Skyfall 2012
I have seen a lot of James Bond movies, but not all of them, and I realized when I saw Spectre that some key things had happened between that one and Casino Royale, the first Daniel Craig Bond film. I was told that Quantum of Solace was not worth the trouble, but that Skyfall was very good, and in fact it has a score of 81 on Metacritic, which is quite impressive. I was not disappointed. Skyfall has a seemingly all powerful villain who knows the ins and outs of MI6 and is bent on its destruction. There are big stunts and car chases and beautiful women for Bond to seduce, but somehow this did seem like a little higher caliber movie than typical, which is amazing considering this is the 23rd James Bond movie and marks the 50th anniversary of the series. I think the characters are fleshed out a little better in this movie, particularly James Bond and Judith Dench’s M, which helps a lot.
However while it is great that the movie takes its time to lay some character groundwork, the movie is quite long and it takes a long time to get to the main villain, played by Javiar Bardem, who is playing chess to everyone else’s checkers. At least until the last big scene which seems like it comes from a different movie, and sadly, not as good a movie. Plus there are a couple of scenes where it seems like Bond could stop something bad from happening but he waits until just after it has happened to do something. Also that last scene just doesn’t make a lot of sense from a practical standpoint. Anyway, the movie has some depth, enjoys some nostalgia with the return of Bond’s Aston Martin and some pretty basic technology, and is fun to watch for the most part, so I will give it an above average B+.
Written: 27 Nov 2016
Owned on: Digital