Review of Skyfall (2012) by Happymonk — 22 Jan 2013
The latest entry to the long-running James Bond series has perhaps hit a high note for the series as a whole, which is fitting, considering it was made for the 50th anniversary of the franchise. Pretty much everything feels right about this movie, the acting is superb from all involved, but I think Javier Bardem's turn as the ever famous Bond villain, in this film Silva, steals the show magnificently: he's just the right amount creepy and eerie as he is camp, liking him to Heath Ledger's Joker is perhaps some of the best praise I can give him (shame he does not have an Oscar nomination, although he does have a BAFTA nomination).
The film starts in a very exciting fight and chase scene, but the rest of the film is not as high octane as the opening scene, which is good as it really lets you get to see the characters properly. While most of the old Bond films have him going to exotic places to get the bad guy, Skyfall spends most of its run time in England, and the end of the film in Scotland, again, perfect for the 50th anniversary thing they had going, the scenes outside of England are just as good as ever, particularly the scenes in Shanghai, containing some of the best cinematography I have ever seen.
This is not found only in Shanghai, for one of the film's crowning glories is how beautifully shot it really is. On the 50th anniversary topic, several nods are made to what happened in the older films: a lot of these, sadly, went over my head, as I have not seen many Bond films at all.
It does deal with the timeline as well as it could, showing an old institution, which is changing with the times, but sticking to its roots was a fine indication of where the series is headed in the future.
Exciting, beautiful, tense and disturbing can all be used to describe Skyfall, whose only problem in my book is that the final showdown was a little lackluster in places compared to the rest of the film, helped only by Silva's creepy arrival.
The best Bond film? Perhaps. 92/100.
This review of Skyfall (2012) was written by Happymonk on 22 Jan 2013.
Skyfall has generally received very positive reviews.
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