Ah.. the long awaited Skyfall !
Synopsis: Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
James Bond’s (007 aka Daniel Craig) latest mission has gone horribly awry, resulting in the exposure of several undercover agents, and an all-out attack on M16. Bond becomes M’s (Judi Dench) only ally she comes under the attack of a villain from her past who is an ingenious computer hacker, amongst other things. Back in London, M is facing pressure to quit and her HQ on the Thames has gone up in smoke. In the meantime, the trail has led 007 from the bazaars of Istanbul to the casinos of Shanghai to an abandoned island off the coast of Macau where the Bond villain seems unperturbed at being caught and brought to justice.
Craig, is Bond, who in the beginning suffers a crisis of faith and loses his edge on the field, when he takes a bullet, in the chest. Then enter Javier Bardem’s evil yet silken Raoul Silva, who sets out to turn 007 against M. Skyfall’s most sexually charged moment comes not with the femme fatale at that gaudy casino but during the extended interrogation scene, as Silva runs his fingers across Bond’s bare chest, then reaches down to part his legs! “What’s your regulation training for this?” Silva taunts him. “What makes you think it’s my first time?” 007 shoots back, without missing a beat.
Even if Bond is able to capture Silva and bring him back to London as a prisoner, you know that that’s precisely what Silva wants. He hacks the system form within, and tests even the expertise of the new Q, the MI6 weapons and technology guru who in this bond movie is a very young, geeky bloke played by Ben Whishaw. The scene in which he and Bond meet for the first time in an art gallery is really humorous, and should be a classic in the years to come.
So what did we think of the film?
Well Daniel Craig has really risen to the occasion as Bond. A tad less buff than in Casino Royale and certainly more beat up, he seduces the ladies less here than perhaps any Bond ever has. However, as the story unfolds, the show seems to tell the viewers that Bond’s loyalty will always be to M and the queen – and that’s why he’s the unshakable 007.
One of the things that is impressive about Skyfall is how everything in the film works towards a thematic, storytelling-driven ending. That is rarely the case in Bond films, which are normally all over the place with digressions and unconnected fighting scenes and which are rarely about anything other than Bond giving the villains a good bashing. Maybe Sam Mendes and screenwriter John Logan should be given credit for this. In perhaps its most welcome deviation from tradition, Skyfall visits the villain’s lair early, leaving the finale to unspool at an ‘old-school’ location, one that will place in the missing pieces to Bond’s past and childhood.
And my favourite part in the entire movie is when in one long take, Javier Bardem grandly strides into the movie.
Walking slowly across a cavernous lair and toward a foreground where Daniel Craig’s 007 sits tied to a chair, Bardem, as the film’s villain, Raoul Silva, tells an ominously symbolic story about rats. He is so mesmerizing and totally charismatic it’s hard to tear your eyes away form that wavy blond hair and a white jacket, that crouches near Bond and suggestively, intimidatingly rubs his thigh. Some might calling him the first gay Bond villain because he is a little effeminate. Along with his sensitivity and sense of humor, this is a first for Bond baddies, and makes him an unusually layered bad guy. You can feel where the depth of his pain and hatred comes from. And classy till the end.. he definitely knows how to make an entrance and exit. He may just be my favorite bond villain of all time now!
Skyfall, in cinema’s 1 November 2012
And the fundamental seriousness of the film places Skyfall at the other end of the Bond spectrum from some of the silliest Roger Moore entries, such as Moonraker and A View to A Kill. The long climax, set at an isolated old house in Scotland presided over by a thickly bearded Albert Finney, that must have been written with Sean Connery in mind, was a heavy artillery finale. The dramatic, and highly charged climax is a satisfying ending, and sets things up for the next installment. We love the new direction of the movie.. but that’s already saying too much.. go watch it!
Watch the Trailer here:
I think Ciki would make an awesome Bond girl.
THANKS! HAHA