Skyfall - Probably some spoilers

[f4f3]

Let's get the suspense out of the way - I loved this movie. 
Not just as a Bond film, but as a tense, exciting, very well acted thriller. 
The plot is fairly simple, with one lone bad guy who has a personal vendetta against M, and who has taken a long time to work out his revenge. Some of the details are, of course, improbable. This is a Bond movie, remember? The baddie has acquired a band of henchmen who are just...there. Let's assume that they are mercenaries, but they wouldn't have had much less personality if they had been wearing jumpsuits with "cannon fodder" written on the back. 
There are traditional large scale Bond sequences, from the pre-credits pursuit, through his meeting with the new Q, to an almost psychedelic fight scene in a Shanghai skyscraper. 
The movie, though, belongs to the actors. Three of them, in particular. Craig can act - we've seen this before, but here he goes beyond Bond as the petulant child or Fleming's thug in a dinner jacket. His Bond is fallible, and fails, but he is also implacable. There are a couple of scenes involving the deaths of minor characters which bugged me, because Bond didn't try to prevent them, but, actually, those are the scenes which say most about him. He is not there to be a hero. He is there to do his job. 
That's one of the reasons that Javier Bardem makes an excellent villain. He is Bond, released from any compunction. His job is at the centre of his life, it has become his life, and once his revenge is complete he will die, if not happy, then at least fulfilled. Beyond that, he has no thought of consequences. Bardem also brings a  predatory sexual energy to the movie that provides a mirror to Bond's own government sponsored philandering. Surprisingly, though, Bond one-ups him in their own sexually charged encounter (and what is it with Craig's habit of getting tied to chairs? It's Bond in bondage, again). 
The third great actor here is Judi Dench, and this, to a large extent, is her movie. I won't say too much about that, but she is the controlling figure at the centre, giving a performance that is frequently still in everything except her eyes, which are darting, assessing, calculating. Her emotional control is near complete, and you can see Bond and the baddie both trying to mirror it. 

I could write another thousand words on the deft touches that complete this as a movie. The partial reboot, with three new characters introduced to Bond's team, which will carry him into the next story. The locations, and how we go from sunshine to darkness, how the movie ends on a rooftop, after taking us through a tunnel (through many tunnels, actually). The deft nods to Bond's past, while fashioning a future. 

But go see it yourself, and find out what it is that you take away from it. Connery will always be my favourite Bond. After all, he was my first. But Craig is far and away the best actor to have taken the role. So far. 

Comments

[widgetfox.livejournal.com]

Your cut-tag could be taken in more than one way.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I know. I like the ambiguity though.

[fiendish-cat.livejournal.com]

You, most people I know and seemingly all of the reviewers have loved this film.

Me, and a couple of other folk, not so much.

I loved lots that you loved: cinematography, quality of acting, the baddy, oh and the new Q and the stripped down-ness of the whole thing, but for me the plot holes were just too glaring and made it too impossible to suspend disbelief. (eg wandering around in the dark trying to get away from baddies whilst, doh, having ones torch turned on and then turning lights on in one's hiding place)

I realise one doesn't watch Bond for the plot but weirdly when the whole thing is really fanciful it's easier to supsend disbelief.

And see Giles Coren's take on the old sexist tropes being alive and kicking: http://reciperifle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/bond-villain.html Annoying as he can be, in this he's pretty much hit it spot on as far as I am concerned.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

I did get the bit about a gameskeeper who has lived on that patch of land for 40 years or more using a torch to get around (when everyone else was happy in the dark) and I did chuckle about it - not enough to put me off, though.
I actually thought that the plot was fairly linear (well, for Bond) and benefited from that, but yes, as many holes as your average action movie.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

You know, given the rave reviews, I'm starting to think I should go watch this flick.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

So long as you don't go in expecting genius - what you get is a tough minded thriller with some very pretty set pieces, and good use of 50 years of history. As fiendish cat points out, the plot can get a bit patchy at times.

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

Grrr, I have been dying to see this but we have to wait another week on this side of the pond. You are making me even more eager for it.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Hope you get to see it this weekend :)