Skyfall - Grading & Discussion

[trevanian]

It probably has a strong chance of winning the best song.

That will probably go to "Les Miserables"

Everyone's been talking about Anne's rendition of "I dreamed a dream" for months

My wife is a huge Adelle fan (she won't even listen to the SKYFALL song ever again, likes to pretend it didn't happen) and she mentioned hearing this was something like a one-shot recording, that she spent about 10 minutes on it (and to be fair, it sounds like it, it has to be among the weakest things she has ever recorded.)

Probably victim of the usual Bond thing, which is cram stuff into postproduction in as tiny a space as possible. They could have had her working on it for 18 months, but I guess they just dicked around. Well, they got their money's worth anyway, in hype if not in quality.

The fact the academy is already planning a Bond tribute makes me think they will probably win something this year, deserving or not. Oscar has had way too many of these 'too cool for coincidence' events, ranging from Sean Connery presenting the oscar that Catherine Zeta-Jones won to Lucas & Spielberg presenting best director the year Scorsese happens to finally win one. Would those guys have been handing it out to somebody else? If there was even a CHANCE they'd be handing it to somebody else, someone else would be up there handing it out.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Loved the return of the DB5. This was actually the same one as in the Connery movies (though the one they blew up was a 1/3 model that started life as a 3-D print.

I still say Craig is too low-class and homely to be Bond, but he may be the best actor to ever take the role.

 

[dru]

It started off fun and interesting. I hadn't seen one of the Daniel Craig Bonds movies that I can recall. At some point it became a plodding, directionless bore and by the time they were in Scotland I was having a nap.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Skyfall will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 12th.

 

[Captain Picard.]

I only saw 45 minutes of it but I would give it a A-

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Skyfall will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 12th.

It's on iTunes right now.

 

[HaventGotALife]

I loved this movie. Bond as a bad guy. If you've been following Daniel Craig from the beginning, you will see similarities between Bond and Rodriguez. Bond has been flying by the seat of his pants, toeing the line with M since his first movie (re: using her password login to get information after blowing up an embassy, etc). In this movie, Bond has a scar from one of M's choices, to shoot at the bad guy when there was no clear shot and she almost killed him. The same for giving up Rodriguez for "exceeding his mandate" in China, and getting "six agents" for him. 5 months tortured, left for dead. He's pissed off at M during this movie--like when he calls her a bitch and confronts her about ordering the shot. And Rodriguez uses that to his advantage. He tried to literally and figuratively seduce Bond to join him. He becomes more of a white-knight after that because of it. It pushes Bond back to where he needs to be and I think it will be a growth in his character.

As for Skyfall itself, I wish Sean had played the old guy at Skyfall. It would've been perfect for the 50th Anniversary.

It was well-done and I was engaged the entire time. What a wonderful movie. It was great and I got a wonderful poster out of it!

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I liked the movie.

Probably fluff movie of the year.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One thing I didn't get - Rodriguez said that he was imprisoned for months in a room with no air. Wouldn't that, you know, kill him from suffocation?

 

[The Wormhole]

^^He's likely exaggerating.

 

[trevanian]

One thing I didn't get - Rodriguez said that he was imprisoned for months in a room with no air. Wouldn't that, you know, kill him from suffocation?

he was probably talking about John Logan the 'screenwriter.'

That's the only excuse for a script like this ... well, that and a world full of undiscerning viewers.

 

[Gaith]

^ Cracked, on the movie's "plot":

The entire point of Silva's scheme is to kill M during her hearing -- he has two guys waiting for him with a cop uniform after he breaks out of MI6 specifically so that he can sneak into the courthouse and shoot her. Presumably he allowed himself to get captured (as opposed to just going straight to the courthouse) because he wanted to upload the virus into MI6's computers to distract everyone.

​

Here's the thing: Silva's master plan began the moment he got captured, timing it so that he'd be in custody right when M was testifying. But he didn't turn himself in -- he was captured by Bond. So how could he have known when that would happen? Bond tracks a bullet shard in his shoulder to an assassin guy who has a casino chip from a casino where he sticks it to some lady who happens to know where Silva is. That's literally how it happens -- Silva had no control over that. How many days were those two fake cops standing there, waiting for Silva?


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He's pissed off at M during this movie--like when he calls her a bitch and confronts her about ordering the shot.

And because Moneypenny was too much of a ditz to shoot the bad guy after accidentally shooting Bond, a lot of agents actually did die, including some presumably horrific deaths for the outed undercover agents. So just maybe M made the correct call in the intro after all, even though I can't imagine why such a super-important file ever left MI6 headquarters in the first place? In Casino Royale, Bond is mature enough to know he'll probably be killed in the line of duty ("I hear 00s have a very short life expectancy", he said). In Skyfall, it's him, not M, being a whiny b****. If Bond hadn't wasted time on the dying agent at the very start, he would probably have recovered the list, saved a lot of lives, and saved me the trouble of paying ten bucks to see this movie. And yet we're supposed to be on his side when he's all huffy toward his boss. Uh, no. I want my Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace real Bond back, please.

And Rodriguez uses that to his advantage. He tried to literally and figuratively seduce Bond to join him.

Silva forfeited any high ground he might have had by killing/getting non-M MI6 employees killed before we or Bond even meet him, so that attempt was a total non-starter, and thus lacked any kind of depth. It's kinda like the Joker suggesting Batman free him because, let's face it, he is a pretty nifty dresser.


.... Also, given how lousy Bond's aim in the tests were, the fact that M sends him out to do a job that often involves firing in crowded public places suggests she either didn't want him to use his weapon in such circumstances, or was just fine with innocent bystanders being killed. Either way, he should never have been put back in the field. Pamela Landy wouldn't have even considered doing so.

"Marybelle did what?! Homegirl's getting senile.
She should retire to India or something."

.
​

 

[Starkers]

^everyone.

​

H
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And because Moneypenny was too much of a ditz to shoot the bad guy after accidentally shooting Bond, a lot of agents actually did die, including some presumably horrific deaths for the outed undercover agents. So just maybe M made the correct call in the intro after all, even though I can't imagine why such a super-important file ever left MI6 headquarters in the first place? In Casino Royale, Bond is mature enough to know he'll probably be killed in the line of duty ("I hear 00s have a very short life expectancy", he said). In Skyfall, it's him, not M, being a whiny b****. If Bond hadn't wasted time on the dying agent at the very start, he would probably have recovered the list, saved a lot of lives, and saved me the trouble of paying ten bucks to see this movie. And yet we're supposed to be on his side when he's all huffy toward his boss. Uh, no. I want my Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace real Bond back, please.

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Er, he was all huffy towards her in CR and QoS to, in fact you could argue his view is exactly the same in all three films. "You should have trusted me." in fact the film where M has a point is arguably CR because Bond is an idiot in it.

And yeah the plot makes no sense, but you know what, I could dissect the plot of Casino Royale just as easily.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

Skyfall was amazing. I loved every minute of it.

 

[JarodRussell]

I've been watching the entire Bond series lately, and the amazing revelation was that Judi Dench's M fucked it up in every single Bond film she's been in. She's mostly working against Bond, and in the end has to admit that he's been right and she's been wrong. Skyfall feels like the climax of the arc of an incompetent M.

 

[Professor Zoom]

I've been watching the entire Bond series lately, and the amazing revelation was that Judi Dench's M fucked it up in every single Bond film she's been in. She's mostly working against Bond, and in the end has to admit that he's been right and she's been wrong. Skyfall feels like the climax of the arc of an incompetent M.

It's not the climax of the incompetent M. It's where Bond JOINS her in being incompetent.

How many people who fuck up as much as Bond does in this movie STILL get to keep their job?

 

[Captrek]

How many people who fuck up as much as Bond does in this movie STILL get to keep their job?

A number of these people come to mind.

 

[Gaith]

Er, he was all huffy towards her in CR and QoS to, in fact you could argue his view is exactly the same in all three films. "You should have trusted me." in fact the film where M has a point is arguably CR because Bond is an idiot in it.

Maybe, but at least there he's doing his best, which is pretty darn good, and is huffy only when he thinks M is holding him back. In Skyfall, however, he repeatedly fails spectacularly (doesn't secure the agent list, doesn't even attempt to save the Hong Kong shooting victim, doesn't tell Q it might not be such a great idea to plug Silva's computer right into the MI6 network, and apparently doesn't notice several large gas cannisters while booby-trapping the manor), deserts the service, then doesn't point out the obvious - that he isn't fit for duty - upon his return, and is huffy all the while towards M because she's more correct than he is.

 

[Starkers]

Where in his job description does it say that 007 should save the assasination victim in Shanghai? For all we know the guy Patrice shot is as much of a bastard as Silva, in fact you could argue that given the circles he's obviously travelling in he's unlikely to be a humanitarian. Personally I'm more bothered about the poor security guy Patrice offs downstairs...

But, again, you could argue Bond is acting no differently. How many times has 007 gone out of his way to protect an innocent who wasn't the Bond girl or someone he had a specific reason to protect? 00 Agent, licenced to kill, he's an assasin, a blunt object whose objective is to provoke and confront, if I recall the M/Miranda conversation from DAD correctly.

007 is also not an expert in IT so I wouldn't expect him to suddenly turn into Harry Enfield and go "Ere, Q, you don't wanna do it like that, you want to do it like this..."

And I think he does know about the gas canisters, he just had no reason to need to use them because he wasn't expecting a helicopter gunship to turn up.

As for the agent list, he wasn't given the chance to retrive it, instead M told an inexperienced field agent to take a shot at two practically inseperable targets on a moving train...personally I think it was a situation where they were both right, to an extent, or at least I can see both points of view.

As for not pointing out that he's unfit for service, again I could give you countless examples of that (TWINE for one).

 

[Gaith]

007 is also not an expert in IT so I wouldn't expect him to suddenly turn into Harry Enfield and go "Ere, Q, you don't wanna do it like that, you want to do it like this..."

Really? Did you not see Casino Royale, in which he was able to track a cell phone using M's personal computer?

No offense, but I can't really take anyone seriously who defends this plot point. Bond was shown in this same movie to be wary of Q's youth and inexperience. He knew Q had caused a massive explosion in MI6 via hacking alone. And, as we've seen in Quantum of Solace, when he told the airline girl she was about to get a call inquiring where he was headed, he knows a thing or two about how fast modern and sophisticated modern computing is.

Maybe he took a few too many hits to the head before Istanbul, because Skyfall's Bond is a lot dumber than CR/QoS'.