"Skyfall" Discussion Thread-Spoilers!!!

[HugoHackenbush]

My last quibble with the plot points of Skyfall.

Bond takes M to his ancestral home, and instructs Q to leave a trail of "breadcrumbs" to allow Silva to find them there. Fine.

When they arrive, they find that all the weapons that Bond presumably was counting on to be gone. Yet he stays, knowing he will likely be outmatched. Dramatic? Yes. Logical? Hell no. Yes, he knows about the hidden chamber, which proves useful, but still, this still seems to be a major miscalculation, which ultimately costs M her life.

And, finally no back-up from the forces of MI6? None? Just Bond and M against whatever Silva can throw against them? Once again, dramatic? Yes. Logical? Hell no.

[Greenman]

Well it is about as logical as having car that can convert into a submarine OR a wrist thing that shoots cyanide-tipped bullets at villains-James Bond isn't about logic, it is almost realistic hokum-always has been-real MI6 operatives don't have guns let alone gadgets and are more likely to use their wits and knowledge. What surprised me was how resourceful M was-we first saw this when she rigged up a tracking device from a computer chip Bond had given her from the bomb(The World Is Not Enough) and the inside of an alarm clock-so how the heck did she know how to rig up a chandelier with explosive charges to detonate when dropped?

The only reason Silva was lured there was to protect the existing 00 agents and other workers who had been killed just to get to M by him-luring him out to the middle of nowhere was a clever idea, because Bond knew the land having been born and raised there and had his faith old retainer to help too. We aren't sure but perhaps M was already resigned to the fact that she might be killed-remember Ralph Fiennes was waiting in the wings to take over as her possible successor. Also one other thing, why is nothing eluded to Moneypenny ever having been an agent before becoming secretary to M - I think Lois Maxwell's part would have been a lot beefier had she been revealed as a former agent in Dr No say and then sort of demoted by 'Thunderball'...just a thought or two

[HugoHackenbush]

Point taken, Greenman, but this is not a Roger Moore era Bond film, this is Daniel Craig Bond film and everything is serious with a capital "S". Skyfall even makes a joke at the expense of the previous outlandishness by having Q quip "were you expecting an exploding pen? We don't do that anymore".

I can accept illogic when I don't notice it until I am home. For example: Why does Goldfinger take the time to explain his entire plot regarding Fort Knox to the "hoods convention" if he is only going to kill them a few minutes later? Beats me, but obviously this is necessary so Bond can uncover the scheme.

With Skyfall, I kept wondering "why doesn't Bond get the hell out of there"?

[Greenman]

A lot of Goldfinger is nonsense too-you cannot stack gold that high and you can't get sucked out of a plane if you shoot out the windows-it has been proven to be unlikely to happen-at least not like what happens to Gert Frobe. I kept thinking just as Silva arrived why doesn't he use the machine guns in the DB3 to shoot at them-and of course the next second he pops up from below and does just that.

[Reclaimedwg]

DVD coming on February 18th.

WOW!

That is fast!

[pharoahegypt]

Who needs DVD's when we have certain 'sharing' sites these days...?? lol.

Was sad to see the DB get smashed as I was to lose M. But should make the next one an interesting wait again of course.

[jamiehot]

Originally Posted by HugoHackenbush

My last quibble with the plot points of Skyfall.

Bond takes M to his ancestral home, and instructs Q to leave a trail of "breadcrumbs" to allow Silva to find them there. Fine.

When they arrive, they find that all the weapons that Bond presumably was counting on to be gone. Yet he stays, knowing he will likely be outmatched. Dramatic? Yes. Logical? Hell no. Yes, he knows about the hidden chamber, which proves useful, but still, this still seems to be a major miscalculation, which ultimately costs M her life.

And, finally no back-up from the forces of MI6? None? Just Bond and M against whatever Silva can throw against them? Once again, dramatic? Yes. Logical? Hell no.

I know one of the worst things of the entire movie......Yet Bond can get an Army of men in choppers to arrest Silva.....The entire Craig series sucks never liked him or any of his films.....

[Sir Honkers]

Originally Posted by jamiehot

I know one of the worst things of the entire movie......Yet Bond can get an Army of men in choppers to arrest Silva.....The entire Craig series sucks never liked him or any of his films.....

I begs to differ...well sort of. I thought Casino Royale and Quantum Of Solace were taking Bond in a whole new and very interesting direction...but then came Skyfall and Spectre.

[jamiehot]

The best thing about Skyfall is how lousy it is. I don’t mean “lousy” because it’s directed by Mr. Mendes, a specialist in kitschy political polemics. Colossally overrated and reliably pretentious, Mendes can be counted upon to deliver a terrible film—and Skyfall is professionally terrible, its story glaring with holes, depending heavily on recycled elements from the 007 canon, while beset with an overly forlorn mood, forcing the cast to present “serious matter” and bringing themselves into sappy dramatic antics, but the result is a narrative struggling for the dark look-and-feel of Nolan’s Batman franchise, though frantic in action scenes that are shaped (once again) by Bourne style editing, yet skillfully woven together into glossy blockbuster nonsense. Where once the series innovated and set certain trends in the adventure genre, it now follows others in its struggle for relevance.

[scoundrel]

I didn't realise we have a whole thread for how rubbish Skyfall is.

I watched it on ITV4 yesterday and I regret to say that I had a good time watching it and thought it was great fun. I agree that the plot isn't entirely plausible every step of the way and in fact it is frequently daft as a brush. I could myself spend several hours collating the various sillinesses and unlikely happenings, but I won't because I think it's beside the point of a film like this. We aren't meant to treat it like documentary realism - we're meant to enjoy the ride, including some cracking good action sequences, and think about the characters and ideas rather than the plot. Once you do that, the film works pretty good.

What makes it work?

It has the usual technical flair with special effects, which is almost a given in Bond films, but in Skyfall it's done imaginatively, not merely for its own sake. Q, played by Ben Wishaw (more on him later) actually turns the special effects for their own sake into an in-joke in the National Gallery scene, when all James Bond gets for his Shanghai mission is a Walther PPK (very old fashioned gun referencing how old school James is) which has been tweaked with a computer sensor so it only fires for him and no one else; and a radio transmitter the size of a small cigarette lighter so he can send a distress signal if he needs to. Having already mocked Q for being a spotty kid [Q couldn't give a shit what James Bond thinks of him] Bond expresses disdain for the thin offering from Q Branch, only for spotty kid Q to put him in his place.

BondAnd that's it? A gun and a radio? Not exactly Christmas, is it?
QWere you expecting an exploding pen? We don't really go in for that anymore.

Then there are a variety of interesting characters, ably played by very good actors. Daniel Craig is IMHO an excellent Bond, a lot closer to the graceful killing machine of Sean Connery in Doctor No than to subsequent incarnations. He looks like a killer, but an educated and stylish killer who also works to his own code of standards; very dangerous, but no loose cannon, and capable of showing humanity.

Javier Bardem is very good indeed as the Bond villain, Raoul Silva - he gives a lot of credibility to the character's motives and drives, and I completely got that the villain has an arguable point of view, and the "good guys" aren't innocent and have somewhat earned his displeasure.

Judi Dench's last outing as "M" is also her best; in the others she was a bit wasted, but this time she gets her chance to really perform and seizes it in both hands.

Ben Wishart is also very good as Q - a spotty computer nerd who is also razor eyed, very observant of others (he has Bond sized up in about two seconds) and extremely cool under pressure - a very formidable person who wins Bond's full respect quickly.

Ralph Fiennes didn't phone in his performance either, playing Guy Mallory, the civil servant who oversees M and is not one little bit impressed by any of it, having previously been a colonel in the SAS - but has plenty of fight in him when it's his turn to meet the enemy face to face. I rate an honourable mention for Albert Finney as well, playing Bond's Scottish family retainer, Mr Kinkaid, whose day job is as a gamekeeper, but who will fight and kill Bond villains too if they trespass on the family estate uninvited and with murderous intent; and doesn't even think it's all that unusual. He's done it before and he'll do it again if he has to.

I noted and enjoyed the use of location, especially London as a sort of battlefield. The Old Vic tunnels between the theatre and Waterloo Station become the new MI6 headquarters. The National Gallery I mentioned, and the film uses JMW Turner's masterpiece The Fighting Temeraire as a prop to symbolise Bond's supposed clapped out and obsolete status - the film shows the real painting BTW. Bond's pursuit of the escaping Raoul Silva through the London Underground is nicely done as well, with Bond getting a reminder of why he chose to be a secret agent, just so he wouldn't experience this banality every day.

This film is nonsense, but it's clever and stylish nonsense, exactly as a good Bond movie should be. I was entertained.