Skyfall

I’ve always thought that Bond was a great guy who simply kills everybody and escapes even an earthquake epicenter in the blink of an eye, all while living in an absolutely unrealistic environment governed by the British MI5. That’s how it always used to be before Daniel Craig came along and added realness to the Bond toughness; realness that I’ve always missed. For example, Casino Royale is already perfect, I consider it to be the best Bond movie. The subsequent Quantum of Solace was a yawnfest and it was necessary for the authors to step up and film something… something simply unforgettable that would bring a bit of elegance into the saga. Skyfall is a not-so-realistic realistic not-so-Bond Bond movie. Bond isn’t such a champ as we know him anymore and at times, we even get worried about him. But there are still scenes that haven’t even as much as brushed up against the reality of the modern day. But even so, it’s still great fun. There’s loads of action. And even if it’s just decent, it’s still entertaining. Sam Mendes is an amazing director and you simply can’t take that away from him. The story isn’t that bad either and at last, a contemporary Bond returns to the past. But without a doubt, the best thing about the entire movie was Javier Bardem. I’ve only seen a villain this great in Batman, back when Joker appeared in the new series. And back then, I thought that such a villain could never be topped. But partly, the rating is actually this high because of him. It’d be boring without him. And don’t even get me started on the ending. The third Daniel Craig movie is just very well done. It’s not such a shocker anymore like Casino Royale was, but it’s still a really pleasant entertainment that attempts to be realistic, but it’s still just for fun. But Bond will never be any other way, so who cares? (12/11/2012)

The first half of Skyfall, the only highlight of which is the Shanghai skyscraper, is well crafted but lengthy. Following the obligatory Bond traditions, the pace of the story is slowed down by unnecessary characters (the Bond girl) and brings few surprises (Bond being equipped with technological toys). However, from the scene with a sailboat approaching the island – and the villain’s entrance – it is the best Bond movie until today. Paradoxically, it doesn’t really look like a Bond movie at all. Too bad that the directors of subsequent instalments won’t be able to follow in Mendes’s footsteps. The editing art in the scene involving the imminent court attack and the visual aesthetics in Scotland elevate the Bond brand to the level of a delicate film drama. It is also the first Bond movie in which I enjoyed the relationships between the characters. Javier Bardem, whose performance is somewhere between the Joker and Hannibal, should get an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. (03/11/2012)

Mendes. Sam Mendes. He tries to combine a classic Bond movie and everything that goes with it in the first half, with a total denial of everything Bondian in the second. He tried and succeeded with both. It's a pity, of course, that the two halves don't exactly work together as one coherent whole. They are gorgeous in themselves. Both first and second. The non-Bondian one doubly so. But if you've ever wondered what Bond would look like as directed by Nolan, Mendes will give you a pretty clear answer to that, because this movie is “Nolanesque", completely; as far as plot, characters (there’s even a role for Caine; see Kincade), action, length, the old-fashioned technical side... A special thanks goes to the "invisible" duo Deakins and Newman, because what they bring to this movie is not seen every day in the world of blockbusters. (26/10/2012)

As an uncritical admirer of QoS, I am quite amazed at how many people there are who are able to bitch about Bond ceasing to be Bond and fading out of the franchise. Yet Sam Mendes has made the most classic entry in the saga, one that fits perfectly into the Sean Connery era in particular, while still being able to work within the confines of the new century. In the opening action, the excavator seems to symbolically break the trend of the previous two films, so that the protagonist then sets out on a new adventure through the path of presumed death. It serves up all the old-school proprieties, starting with a creepy villain that Bardem relishes to no end (the dental exposition will keep me waking from sleep for a long time) while still managing to make fun of them (the conversation with Q) and still managing to get deeper into Bond's head than last time. Everything then culminates in a purely personal final battle, which styles itself as a personal apocalypse (not only because of the helicopter raid). If anything deserves extreme praise, it's Deakins' cinematography and the lighting work (the Shanghai episode rules!), which is crowned by Newman's music, taking a novel route in the style of John Powell. Craig, as usual, is on point. If I have anything to criticize the film for, it is perhaps the persistent effort to remind us that it is "old-school." However, a second screening will certainly fix that. [And it did. A film perfect in every detail. Watching it is pure ecstasy.] (27/10/2012)

We all get older and nostalgically look back at the days when things were clearer and more straightforward. In Skyfall, the “humanisation” of Bond has veered in the direction of John McClane-style (along the lines of Live Free or Die Hard, to be precise) ridicule of today’s overly sophisticated and extravagant glorification of the good old straightforward ways. However, Bond is not the only one who is aging; we viewers are too, so we can join the hero in turning up our noses at the constant references to the Bond canon. Let’s acknowledge that the spectacular proof that the filmmakers spent hours reading the relevant wiki before writing the script is no longer a sign of superior dedication or self-reflection, but one of the main formulas for creating new contributions to old franchises. Besides that and the simplified oedipal storyline (if his adoptive mother had come out with the villain to raze his birthplace filled with the traumas of adolescence, there could have been peace), Skyfall also restores to the postmodern Bond movies the campiness of the earlier classics, which is manifested in the charismatic derangement of the villain, the ridiculousness of his nonsensically overwrought plans, the money-shot surrealism of the action sequences and, mainly, the climax, which evokes Scarecrow, Home Alone and Sightseers in equal measure. Thanks to that, we can grumble together with Bond about the over-cleverness of contemporary blockbusters, but regardless of that (or perhaps even because of it) we can simply enjoy the film as viewers. (06/04/2014)