to set up for more
films that will be just like the older Bond films, something I personally am
not looking forward to.
‘Skyfall’ could have been a great film, something that would
celebrate the 50 years of Bond, but instead feels like a slap in the face
because everything I had become invested in since Daniel Craig took over has
been cast aside and the end of ‘Skyfall’ feels like a completely different film
from the one we deserved. A very poor
effort from MGM, one that casts aside continuity to deliver something outdated
and boring. I was excited about the new
Bond films, but now it’s going to be very hard to convince me to watch whatever
one follows on from ‘Skyfall’.
Amy.
xx
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I missed the continuity too (I half hoped the promised big revel would be Bond discovering that Quantum was in fact S.E.C.T.E.R as contrived as it might have been) but I still think this was a fantastic action movie. Well staged, very likable characters and a focus on action that didn't fall into the same hazy fantasy feeling that 'Quantum of Solace' did. It always seems Bond can never quite balance action and plot perfectly.
ReplyDeleteThen again maybe I'm just biased because I've been rejoicing that 'The Avengers', 'Dredd' and Skyfall have finally made action movies fun after they spent half a decade being utterly ruined by Micheal Bay....
To be fair, it's not a completely bad film, and my main gripe is the lack of continuity to the last films. Even if at the end we'd have discovered that the villain was being backed by Quantum and that they had used him to mess up MI6 to further their own aims it would have been something at least. Unfortunately not though. :-(
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