(yes, it's one lame headline, I know. Disregarding that....)
I watched James Bond: Skyfall tonight. It was awesome. I totally can recommend it. The movie is a complete contradiction to the classic Bond-franchise, yet it still keeps the essentials to make it feel like a Bond movie. The way it makes itself appear feels like a beginning, which it obviously was(a reboot at that), yet, the movie series could have well ended here, and I would have been happy with it.
The movie is actually more about M than Bond. Or rather, it defines bond with M's character in a way that hasn't been done before in the franchise with any character(sans Bond's parents, who are never really addressed in the series). In the latest editions of the movie(beginning with Goldeneye), M's been a mother-character for Bond, unwillingly or otherwise, never specified(though evidence suggests unwilling-option). We see more of Bond behind the agent, behind the façade we've seen in the previous movie.
The Craig-Bond has been overall more grim and rough character. I'm guessing it's more or less in fashion nowadays, as opposed by the charming dandy lady-killer we have been accustomed to see. It's working better, at least for me, I find such character easier to relate to.
But I digress.
(spoilers to follow)
The movie fires up with a traditional action scene in Istanbul, where the camera work is great. Just marvelous to look at, dynamic and smooth as fuck. Lighting was also stellar, action well-coordinated, and fun to follow. If I must find something to nitpick about, it'll be, again, the unbelievably long chase sequence, which, on the other hand, illustrates the superhuman ability of Bond as an agent. Bond's after a laptop, or it's hard-drive that contains all the names of MI6 undercover agents on the field. As we've seen from the trailers, Bond gets shot, by an unexpected assailant(I'll return to this later). He then spends the downtime doing the obvious thing everyone'd think to do when they get shot: get wasted and play drinking games that involve scorpions, upping his badassery by at least a 2.
He's distracted from destroying all his braincells by a piece of news telling that the MI6 HQ, more precisely the M's office, has been blown up. Obviously he returns to work, otherwise we wouldn't have a movie. The new MI6 headquarters are introduced in the London sewers(we're seeing awful lot of these lately in film and TV, not that I complain), where he completely botches the tests that define if he's suitable for fieldwork anymore. Big shocker, he isn't, yet M decides he is and sends him off to catch the fellow who got him shot. )also he digs shrapnel of a depleted uranium round from his shoulder, where he was shot[with a Glock, no less]. Anyone who knows anything about firearms knows that DU-rounds require a long barrel and a powerful round to propel them at speeds where they would be of any use. Although the Glock was cool.)
Also introduced is the new Q, who is, geeky and kinda uke. I can almost hear the slashfics being written, this ships itself. He gives Bond his tickets to China and a handprint PPK-plot device.
Bond is off to Hong Kong, where he finds his shooter and drops him off a scyscraper. Conveniently he finds his way through a cash chip to a casino where Komodo dragons are kept as pets(how cool is that!). He cashes it in, finds a Bond-girl-to-be(more on that later), fights some guys, uses the PPK handprint-plotdevice to kill accidentally a guy with a Komodo, and runs away and bangs the girl.
In the morning, the ship tehy are is indested with a serious case of henchmen, and they approach the Battleship-island(it's obviously Gunkanjima), where Bond is held captive by the bad guy from No Country for Old Men, who here is a gay-ish blonde who hates M.They collaborately shoot the Bond-girl-to-be with flintlocks and Bond kills all the henchmen, calls in the cavalry and captures the villain.
Like asshats they take him to the MI6 HQ to be questioned, which OF FUCKING COURSE is a part of his plan, and he runs away while Bond and his new geek-bedwarmer try to hack into his laptop, and trigger the bad guy's plans while doing so. Bond chases him, fails to catch him but saves M in the frenzy, then kidnaps her and they are off to Skyfall lodge, Bond's ancestral home. Not before switching their lowsy modern sportscar into an Aston Martin DB5, with all the traditional Bond-gadgets! How cool is that. Bond also threatens to eject M from the car.
The happy campers reach Skyfall, and arm themselves with a shotgun, Bond's PPK and a fabulous side-by-side hunting rifle, claimed to be Bond's father's old hunting rifle. In an armiong montage they boobytrap the house, find dynamite and kick ass before the bad guys chasing arrive. When they do, the baddie sends his henchmen in to be killed, and then comes with an attack helicopter to assist. Why lead with the henchmen, I don't know. The gunship is also rigged with Apocalypse Now-esque loudspeakers that paly an undefined song. They trigger all boobytraps, use all montage-introduced plot devices, and end with Bond killing the bad guy, and M dying from a wound she got during the fighting. Skyfall lodge is destroyed.
In a closing scene, the girl from the beginning of the movie gives Bond a pitbull-statue that was on M's table in the movie. The girl is revealed to be Moneypenny, and the new M is a man who was against the earlier M, at least apparently earlier in the film. We are given to understand that the series has rebooted. I do not complain.
(also as a sidenote: I only now realized that I could read the entire plot from the animated opening sequence in any Bond-film, if I only look into the implications and metaphors in the sequence. Fun.)
To wrap up with: Good movie, good Bond-movie, entertaining and worth the ticket. Go watch.
Pro's:
-Bond kicks ass
-Craig-Bond is made more traditional Bond again
-Cool production desing(overall)
-Brilliant camerawork
-Mostly good lighting
Con's:
-Few unused traditional Bond-elements(gambling, for example).
-Illogical lines for anyone who knows anything about the respective matters at hand
-Near-blinding lights and contrast in the epic showdown sequence.
I'm looking forward to seeing more Bond.
