Skip to main content

Skyfall Review


Oh man. I don’t even know where to begin with this movie. It’s just so good, on so. Many. Levels. But I’m gonna waste time being vague and ranting about how good it is without explaining why. On to the review.

Daniel Craig is back as James Bond in the 23rd installment of the franchise. And Bond has never been better. I’m not even going to try to hide the fact that this film is not a typical Bond film. It doesn’t try to be. And I for one am glad that we finally get something different. The darker, more vulnerable Bond is still the one we get here, and it still works.  Ultimately, this movie works on basically every level. The cinematography is simply phenomenal. The editing is flawless. Basically everything about this movie is flawless. Except for the score. It works fine in the movie, but on its own… Yeah, it’s pretty terrible. The story also has a few minor problems, but for the most part, it works extremely well. Once again, the best thing about these movies is Daniel Craig. There are no two ways about it. He is simply the best Bond ever. By leaps. And bounds. And stuff.


The first time I saw this movie, I didn’t really like it. It just felt a bit empty to me. But after watching it again, I can understand why it was so highly praised. Initially my problem was that the action, particularly in the finale, is just not what we’ve come to expect from a Bond movie. But that’s just the point really. Bond is desperate and he’s no longer in constant control of every situation he finds himself in. And that brings us to the villain. I could rant for hours about how good Silva is, but let it suffice to say that he is one of the best villains of all time. He is ruthless, cold, brilliant, and ultimately just a creepy guy. And in some ways, he’s even relatable. Javier Bardem honestly deserved an Oscar for his performance here. Finally, we get the feeling that maybe Bond is out of his depth. And without spoiling too much of the plot, Bond is not entirely successful in stopping Silva. Also, I feel that it would be wrong to not mention Judi Dench. As always, she is excellent in her role as M, and Ben Whishaw is wonderful as Q. Naomie Harris is also a welcome addition as Moneypenny. Ultimately, Skyfall just nails every aspect of good filmmaking, and brings Bond back in an explosive 23rd installment. 4 ½ stars out of 5.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Oh, The Force Awakens, you really thought you could show up on the scene and not be polarizing. You were so wrong. Spoiler alert for anyone who, by some magic, hasn’t seen this movie yet, because I’m about to dissect the heck out of this film and also The Phantom Menace’s plot. Let’s jump right into the story. The evil First Order has tracked a map containing the coordinates of the location of Luke Skywalker to a planet, where the Resistance races against time to get the map first. The Resistance pilot going after the plans, Poe Dameron, is captured; his droid, however, escapes with the map. Sound familiar? Well buckle up, kids. Familiarity is about to slap us in the face. Repeatedly. From there, the pilot is rescued by a dude in stormtrooper armor (to be fair, he is a stormtrooper), Finn. He’s a traitor to the First Order, and together they escape. The droid with the map, meanwhile, has made his way to a young adult female (why ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tomorrow Never Dies

Tomorrow Never Dies boasts what may be the most absurd plot of any Bond film. The head of a media outlet tries to start wars in order to have a monopoly on the media coverage of them. If you can’t comprehend the absurdity of that, let me try to give another example. CNN starts World War 3 and has journalists in place to report these events before anyone else can, and no one on the face of the earth thinks that’s shady in any way, shape, or form except for MI6. The question we should all be asking ourselves is how the heck this movie managed to actually be kind of good with a plot like this. The opening sequence is not quite as exhilarating as we’ve come to expect from Brosnan Bond movies, but it’s competent enough. From there, we’re plunged directly into the story. The first act takes its time, explaining delicately in a detailed manner exactly what the media mogul’s plan is, and how he’s going to carry it out. His plot may be absolu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dunkirk

Let’s be honest. It doesn’t matter what a Christopher Nolan movie is about; if he directed it, we’re going to watch it. Dunkirk focuses on an actual historic event, a first for Nolan. He executes it beautifully. Also, this is spoiler-free. Dunkirk, like many (or maybe all?) of Nolan’s films, places emphasis on time. In Dunkirk, three story threads are followed, each occurring over a different duration of time, but all converging in the end. This can make for a slightly confusing or even frustrating (in parts) narrative, but most of the time it’s all relatively easy to follow. I’ve thought about it for quite some time, and I’m quite certain that is done both for the sake of heightened realism and tonal consistency. The three interweaving plot threads help greatly in keeping the story interesting, and all three’s contributions to growing intensity make for one of the most claustrophobic and uneasy films I’ve ever seen. Because o...
Post a Comment
Read more