James Bond In Skyfall - - Part 11

[protocida]

^ I doubt both even have a chance to be nominated.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if Roger Deakins wins for best cinematography. The movie just looks so... pretty.

 

[Marvolo]

I haven't seen the movie, BUT...would it have been so difficult to change the opening shot to not make the gun barrel sequence feel redundant?

Id say that Deakins set the shot up specifically and he doesnt seem like the type to change his setup for a 5 second gunbarrel sequence. Man knows what he wants.

 

[The Englishman]

Id say that Deakins set the shot up specifically and he doesnt seem like the type to change his setup for a 5 second gunbarrel sequence. Man knows what he wants.

Plus it's a great shot...

 

[Dark Raven]

So finally watched Skyfall tonight. On the whole it was good, and as a film it's quite good. As a Bond film though, I think there are two glaring weaknesses for me.

Spoiler

1. The complete absence of a Bond girl from the middle of the second act. I was sad that Severine died so early on and didn't even manage to escape the clutches of Silva. However, I thought that Eve might get in on the action, especially since she was billed before Berenice. However, there's no Bond girl to be seen. In fact, Judi Dench actually is effectively the main Bond girl for most of the movie. She fulfils the traditional role held by one and is there amidst the action in the last act.

2. The last act just stopped being a Bond movie for me. In another film, or in a TV show, it would work fine, but it just didn't feel like Bond at all with him holed up at Skyfall lodge in Scotland. What's more is that with both Albert Finney there and Judi Dench, it felt like a film about someone protecting his parents (even though technically they aren't). It was like a family standoff against intruders. I was disappointed with the finale. It just wasn't the type of place I would want to see featuring and also just too grim in misty Scotland. It felt like a completely different film.

Oh, the other thing I didn't like right from the start was the absence of the gunbarrel in its traditional place at the start. That's what I want to see right before the action opens, as it always heralded a sense of excitement and got you in the mood.

Most of the stuff in London with Bond chasing Silva on the London Underground and trying to prevent M's assassination was interesting, especially with Q on hand to help. However, I just felt that the ending should've been in a more exotic location and not so downbeat or untraditional for a 50th anniversary celebration.

So I'd give this film about a 7 maybe.

 

[Marvolo]

Spoiler tags people! This movie is not out in the US!

 

[TheVileOne]

I liked it. To me this movie was basically completing the origin of Daniel Craig's Bond becoming the Bond we know. This is sort of what I think was happening with Nolan's Batman movies until he and his bro and Goyer wrote themselves into a corner they couldn't get out of in Dark Knight Rises.

I will say, most of the Bond girls in the Craig movies have been extremely lacking since Eva Green as Vesper. Olga was weak in Solace and I mean . . . they didn't even do anything.

The subplot with Naomie Harris wasn't fulfilling enough. Harris is really underused and they could've done a lot more with her. Berenice Marlohe's character is almost pointless, almost as pointless as Strawberry Fields in Solace.

What's funny is Judi Dench's M is basically the closest thing the movie has to a true Bond girl.

Action was good and the style is a lot closer to Casino Royale with the action scenes. Marc Forster clearly didn't know how to direct an action movie or a Bond movie period and basically had his stunt choreographers and second unit directors rip off the Bourne movies since they were trashing Bond movies in the US at the time.

I don't know why people got so worked up about the business with Silva and Bond. It was one of the funniest moments of the movie and Bond is clearly BS-ing his way through that whole scene to play along with and humor Silva not unlike how he was trying to get through his torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. It actually got one of the biggest laughs and positive reactions out of the whole movie at my screening.

 

[TheGuy]

Spoiler

2. The last act just stopped being a Bond movie for me. In another film, or in a TV show, it would work fine, but it just didn't feel like Bond at all with him holed up at Skyfall lodge in Scotland. What's more is that with both Albert Finney there and Judi Dench, it felt like a film about someone protecting his parents (even though technically they aren't). It was like a family standoff against intruders. I was disappointed with the finale. It just wasn't the type of place I would want to see featuring and also just too grim in misty Scotland. It felt like a completely different film.

So I'd give this film about a 7 maybe.

Skyfall was about the characters confronting their past. I thought about the location of the finale for a while, perhaps a change, but ignored it because it's consistent with the themes of the movie.

9/10. Maybe 8.

 

[The Englishman]

I liked the locations in the film, we don't always need exotic locations, we had plenty of those in QOS.

 

[Brian Braddock]

Yup, some of us on here have been crying out for a more 'domestic' Bond movie for ages and now we've finally been given one.

 

[Dark Raven]

All this talk of Connery's weight reminds me of YOLT were they had to ice his nipples before certain scenes otherwise you could see his moobs through his shirt. t: Anyone who doesnt beleive me can see it on on the special features documentary of the old DVD.

How exactly does that help? Isn't that the exact opposite of what one should do? I thought women ice their nipples if they want them to stand up erect for photography (and it happens anyway if there's a cold breeze). How can that have the opposite effect?

 

[Dark Raven]

Not that I want to see this remotely at all, but do you think that because Judi Dench

Spoiler

is really in fact the main Bond girl in this movie (she is, if you really think about it), that she's going to get offers from Hugh Hefner to appear in Playboy to join all the other Bond girls who've posed for that girlie mag?

Imagine the types of scenes they could have:

Dench coming out of the water like Ursula Andress?

Or in a black leather catsuit like ***** Galore?

Or in a traditional indian costume with 8 arms wrapped around Bond?

Or maybe her thighs wrapped round Bond like Xenia Onatopp?



I just hope Hunter Rider doesn't take her Bond girl status to heart and add her to Hotties thread anytime soon.

 

[DKDetective]

Not that I want to see this remotely at all, but do you think that because Judi Dench

Spoiler

is really in fact the main Bond girl in this movie (she is, if you really think about it), that she's going to get offers from Hugh Hefner to appear in Playboy to join all the other Bond girls who've posed for that girlie mag?

Imagine the types of scenes they could have:

Dench coming out of the water like Ursula Andress?

Or in a black leather catsuit like ***** Galore?

Or in a traditional indian costume with 8 arms wrapped around Bond?

Or maybe her thighs wrapped round Bond like Xenia Onatopp?



I just hope Hunter Rider doesn't take her Bond girl status to heart and add her to Hotties thread anytime soon.

Ummm, ***** Galore never wore a black leather catsuit... Getting Bond and Batman confused again?

 

[Dark Raven]

Ummm, ***** Galore never wore a black leather catsuit... Getting Bond and Batman confused again?

Actually I was thinking of Cathy Gale at the time.

 

[Gold Samurai]

Not that I want to see this remotely at all, but do you think that because Judi Dench

Spoiler

is really in fact the main Bond girl in this movie (she is, if you really think about it), that she's going to get offers from Hugh Hefner to appear in Playboy to join all the other Bond girls who've posed for that girlie mag?

Imagine the types of scenes they could have:

Dench coming out of the water like Ursula Andress?

Or in a black leather catsuit like ***** Galore?

Or in a traditional indian costume with 8 arms wrapped around Bond?

Or maybe her thighs wrapped round Bond like Xenia Onatopp?



I just hope Hunter Rider doesn't take her Bond girl status to heart and add her to Hotties thread anytime soon.

A young Judy Dench with Connery's bond in the 60's would have been awesome to see.

 

[Marvolo]

So I just realized that Robert Carlyle (Dr. Rush from Stargate Universe) is the bad guy in The World Is Not Enough. Mind blown.

 

[747]

Just came back from Skyfall. It was very good! The last half hour fantastic even. Loved the theme of old vs new and how the movie itself was a mix of new and old. Like some old characters back, but in a new form.

By pretty far the best looking Bond-movie too. I loved all the sides of the cinematography, but especially the lightning and the colors.

You know the saying "jaw dropping", it's often used, but how often do your jaw actually drop? Well I can't remember the last time before tonight. Without saying too much the moment involves an epic explosion combined with absolutely gorgeous photography.

It's also a movie that makes one incredibly intrigued and interested in the future of Bond-movies. I'm glad the next one is in the planning stage already!

Another thing that stuck with me is how this movie maybe is the most successful combination and balance of book Bond and movie Bond so far. Infact the whole movie had great balance. Humor and action, deep and shallow etc.

Bond is back with a pleasure!

8/10 or 4/5

 

[The Englishman]

So I just realized that Robert Carlyle (Dr. Rush from Stargate Universe) is the bad guy in The World Is Not Enough. Mind blown.

Welcome to 1999

 

[matrix_ghost]

Saw it yesterday .
Like it , didn't love it. BY far the most human Bond yet with them really focusing on the characters.
Severine as a bond girl...wow . Seriously for those who have seen the movie , they know her fate. I was very disappointed with her. Naomie Harris as Eve worked for some reason.'
Considering how everything turns out at the end , it makes sense that her role is limited.
With now 3 movies Craig's Bond is finally ready to take on the big work. His character arc is now complete IMO.

Action was top notch although i do agree with some posters that the final fight was very un-Bond like.

Also the cinematography was top class. I'd love to see Wally Pfister's comments on Deakins digital work here. It was absoluletely stellar !

 

[Dark Raven]

Saw it yesterday .
Like it , didn't love it. BY far the most human Bond yet with them really focusing on the characters.
Severine as a bond girl...wow . Seriously for those who have seen the movie , they know her fate. I was very disappointed with her. Naomie Harris as Eve worked for some reason.'
Considering how everything turns out at the end , it makes sense that her role is limited.
With now 3 movies Craig's Bond is finally ready to take on the big work. His character arc is now complete IMO.

Action was top notch although i do agree with some posters that the final fight was very un-Bond like.

Also the cinematography was top class. I'd love to see Wally Pfister's comments on Deakins digital work here. It was absoluletely stellar !

It was like something you'd get in Burn Notice, or the A-Team even. In any other film it would be fine, but there's a certain expectation you have in Bond. And also an expectation about the Bond girl.

If Naomie Harris had

Spoiler

been in the final fight at Skyfall Lodge, that would've at least had a Bond girl alongside Bond as it normally has been, and then maybe she could've tried to get M to safety, but failed at it. It could've been that failure that made her realise finally that she's not cut out for the field, and it still would've worked and satisfied traditionalists.

Instead, what we get is our own realisation by the end of the film that a Bond girl has been alongside Bond at the end, and she's none other than Judi Dench!!

Craig should've said at the end "the b**** is dead". Make it his Bond's catchphrase for every Bond girl he so unluckily loses in his tenure.

 

[The Englishman]

I think the final fight was more like Straw Dogs and I loved it!

 

[Gianakin_]

The very fact that the final fight was nothing we'd seen before when it comes to Bond was exactly why I loved it. Agreed that [BLACKOUT]Eve should've been there and her failure to save M was the final straw that made her leave the field.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[spidey-dude]

to be honest I would quite like to have seen

Spoiler

M die in the courtroom and Bond go after Silva in the last act to exact revenger.... Bond going off for revenge was the plot of QoS though so maybe would have been a setback character wise - could have been ordered to bring Silva in though as he still had the disk of agents which would have been a loose end and a potential threat, Mallory could have even questioned whther Bond would be able to put aside his personal revenge....

just my musings....

 

[Gianakin_]

That would have worked, too. But, like you said, we got some of that already.

 

[Dark Raven]

to be honest I would quite like to have seen

Spoiler

M die in the courtroom and Bond go after Silva in the last act to exact revenger.... Bond going off for revenge was the plot of QoS though so maybe would have been a setback character wise - could have been ordered to bring Silva in though as he still had the disk of agents which would have been a loose end and a potential threat, Mallory could have even questioned whther Bond would be able to put aside his personal revenge....

just my musings....

I would've liked that too.

Spoiler

It would've also allowed Bond to pursue Silva to a more exotic location and a more typically Bond type of finale.

I was hoping Bond would also engage Silva in a physical fight rather than just getting him with a knife which was a little anti-climactic and too quick. Since he was a former MI6 agent, I would've liked to see agent vs agent to see who comes out on top, with Silva even getting the better of Bond at times because of Bond's injury, but Bond finally winning through.

I also wish that "Skyfall" was not simply Bond's ancestral home, but rather the name of a mass operation to bring down MI6. For all of its apocalyptic undertones, it turns out to be something rather too bland and simple as the name of a lodge.

 

[spidey-dude]

^agree with that

What I really want in the next film is a mission that requires Bond to infiltrate and organisation, as well as some investgative work