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JMills
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- First reviewNovember 10, 2012
- Last reviewNovember 10, 2012
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JMills's Reviews
Overall rating
4
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5
The resurrection of the franchise
PostedNovember 10, 2012
JMills
from Missouri, USA
Age:25 to 34
Gender:Male
Goes to the movies:once every few months
Dialogue
4
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5
Special Effects
5
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5
Art Direction
4
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5
Acting
4
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5
Story
4
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5
Camerawork
4
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5
Final thoughts on "Skyfall" (keeping it as spoiler free as possible) now that I've had a minute to think about it.
In the past 5 years or so, the question of whether or not the Bond film franchise is still relevant has been bandied about. Do we still want or need an aloof, womanizing, boozing, gambling, dry-humored secret agent? Has the Bourne franchise uprooted the 007 films as the new go-to action/spy franchise? "Skyfall" takes these questions head-on and gives us a definitive answer.
Throughout the first half of the film, we're told how this secret agent business is a young man's game. There isn't room for 007, who has had both his triumphs and has his scars, both in the films and from critics of the films, who pretty much panned his prior outing, 2008's "Quantum of Solace". The same is asked of M, first played by Dame Judi Dench in 1995's "Goldeneye". It's refreshing that in the past 17 years we've progressed to a point where having a woman as M isn't as scandalous as it was in 1995, but by "Skyfall", even Dench's old bulldog of the head of MI6 seems a bit played out.
These issues come to a head as Javier Bardem's Silva steals a hard drive containing the names of all NATO agents working undercover in terrorist cells across the globe and begins revealing them online. How do a couple of Cold War relics handle this new threat of cyber-terrorism? First, you go to the Q Branch of MI6. Meet the new Q, played for the first time on film not by the late Desmond Llewelyn, but by a younger Ben Whishaw, who fills the former Q's cranky old loafers nicely.
As for Bond himself, the pre-title sequence events have left him wallowing in the excesses of the character most often cited as being antiquated --- alcohol and women. However, "Skyfall" isn't some save-the-world adventure. This is a personal story about M, Bond, and Silva, who has ties to M's past. In telling such an intimate story, we see that the trysts with the Bond girls are nothing more than a means to an end. Bond's deepest relationship with anyone in his world is with M, who is both a mother figure to Bond and the one woman he respects.
Around the midpoint of the film, Silva asks Bond what his hobbies are. Bond's reply? "Resurrection." That statement perfectly encapsulates the last half of the film. For the first time, the filmmakers both embrace the 50 year legacy of the character on film (be on the lookout for a certain DB5 with headlight machine guns and an ejector seat) as well as the pasts of Bond and M, and blow that legacy up in a grand pyrotechnic display. Where does that leave the franchise? The last scene gives us Bond's earlier answer. Resurrected. Try not to smile as Bond enters MI6 (complete with coat rack), has a playful exchange with the new Moneypenny, and passes beyond that leather padded door into M's office where he receives his next assignment.
Sometimes the old ways really are the best ways.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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