by Aninoritse Odeli-Serrano
Bond has been out of the cinemas for four years, clearly a very long time for a legend to be off the screens and out of our minds.
Gone are the glory days of Sir Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore; and Quantum of Solace didn’t exactly excite us, still I believe, no I assure you ladies and gentlemen, Commander Bond is back in GRAND STYLE.
Skyfall opens in Istanbul – not to the traditional gun barrel sequence sadly, but it does have this amazing climax in the Scottish highlands. Many complain there are no Bond Girls, no fancy gadgetry and cars. Oh please. Skyfall isn’t telling a story of a villain who is trying to destroy the world which we are most familiar with, instead, MI6 is bait and M is the target. Here Bond’s loyalty to M is tested.
And what a way for Dame Judi Dench to take her exit as M! She has been in since 1995 and played it 7 times. For once Bond and his girls didn’t take the shine or glory, allowing M revel in it and she is the hero. As always, she keeps her 00 boys in check, pushing them as hard as it takes, there are results and there are casualties… and this is where her past comes back to haunt her. Indeed, she just might be the greatest Bond Girl ever.
Anyone who had doubts about Sam Mendes directing, please put them aside right now. With the first few minutes, we see Bond chasing a target and he is having car chases, riding motorbikes on rooftops and train scene. Mendes delivered and right on point. Mr. Mendes is not known for the traditional action packed movies but he does have a background in theatre and does have an Oscar to show, so he means business and business was delivered.
Javier Bardem is one helluva villain; he plays Silva, a twisted psychotic individual who as we find out is a former security operative. He does put up a fight to be one of the best Bond baddies ever. He is cyber-terrorist and encounter with James Bond whilst telling him the Pest Control story is indeed his highlight. With Adele writing and singing the Skyfall tune is probably up there with the great Bond tunes of the last 50 years. She embodied Skyfall and can only be matched with Dame Shirley Bassey.
You’ve got to love how Bond takes the mickey of his own formula. Bond is shown and depicted as old scruffy and rough but that’s the deal and the selling point…the old man still has the fight in him. A little glitch for me however, is seeing Bond holding a particular kind of green bottle. A bit odd I would say. Over the years, we Bond fans have had to deal with some appalling commercial branding
The one-liners are brilliant and no, it didn’t lose its British-ness but I suggest you watch with a sense of humour. The film is full of outstanding performances, besides the new Gadgetmeister Q, played by Ben Whishaw is at his best as drops his lines with great pun. The chemistry between Naomie Harris who plays Eve and later introduced as Moneypenny and James Bond is brilliant. She’s sexy and witty and right up my street…and oh, throw in the eye candy from Severine (Berenice Marlorhe) who plays with your eyes with her divine figure. Ralph Fiennes has always been a fine actor and shows his class. The return of the Aston Martin DB5 is one of the great highlights of the film.
Skyfall does stand out among the Bond films however; it is too soon for it to pick its place in the pecking order. As the film ends, a gentle reminder informs us that “James Bond will return”; that Ladies and Gentlemen is how you celebrate 50 years on screen!!!
– 4.5/5 stars.
Aninoritse Odeli-Serrano tweets @aninoritse
Well in my own opinion, I expected more from the movie but it was great all the same. In response to Demola, I dont agree with you that the Villain won. The Villain was killed before M finally gave up the ghost. James Bond still delivered on his assignment and destroyed the Villain. According to an article I read somewhere, Judi Dench is diagnosed with an ailment and I am sure this is the reason for her exit in James bond's "skyfall". The only part of the movie that I wasn't excited about is the sudden death of Berenice Marlohe, the bond girl. Her role in the movie was really short and insignificant. Well as for gadgets just as Demola mentioned, I'm a lady and not so keen on cars and all but asides the aforementioned, the movie is great.
Well in my own opinion, I expected more from the movie but it was great all the same. In response to Demola, I dont agree with you that the Villain won. The Villain was killed before M finally gave up the ghost. James Bond still delivered on his assignment and destroyed the Villian. According to an article I read somewhere, Judi Dench is diagnosed with an ailment and I am sure this is the reason for her exit in James bond's "skyfall". The only part of the movie that I wasn't excited about is the sudden death of Berenice Marlohe, the bond girl. Her role in the movie was really short and insignificant. Well as for gadgets just as Demola mentioned, I'm a lady and not so keen on cars and all but asides the aforementioned, the movie is great.
You see, when a lot of us set out to see a Bond movie, we do not want to see just another Action movie. Bond is no Jason Statham and a Bond movie is not Expendables.
First, an issue close to my heart. The Bond Girl. Who was the Bond girl? A woman who was just a sex slave for Bond? She get killed minutes later and Bond just looked on. Notice how he could have done his magic when he was handed the gun and the girl was alive.
And then Naomi was useless after she shot Bond but someone somewhere taught: 'Wait a minute, we have too keep Bond flirting. Lets bring her in every 10minutes to flirt'
More importantly, the plot of the movie is too weak. First, list of agents and then somewhere in the movie, we forgot about the list and it became about protecting M. Let us just ignore that M could have been killed much earlier(Silva could have delayed bombing her office) but we had to wait till the end. I am not even going to try to fathom why Silva wanted capture.
The most painful part about this movie for me is that the villain wanted Revenge on MI6 and on M and he got it. Please, I am really disturbed: How is this a success for Bond? This is even worse considering the fact that it was Bond who left a trail to his house. The entire operation was a failure if the villain got what we wanted. The Bond we know does not fail.
The hero(Bond) is supposed to save the day. Guess what? The villain won. The hero is supposed to save the girl. Guess what the villain won again. The true hero of this movie is the villain and that is not how Bond plays.
I ask you, take away the entire Bond branding and put a random action film guy in that James Bond role and see if you would have ever thought of this as a Bond move.
There are so many reasons I am still annoyed at this movie (Ineffective Q, No gadgets, Familiar situations, No gadgets, Meaningless ending, Did I say no gadgets?), but none of them outweighs the fact that I can get the time, money and energy I spent watching this movie back.