MOVIE OF THE WEEK #2 (11/9/12): SKYFALL
KEY CAST MEMBERS: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Berenice Marlohe and Ola Rapace
WRITER(S): Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan
WRITER(S): Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan
DIRECTOR: Sam Mendes
THE PLOT: One of the few 007 adventures not based on one of Ian Fleming's novels, Skyfall finds British Mi6 agent James Bond (Daniel Craig) hot on the trail of an assassin later discovered to be known simply as "Patrice" (Ola Rapace). Assisted by another Mi6 agent (Naomie Harris; giving away her character's name would be a spoiler), Bond is in hot pursuit of Patrice as he has stolen a hard drive from a laptop that has the name of every undercover Mi6 agent. The chase eventually leads to Bond and Patrice squaring off atop a speeding train ...
What happens next? Let's just say Bond finds himself taking an unexpected vacation.
As if that weren't enough, Bond's boss M (Judi Dench) has the government – in the form of Gareet Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) – breathing down her neck as it seems many thing the agency is becoming outdated. Unfortunately, M proves just how valuable her agency is without lifting a finger once the contents of the hard drive are revealed, agents start getting exposed and an explosion rattles Mi6 headquarters in London.
Eventually returning to duty physically worse for the wear, Bond begins to track down Patrice once again ... Which leads to the discovery of who is behind all the fiendish actions: Silva (Javier Bardem), a particularly pompous individual with a master plan that is much, MUCH more personal than Bond first realizes.
With M in grave danger, it's up to the world's greatest secret agent to save the day once again and prevent the world from falling victim to ... Cue the Adele song!
What happens next? Let's just say Bond finds himself taking an unexpected vacation.
As if that weren't enough, Bond's boss M (Judi Dench) has the government – in the form of Gareet Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) – breathing down her neck as it seems many thing the agency is becoming outdated. Unfortunately, M proves just how valuable her agency is without lifting a finger once the contents of the hard drive are revealed, agents start getting exposed and an explosion rattles Mi6 headquarters in London.
Eventually returning to duty physically worse for the wear, Bond begins to track down Patrice once again ... Which leads to the discovery of who is behind all the fiendish actions: Silva (Javier Bardem), a particularly pompous individual with a master plan that is much, MUCH more personal than Bond first realizes.
With M in grave danger, it's up to the world's greatest secret agent to save the day once again and prevent the world from falling victim to ... Cue the Adele song!
THE TAKE: Umm, some of you will like Skyfall. It's got guns, girls (kinda – more on that in a minute) and enough of Daniel Craig flexing his muscles to keep plenty of people happy. What it doesn't have, however, is an original plot that isn't filled with more holes than one of 007's past targets, dialogue and character logic that doesn't border on inane if not just outright stupid, a villain who is more memorable for his appearance than anything else and a climax that isn't lackluster.
I mean, if you can ignore all that, Skyfall deserves all the money it's likely going to make.
I mean, if you can ignore all that, Skyfall deserves all the money it's likely going to make.
Craig is fine as Bond; he's established he can play the role well. Dench, however, has become as clench-jawed as the average NFL head coach as M, almost to the point where it borders on overkill (if I do say so myself about the Dame's performance).
That's nothing, however, on whatever that is that Bardem and director Sam Mendes were trying to accomplish/pull off with Silva. Over-the-top doesn't begin to describe the character ... It's almost as if Mendes said 'Well, they've already had Christopher Walken play a Bond villain and he know knows he's a caricature of himself, so who can we get that [1] will embrace too goofy to be offensive pseudo-bisexual criminal with [2] hair that seems out of place for any decade, even the 80s?" I know – Javier Bardem, the new king of characters with weird coiffures who kill people!
While it's bad enough the movie is saddled with a basic revenge story, Bardem is in the movie so little that is amazing his character is as bad as it is. Then again, for a Bond movie, there's so little action save for the opening and final sequences that there's no way it should have be a 2-and-a-half hour adventure. Of course, maybe the filmmakers meant to go back and explain/close/enhance some of the gross oversights in that time and just forgot to do so. Perhaps most offensive to some is that this Bond's charm is pushed to the background to create a Dark Knight Rises-type story arc; then again, even that movie used it's female characters better. (A Bond movie where the Bond girls are reduced to about 20-25 minutes of screen time?! What the deuce is this chicanery?!)
The long and short of it is this: Ever since introducing the "new" Bond (both in terms of the character and the actor playing him), the adventures of 007 have gotten progressively worse. Sure, Casino Royale was great, but Quantuum of Solace (a.k.a. Quantum of Confusion) was mediocre at best ... And even that was twice the movie Skyfall is. Sure, some will really enjoy the Wild West shootout that is the film's apex (where the reason for the film's name is revealed in a ho-hum fashion), but others will recognize this for what it is: A bad knock off of a Die Hard movie with European accents.
PARTING SHOT: A film that will please those looking for basic action pablum but surely disappoint those who value substance and/or the Bond legacy, Skyfall is a mediocre movie masquerading much like a common shot compared to a Vesper martini.
RATING (OUT OF FOUR BUCKETS OF POPCORN):
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