Skyfall Review
In the 10 days, No Time to Die hits theaters and is set to be Daniel Craig’s final outing as James Bond. And it is week three of my James Bond review series and today we are talking about Skyfall. How is this movie? Let’s get started!
The Good:
Of the first three Bond movies with Daniel Craig, I think this movie has the best story. It’s the one that is the most complex and the most interesting to me. It’s the one that I was engaged in the most, and thought that it worked on the levels that it was trying to do. It expands the world of James Bond, but not feeling overstuffed. It also expands on the M character and what her place in the company the world is. The villain ties back into James Bond and M. So this film’s story was very well done, and it was everything that I wanted from a James Bond movie.
And tied to that, the movie as a whole is a lot more complex. The relationships aren’t just simple, they have more to them. With Ralph Fiennes' character it’s said that he has this long relationship with M and their relationship is done well in this movie. Even the dynamic between Javier Bardem’s character and Bond isn’t just A to Z it’s more complex and nuanced than that. Also, Bond and M’s relationship is interesting and more complex in this movie. I just like how they really went for it with this movie, and created what I think is the best story of this batch of movies.
And I like how I mentioned before, but the movie does some great world building. It fleshes out the world of MI6 and 007. The previous movies gave us teases about the bigger picture. This movie explores the bigger picture in some nice ways. So I just like the fact that this movie was focused on creating this interesting world filled with spies and government agencies.
Also, the movie does have great characters and they are played by great actors. The characters were one of the biggest positives about Casino Royale for me, and I thought it was lacking in Quantum of Solace. James Bond and M are the two standouts of the movie. And especially with the M character this is the movie that we get to spend the most time with. In the previous movie, she was just the mentor figure that was back at base. Here, she’s involved with the action and is heavily used in the story. James Bond is also great in this movie where once again we dive into his back story and his character so we learn more about him, and he becomes a more relatable character. Also, I think it’s safe to say that Javier Bardem played my favorite of the Daniel Craig bond villains, he was so interesting and used so greatly in the story. And of course, the cast here is great. Both Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench give great performances, and my favorites from them so far.
It’s a James Bond movie and the action is once again great. I know I keep on mentioning that for all of my Bond reviews, but it’s the truth. Honestly, I think the action keeps on getting better and better with each movie. Where this movie starts with a fantastic action sequence with Bond and Moneypenny in a foregin country which leads to a car chase then this action sequence on top of a train between Bond and a thug. The third act has some great action inside of it. Honestly, all of it was done so well and shot so well. I know I said this about Quantum of Solace but I think this movie has the best action.
I think this is also the movie that has the most emotions to it. Most of it comes from M, and the arc that they give her character. But no matter what it is, there are plenty of emotions going on in this movie. Even the arc that they gave Bond in this movie also has plenty of emotions inside of it.
Finally, the opening credits and Bond song for this movie are great. Adelle is the singer and she is obviously a great singer and it’s done so well and it fits the tone of the movie so well. And the animations that they use for the opening credits are great, and look really cool.
The Bad:
First thing here is that the movie is a bit too long. That was one of my issues with Casino Royale. This movie is 1 minute shorter than that movie, but the movie could have been trimmed up by 5-10 minutes. Especially in the middle act, it seemed to go on for a bit too long.
Also, this is a small thing but Naomi Harris’ character is interesting. She’s important to the plot, but she’s somebody who is there to fill out the cast. And I’m not sure how much she actually added to the movie as a whole. She’s not bad by any means, but I wish they found a way to use more in the movie.
Final Thoughts: I’ve enjoyed watching these movies, they have just been fun action movies. Casino Royale was very solid, and Quantum of Solace was frustrating. But this movie was great, and I think I loved this movie. The film’s story, action, emotions, and world building make this my favorite of the movies so far. Let's see if either Spectre or No Time to Die will top this movie.
The Score: 9.1/10 (A-)
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