So Skyfall, what's the general opinion on it so far

[gorfias]

I enjoyed it, and I think it's quite a great movie, but something just bothers me about it.

Me too

Maybe it's the "timeless watch in a digital age" theme borrowed from Live Free or Die Hard, or maybe it's the main antagonist's strong resemblance to The Joker from The Dark Knight, or the ordeal with Bond going MIA and having to "reinvent himself" a-la The Dark Knight Rises... I don't know, it just seemed like the story was mostly a hodge podge of other movies and themes.

It was revisiting a fun concept of the returning hero. I think a hero has to make much more impact before he gets to have a returning hero movie.

Even so, it was still very well done and I really had a good time watching it unfold.

Me too.

I agree with $2.50 reviews Marta: this better be the last Craig movie. Re-invent the movie. This was a nice cap. Sorry Ray Fienes. Hey, have him be M in the new movie and forget this ever happened.

This was a B grade movie. Not bad. Not as good as Looper, but good. Especially act 3 that no one should know anything about.

But Craig has always had trouble being Bond. He was more like Jason Bourne (less so in this movie). Bond loves being Bond. He loves his job. He loves the high life afforded by his wits. He is the world's first yuppie.

It is fun watching Craig deal with his age issues, but give us fans an actor that is about 30 years old, physically amazing, lucky as hell in action and in love.

And, give him lots and lots of gadgets. Not deus ex machina devices, but fun toys!

 

[Jaeke]

Really damn awsome.

To be honest, it's the first Bond movie I've actually seen BUT I have seen an extensive amount of basicly every other movie type so yeah... I thought it was pretty great.

ESPECIALLY Javier Barden's masterful performance. Literally the best villain role I've seen since the Joker from TDK. (He wasn't quite as badass as he was in No Country for Old Men, but still much creepier.)

 

[HellsingerAngel]

Spoiler

You missed my remark about the missing blood trail Anyhow...

Silva wanted to be captured, yes. But the killer didn't want to be captured. I am not convinced this was a deliberate decision by Silva. The story flows towards Silva. But the killer was unpredictable and I don't believe Silva predicted his wife/GF would betray him like that. Thus too much convenience.

Yes, the cameras can be controlled (there are also security guards). But why go through so much trouble? It doesn't make sense. The museum doesn't hold anything special. They could have easily met somewhere without camera's and guards.

As for the tech... submarines are a little bigger than a headset. That little GPS beacon device, I can accept. But a headset that goes through concrete, underground and with a perfect reception, that's futuristic. Well, this is less of an issue compared to the other points. It's still convenience though.

EDIT: Come to think of it, the killer might have been lured into a trap by Silva, if the target the killer shot (in Shanghai) was a lure, a dummy. I suppose that's possible. That still doesn't explain everything. But the story would at least make a little bit more sense then.

Spoiler

You already answered one of your questions, but to touch on it briefly, the killer is going to use the best options available to them. The rarity of a bullet is often not put into question. Bond is just smart, that's sort of the whole point of the entire movie. What he lacks in physical prowess he makes up for in intelligence and determination. As you also pointed out, it was most likely all part of the plan to use someone who could be traced. As Q put it, you make the clues too obvious and it looks like a trap.

The guard was either a mistake in the movie, or was simply a second guard. You're assuming he dragged the guard with him. Because of the simple pool, I made the assumption he was a second guard when I was watching the movie. Could be either.

The point about the meeting place is sort of irrelevant. Cameras pick up images, which the entire exchange looked fairly normal. "Oh, two guys decided to talk and one handed over a case" isn't exactly grounds for suspicion. Yes, he opened the case, though I would assume if there were cameras they would know where they were and make sure they weren't in clear view of them. It's a classic movie spy move.

As for the communications and hacking array? It's James Bond; lighten up. One of the issues of the past two movies was that Bond didn't get anything neat in terms of gadgets. Super communicator and radio transmitter is extremely tame, but clearly the movie is looking for a balance between reality and spy fiction. I think having a radio that can transmit over a chase scene in Turkey that's wired to an office miles away, which would also need to be encrypted, is believably able to transmit through concrete so why did you not have issue with the first? Despite being grounded in reality, James Bond has always had fictitious elements and hopefully always will.

OT: Great movie. One of the best Bond films I've ever had the pleasure of watching. I hope they continue strong into the future with this.

 

[Karthik Reddy]

It is decent movie but I was disappointed. Probably because of the hype. I had several major problems with it.
The major problem with it was bond was never redeemed after coming back. Initially it is built up as he may not be a 100%. But just some good one-liners later he an ass kicker again.
Also questioning the relevance of bond in the internet age was very good. This too I feel was left unresolved as Bond hacks Silva's computer and the final battle is just a big 'Home alone' punch-out.

Again very good ideas at play but were unresolved. Maybe they went completely over my head.
Acting was pretty good though especially Judi Dench and Javier Bardem.

 

[Biodeamon]

It was good aside from pyshics apparently not applying to james bond.

One example is that he fired a godamn flare underwater to break through the ice. I mean come on, i've heard of magnesium flares but i doubt the random goon he picked it off of has access to that kind of technology.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I didn't really like it.

The main villain wasn't hinted at. Considering his past, they should have at least made a mention of him earlier on. The connecting segments to the set pieces, such as the bullet and the chip, were just 'out there'. M needed more of an emotional connection than a cruel ***** who you had to side with. And there's the usual Hollywood trope of everything unnecessarily blowing up and people dying too easily. For a movie about Bond being not-tough shit, he shakes it off in two scenes, much like Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises never had a single problem after he got the leg brace.

But still. I liked Q and Silver, the action was enjoyable, I have a soft spot for cyberterrorism and super 'planning ahead' plots, the temporary female love interest (who we never got any closure on...) was rawr, the Skyfall moment was catering to my 'planning ahead' love -- even if it wasn't much -- and the environments were lively and cool.

It was a okay movie, but absolutely did not leave an impression and I have no desire to see it again. It's just a Bond film, and I don't really like Bond films.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

I didn't think it was fantastic, but it did entertain me well enough. I didn't like the softer side (crying Bond), but at least it hasn't gone all PC. Okay, he doesn't smoke cigars anymore, but he still has a way with the ladies, I think there's three of them in this one, and he still appreciates his martini. I enjoyed the story and the whole cyberterror plot and the old agent gone psycho is always a classic setup to a good fight, but the action itself was a bit of a disappointment. The suspense was there with the sniper part but the 'silhouette' bit straight after I found a bit lacking. The opening scene was great though, maybe not as amazing as the parkour one from Craig's first movie I think, but still quite tense.

As for the lack of his gadgets, I found a bit of a letdown, Bond has never used a Batman level of gadgets, but here the MacGyver shit I found a bit out of place. Anyways, it setup for a decent gun fight (not entirely realistic anyhow) so I'm not really complaining.

As I said, all in all, very entertaining, and just enough "Bond" in it to be a Bond movie.

Captcha: Who Am I
Funny, I was just thinking about some of Jackie Chan's stunts while writing this (martial arts in a tall building, motorcycle/train combo chases)

 

[pilouuuu]

I liked it, but still felt somewhat overwhelmed. I just feel it lacks something which I can't exactly explain.

Maybe the plot dragged a bit a times, it was slow, especially at the beginning. But maybe it's something about Craig himself. While I like his acting and his character a lot, I just don't feel him like Bond. I still expect him to be more sophisticated, even if it's something faked. We saw some of that in this movie, and some of his comments were really funny, but I want a better balance between dandi Bond and badass Bond.

Spoilers ahead!



The villain was amazing of course, but I expected more of him. He never was as cruel or scary as I expected.

Q was fun and cool.

Seeing Aston Martin was great and seeing Bonds reaction when they destroyed it too!

Bond girl looked fantastic, but she was killed so soon!

I think I may need to watch it more times to like it more, just like with Cassino Royale.

Overall, nice action flick, but I don't consider it near the level of Goldfinger.

Maybe next one will be totally amazing with all the changes they made in this one.

 

[AdmiralCheez]

I thought it was a decent action film, but there's something that's not sitting well with me that's keeping me from enjoying it as a Bond film. The other Craig films had the same effect on me, but this one was more painful. There was too much of the "Are Double-0 Agents still relevant?" and "We don't do exploding pens anymore" talk, and it felt to me like they were really criticizing the very essence of the Bond film, which is the secret agent fantasy.

I also don't really like hearing that the director claimed The Dark Knight as a direct influence. It really showed, and while the same themes that worked for that movie are fine for the character of Batman, I don't think it works well for James Bond. Even though the books apparently established the whole rich family, parents murdered, orphan becomes badass backstory, adding it here just made it seem like the producers saw The Dark Knight and how popular it was and said, "Let's do that for the next Bond film."

It was still a decent action film, but like the other Craig Bonds, it just doesn't capture the true spirit of the franchise.

Especially since

Spoiler

Bond loses. The bad guy wins, getting exactly what he wanted. His childhood home is blown up, his boss/mother figure is dead, and since "Q Branch doesn't do silly gadgets anymore," presumably the last cool spy car in existence is destroyed. I can't recall any other Bond film where he loses this badly. It was just too depressing to be true Bond.

 

[4RM3D]

*snip*

Fair enough.

But I still like Casino Royale more.

 

[JasonBurnout16]

It's the best Daniel Craig movie to date but whether it's the best Bond movie ever is probably not true.

Plus it doesn't get much better than its first 15 minutes. The rest of the film is still great, but the start is amazing.

 

[pilouuuu]

It's the best Daniel Craig movie to date but whether it's the best Bond movie ever is probably not true.

Plus it doesn't get much better than its first 15 minutes. The rest of the film is still great, but the start is amazing.

Yes! That. I was expecting the whole movie to surpass that sequence, but felt mostly underwhelmed. I don't know if it's such a good idea to begin a movie with the best scene!

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

I thought it was great. I still preferred Craig's Casino Royale, but it was still pretty sodding awesome. The hacking scene seemed a bit daft though. I'm sure it doesn't look like that in real life. Also, people saying Craig's Bond isn't Bond enough: Read the damned books. The ultra-slick Brosnan-Bond is a bastardisation of what Bond should be.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

That was one hell of an ending, and I loved the double reveal in the final scene.