Skyfall - Grading & Discussion

[Mister Fandango]

Q doing something blazingly stupid was a key part of his characterization, as essential as his hairstyle and mannerisms.

We must have seen a different movie, because in the one I saw, Q was pretty much a hardcore super hacker himself. Directly linking someone else's machine not only to your own, but directly to your entire network, is... well, it's absolutely moronic. Especially for anyone who's even mildly security conscious. Even if it's just his mother's laptop where all he needed to do was fix a setting in her web browser, he still wouldn't have plugged it straight into their network.

The writers were just unbelievably daft. Moreso than usual even, if for no other reason than that they were trying to create a more realistic and believable Bond franchise.

 

[Gaith]

Which would have made more sense. As it now, Silva's plan IS to be captured. And taken to a specific place that hadn't been set up when he set his plan in motion. And hope that Q is stupid. Or arrogantly stupid.

Honestly, it makes one believe that Silva was working with someone on the inside...

He almost has to be. 'Cause otherwise I'm still waiting for an explanation for how he got out of his cell and killed two armed guards, neither of whose bodies were within fifteen feet of the thing!

 

[stj]

Q doing something blazingly stupid was a key part of his characterization, as essential as his hairstyle and mannerisms.

We must have seen a different movie, because in the one I saw, Q was pretty much a hardcore super hacker himself. Directly linking someone else's machine not only to your own, but directly to your entire network, is... well, it's absolutely moronic. Especially for anyone who's even mildly security conscious. Even if it's just his mother's laptop where all he needed to do was fix a setting in her web browser, he still wouldn't have plugged it straight into their network.

The writers were just unbelievably daft. Moreso than usual even, if for no other reason than that they were trying to create a more realistic and believable Bond franchise.

They were? Be that as it may, they didn't give Q that weird hair because he was anything but a fool who didn't get that Bond's old school he-manliness was the One True Path. He came across like a really smart ninth grader who hasn't quite realized yet he's gay. Q was supposed to fail to show how great Bond is, and the more moronically he failed the more vividly this Truth is demonstrated. Bond is the only man in the house, the winner. (Yes, technically Bond failed, but there's a reason no one at the end seems to have noticed.)

 

[Gaith]

^ And yet Bond was standing right by Q when he accessed the computer, and didn't speak a peep of caution.

 

[Trekker4747]

And, really, it's a flaw that could have been rectified by a line or two of dialogue. Have Q say that somehow Silva's programing is breaking through MI6's firewalls and security measures. It'd be a weak excuse but it'd at least be something. Instead it seems more like it just never dawned on him that such a thing could happen when he connected the machine.

 

[sojourner]

'Cause otherwise I'm still waiting for an explanation for how he got out of his cell and killed two armed guards, neither of whose bodies were within fifteen feet of the thing!

Did you miss the bit where his virus was sending "open" commands to any doors it could? The entire reason Bond suddenly took off running for Silva's cell? As for the guards, well, he's that good? ok, I got nothin.

 

[Gaith]

Guards are watching him.

The cell door opens.

Guards: "Huh, that's fu - argh, my brains- feel - compelled - to turn around and - stare at wall, even though I hear footsteps approaching - knew I shouldn't have allowed MI6 to give me that cyber implant - OW! -"

 

[sojourner]

You didn't read my entire post, did you?

 

[FPAlpha]

And, really, it's a flaw that could have been rectified by a line or two of dialogue. Have Q say that somehow Silva's programing is breaking through MI6's firewalls and security measures. It'd be a weak excuse but it'd at least be something. Instead it seems more like it just never dawned on him that such a thing could happen when he connected the machine.

Professional arrogance.. he's one of the best IT specialists in the world and works for MI6.. surely no one can invade or crack his system!

 

[Gaith]

You didn't read my entire post, did you?

Verily, I did. But I went for the gag anyway.

 

[sojourner]

Fair enough.

 

[ROBE]

Guards are always useless in fiction, Sir Terry Pratchett in his book the Last Hero even makes reference to this.
People employed as guards wouldn't notice a male prisoner escaping dressed as a woman even with three weeks of beard growth.

 

[Saul]

Not a bad movie but not the best and overhyped in my opinion. It's a more personal Bond film but I didn't feel there was anything new discovered about his past that the previous 22 movies didn't show.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Guards are always useless in fiction, Sir Terry Pratchett in his book the Last Hero even makes reference to this.
People employed as guards wouldn't notice a male prisoner escaping dressed as a woman even with three weeks of beard growth.

This has actually happened in reality:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maze_(HM_Prison)#Breakouts_and_attempted_breakouts

 

[MacLeod]

Yeah, the groundskeeper who's been there for decades upon decades wouldn't know where the dangerous terrain was by heart.

This...

But, somehow, the decrepit old church they could see in the distance once the sun was up was somehow safer than the tunnels they likely wouldn't have had a clue even existed.

And this.


Even if the flashlight had been necessary, and it wasn't, so long as the beam was pointed down at a 45-degree angle, away from the house at all times, it probably wouldn't have been a problem. But the guy was waving it all around.

So it's a cold night (perhaps winters night), you're walking over uneven ground, the light from the fire might not cast much light ahead of you due to the uneven ground. So you might use a torch and sweep ahead of you to see if there is a safer/easier path.

 

[sojourner]

sweep ahead of you

The key part. Not "wave it around like a drunken sailor looking for his wooden leg".

 

[Arpy]

I stepped out briefly during the movie: was Silva gay or was he screwing the girl, or was he gay but such an asshole he was also screwing the girl?

And isn't the bombing on MI6, the attack during the hearing, and M's death (head of British intelligence) just one huge clusterfuck for the UK in the Bond universe? Wouldn't the mood in the nation be a mess?

 

[Starkers]

And, really, it's a flaw that could have been rectified by a line or two of dialogue. Have Q say that somehow Silva's programing is breaking through MI6's firewalls and security measures. It'd be a weak excuse but it'd at least be something. Instead it seems more like it just never dawned on him that such a thing could happen when he connected the machine.

Professional arrogance.. he's one of the best IT specialists in the world and works for MI6.. surely no one can invade or crack his system!

Exactly, it's the arrogance of the man who thinks he's the smartest man in the room. It's still a bit daft but that does go part way to explaining it.

 

[Trekker4747]

I stepped out briefly during the movie: was Silva gay or was he screwing the girl, or was he gay but such an asshole he was also screwing the girl?

Irrelevant and not addressed. Also, irrelevant.

And isn't the bombing on MI6, the attack during the hearing, and M's death (head of British intelligence) just one huge clusterfuck for the UK in the Bond universe? Wouldn't the mood in the nation be a mess?

Eh, it's Britain, they'll drink some tea, eat some crumpets watch some inexplicable "humor" and get over it.

In all honesty it probably WOULD be a huge mess for MI6 and the government but they'd recover quickly enough especially after finding and killing the guy who did it within days.

 

[MacLeod]

I stepped out briefly during the movie: was Silva gay or was he screwing the girl, or was he gay but such an asshole he was also screwing the girl?

And isn't the bombing on MI6, the attack during the hearing, and M's death (head of British intelligence) just one huge clusterfuck for the UK in the Bond universe? Wouldn't the mood in the nation be a mess?

As opposed to any number of other terrorist attacks that have occured in the UK?

All the attacks demonstrated esp. the one on the hearing was the need for things like MI6.