Review: Skyfall (2012)

[major_clanger]

Is Skyfall the best Bond film ever? I wouldn't say that, as it's too dependent on what your definition of a really good Bond film is. But it's certainly one of the best, and completes the task begun by Casino Royale of both rebooting Bond and the same time coming full circle back towards the tone of the best of the Connery-era films.



I particularly liked:

• the way that events and characters converge to bring us back in the final scene to the classic old-style setup of Bond being briefed by M in M's traditional office, Miss Moneypenny (albeit a postmodern interpretation).
• the return of the classic Aston-Martin DB5 - and the way its destruction is what really gets Bond angry.
• the nice development of Mallory from seeming bureaucratic outsider to being revealed to be not only fully behind Bond but someone Bond can respect on his own terms.
• the battle at Skyfall Lodge; it's a nice inversion of the usual Bond finale, in that Bond is defending a stronghold.

Bits to quibble about:

• The MacGuffin: if there was a combined list of NATO nations' covert agents - and that sort of intelligence is almost invariably material no nation shares with another - it would not be on a laptop drive somewhere.
• The tube train Silva tries to drop on Bond is conveniently and unbelievably empty for the Circle/District line!
• Silva's plans are not just baroque but rely on members of MI6 - an organisation he hasn't worked for in years - doing exactly as he plans all the way through. (I'm willing to wave this past under Dramatic Licence.)
• The DB5. It's clearly the Q-branch special from Goldfinger, complete with passenger ejection seat and hidden machine guns. But as this is the reboot continuity, where did it come from? On its own, it could be taken as confirming the fan theory that 'James Bond' is a cover identity, that Judi Dench is playing the same M as in the pre-reboot films, and that this is the same car as driven by First Bond. (Well, the first one we know of). But the whole Skyfall plot of the film makes it clear that Daniel Craig's character is, and grew up as, James Bond. Now, Craig's Bond would be quite justified in having a DB5, as we saw him win one in Casino Royale. But that wasn't, as far as we know, the tricked-out version. Bond having the Goldfinger DB5 is great fun as a plot device, but not for this film's plot.

Comments

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

Just seen it this afternoon: fun, liked it, great film.

[timill]

We may reasonably assume that Bond had Q trick out his DB5...

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

The conversation must have gone something like this:

"Q, you know you said you don't really do exploding pens any more?"

"Yes, Bond. We have moved on a bit."

"What about putting machine guns and an ejection seat into my DB5?"

"Oh, no problem with that. We'll even throw in a conversion to right hand drive..."


(The DB5 seen in Casino Royale being a left hand drive version)

[timill]

And (probably) change the registration - the Skyfall shots seem to have the Goldfinger car's plates (BMT 216 A)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking, although I notice that M is familiar with the details since she recognised the ejector seat.

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

The tube train did say "Not In Service" on the front.

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

It struck me that it ended where Dr No might have started, so the DB5 is a standard setup, a new one will be made from the ashes of the old one in time for Goldfinger.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I might be a dissenting voice but I felt rather flat after watching it last night. The opening sequence was excellent, strong stuff, but then I didn't feel that anything lived up to that.

I was left with a feeling that they had a bunch of set pieces set up and they knew how they wanted to end things but there wasn't a clear, sensible, narrative for how they were going to get there.

I was spluttering at the ideas that a) a guy this dangerous and with the level of resources shown would just be remanded to Belmarsh, and b) that everything hinged on Q being so criminally negligent regarding how he interacted with a suspect computer.

I also felt that Bardem was miscast. It felt like they wanted to build on the quasi Golem/unstoppable terror he invoked in No Country for Old Men, but missed the point that a 6 foot tall bloke, looking like that, isn't exactly what you want in a covert agent...

I just didn't get the feeling he was as terrifying as they were implying.

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

Also, these mad hackers seem to write extraordinary code that works first time without testing and they had enough time to develop quite astounding graphics for the display.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

The graphic interfaces that databases and trackers have on films and TV are always brilliant. Really? You're going to bring up an image of each of the 500 people you're checking before finding a match? That's a brilliant use of processor power!

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

Or Independance Day when they download a virus into an alien computer system and it works first time. I've had two version of Word fail to interact and I've a drawer full of different 'standard' USB cables. Thank goodness the aliens had a Universal communications protocol and enough AI computer power to work out what our 1s and 0s meant.

Maybe these super villain ought to be in charge. Massive software projects that come in on time and work. Blofeld built a base in a volcano on time and then he intended to blackmail the world, so it was probably under budget or his business plan was sound enough for a loan application.