Hmm...
Skyfall...
It was an interesting film to behold, that's for certain.
Hmm, Skyfall...
Alright, enough with the delay, here are a few thoughts on the latest James Bond flick.
- They really turned the intensity up for Daniel Craig's Bond. Emotionally and physically, we've seen this man being put through the wringer over and over, but this time it's almost like it's starting to take its toll. This weariness, as well as his well drawn relationship with Judi Dench's M, actually makes Skyfall seem more like an "end times" James Bond, like he's been working for much longer than three movies. Compounding this is the side-plot diversion questioning the necessity of spy organisations in the modern world. None of this has to be bad or good, it is all intriguing, but somewhat unusual for a series that traditionally sticks to formula.
- Absolutely beautiful visuals in this film -- though not so much a surprise since the cinematographer is Roger Deakins, known for his work with the Coen Brothers, as well as being a visual consultant on other beautiful movies such as How To Train Your Dragon, WALL-E and Rango -- so much so, in fact, that I think it beats out The Dark Knight Rises for the best looking movie of the year.
- Speaking of Batman, this Bond movie has more than a few shades of superheroics throughout, in the more recent comic-book sense rather than the over the top goofiness of pre-Craig Bonds. The action scenes are brutal but still hyper-real. Bond gets shot, dropped from great heights and tossed around into various varieties of hard surface yet still gets back up for more. Combined with the weariness suggested in the emotional breadth of this movie, we get a good mix of believability and sheer crazy.
- We already know that Craig will be back, so the question after Skyfall is whether such a movie can be topped. This deft balancing of outlandishness with the gritty modern action movie seems to me just about as far as Bond can go. Casino Royale was attempting to use Bourne as a new template, Skyfall finally marries the two in an almost seamless effort -- what exactly comes next? Short of rebooting the series as a period piece set in the Cold War once again (which I would get behind a lot faster than I should admit), any further development will probably take Bond further from its original style.
- On the other hand, I am willing to eat these concerns if Bond 24 can be as eminently watchable and exciting as Skyfall was.
