Review of Skyfall (2012) by Thekanator — 16 Feb 2016

Skyfall gets an above average rating for me.

It's major positives are the technical direction and the presentation. Director Sam Mendes creates many visually interesting shots in this movie. He is great at creating vibrant backdrops to the scenes like in one fight by a window where a times square style light up billboard creates a soft blue backdrop to the scene, or at the end of the film where they are fighting in the bright glow of a fire. The action in this movie is superb and the choreography feels real and thrilling. However once we get past the admittedly amazing presentation the movie starts to fall apart.

A major sub-plot of the movie is that Bond is falling apart after years of service and fails all the tests M16 gives to him. However this really doesn't go anywhere as the only time he every shows any weakness is when he misses a shot to hit a glass off of the top of the head of a hostage. Seriously. Both M and the main villain Silva talk about Bond's failings but 007 still effortlessly disposes of any opponent he goes after most of the time. The movie tries to give other characterization too but it comes off as flat and uninteresting and serves to make Bond look worse as a character (which Hint: he didn't really have a character beforehand). Look Bind is a cool secret agent that acts all high and mighty and beats people up and has a license to kill. He is not some complicated character so don't try to halfheartedly make him one.

Another major character problem is that the main villain Raoul Silva is not an intimidating villain. Whenever I was watching him be on screen it shattered my suspension of disbelief because he just screamed "WE SCREENWRITERS ARE TRYING TO MAKE A COOL VILLAIN BUT DON'T KNOW HOW!" The movie does so many things to make Silva appear intimidating and evil but it comes off as shallow and boring. And also he is the cause of some of the stupidest plot holes this side of being able to blow up AT-ATs with blasters.

Okay so the plot of the movie doesn't really hold up. In the opening sequence Bond is shot and is presumed dead in a mission but he just appears in a Latin American country later on. This isn't really explained and doesn't make any sense. Like, he was shot in the middle east I think how'd he get to south america? But whatever he comes back to London after MI6 is hacked and their building explodes. Bond goes to track the agent down, kills him, meets his associate who leads him to Silva. Bond captures Silva and brings him back to the MI6's secret underground back-up base. Then the stupidest thing ever happens. It's revealed that Silva's plan was to be captured and then escape. Which is so contrived because it's obvious they';re just copying dark knight and Silva has no reason t want to go to MI6 and then escape. Like,there is no reason to go to the HQ other than it's cool for the plot. Also, the escape plan hinges on the fact that Q will connect silva's computer to the MI6 base's computers. Which is dumb. If you're going through a hacker's computer why would you plug it in to your network? What if he just had a virus that would have wrecked the computers? Anyway Silva escapes through a train maintenance tunnel and Bond catches up but Silva manages to escape because he has a bomb planted that leads a train to fall on top of Bond. Which is stupid! How'd he know that he would be caught up to in that particular place. And if he did it just to put a wall between him anyone behind him, why didn't he blow it directly after he passed the bomb? It's another stupid plot contrivance. Then SIlva manages to invade a government hearing with just 3 guys against dozens of armed guards and tries to kill M. Luckily Bond saves the day and SIlva has to run away. The Bond takes M to his childhood mansion in Scottland. Also they took the crazy machine gun ejector seat car. There they fortify the house with only 2 hunting rifles and some TNT. With this they successfully defend themselves against a dozen of Silva's men with assault rifles. HOW?!?! And why is the groundskeeper their so good at killing trained mercenaries? It's all so CONTRIVED!! I did like it though when the groundskeeper killed a guy and aid "welcome to Scotland." Then a helicopter crashes into the house and, wait. Did I tell you? They had a helicopter with a Gatling gun and couldn't take out two old people and one agent that supposedly failed all the tests. Then Bond kills everyone but Silva, and M runs away with the groundskeeper to an old church that is apparently just 5 minutes away, I guess. Silva comes in and then puts a gun in M's hands and forces it to her head and then puts his head next to M's so that if M pulls the trigger she'll kill them both. WTF?! First off, why did he give M the ability to pull the trigger, secondly why is he suicidal all of a sudden. But then Bond kills him but M dies of a gun wound anyway.

While Skyfall has great action and presentation the plot is horrible and paces very slowly.