SkyFall: James Bond #23

[Tannhauser]

Looks really good!  I do wish Bond would lighten up though.  Just a tad.

[Tale]

Elder Scrolls VI: Skyfall

Linking it more for the videogame-looking font than the theme song.

P.S. The trailer is one of those that makes me feel I've seen the movie now. Glimpses of the whole plot.

[Ubvman]

Just to chime in Craig is my favorite bond so far.

Really? I think he is dangerously close or even within Timothy Dalton territory. Grim, glum and morose almost all the time - he's not enjoying his work, not in a good way at least. Everyone points to Sean Connery as the best; his Bond had Scottish steel behind it but he was really having fun swiving the girls and fighting the bad buys. Craig's Bond on the other hand seems to be thinking of M and England when he's sexing up the girls.

To me, Craig is just a decent Bond. Not the worst by far but not even close to the best (you know who).

I liked Brosnan's Bond in his first 2 outings Goldeneye and Tomorrow never dies; so unless there is a quantum leap in improvement in Skyfall, I'd still place Brosnan above Craig.

[Comstar]

P.S. The trailer is one of those that makes me feel I've seen the movie now. Glimpses of the whole plot.

I prefered the MLP version.

[Sir T]

Saw this last night. The first half of the movie (after the obligatory action filled pre credits) was boring as hell to me Its basically "Morose Bond doubts himself and everyone else doubts him too. Also depressed alcoholic Bond does not give two shits about anybody. AND WILL BOND PROVE HIMSELF???" And the disposable bond girl was one of the worst I have seen EVER. The woman could barely stand up straight without rocking back and forth, she must have been drunk for most of her shooting. The second half was pretty good though.

[sickrubik]

Elder Scrolls VI: Skyfall

Linking it more for the videogame-looking font than the theme song.

What?

[eldaec]

The fundamental problem I've had with this series since TND is the same pair of screen writers they've used for all 5 films are the worst working writers in the industry.

They cannot do dialog and broken structure of each story meant no director could hope to fix the pacing while shooting.

They don't even have a plot. Prior bond films I could tell you the plot in 2 or 3 sentences.

Goldfinger: baddy tries to steal the gold in fort Knox. Bond prevents this.

OHMSS: Blofeld develops virus to destroy agriculture worldwide, attempts to extort pardon and title from UN. Bond prevents this, also marries Diana Rigg.

GoldenEye: 006 feels betrayed by British government, steals nuclear device to detonate over london. Bond prevents this.

Now try it on a Purvis/Wade story:

Tomorrow never dies : Jonathon Pryce steals a device to start a war by pretending that a ship is lost on the same day he launches a newspaper because somehow profit?

The world is not enough : French lady fucks bond and blows up a pipeline so a different oil supplier...  but now there is a submarine and a silly chair in Istanbul because... revenge?

And as for die another day or quantum of solace, I really don't have any idea what they were about to this day.

I don't know if I have enough energy to watch this film but someone tell me if the script is the same piece of shit that the last 5 were.

[Khaldun]

Casino Royale had a tight script, I thought. They just didn't know where to go from there with the more contemporary, interesting SPECTRE or how to 'grow' Craig's Bond into the more hedonistic and suave version (with a darker or more despairing undernote). So Quantum not only didn't have a good script, it got stuck in the idea that Craig's Bond has to be morose, depressed, nihilistic, etc., which is a big mistake.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, I think that's exactly it.  After Casino, Solace was just utter shit from start to finish.

And it was a shame because Craig is a fantastic Bond.

[eldaec]

Royale had a terrible script but a passable story up to the point where the poker game was done and the writers had to invent new material from whole cloth.

The four hour long scene at the hospital and then the hijinks in Venice lost me completely.

As everyone has said, Craig plays a great bond. In fact more or less every actor involved in these films deserves a better script.

[Shannow]

Was reading an interview a cpl of days ago where even Craig admits that the script for QoS was shite and that a lot of it had to do with shooting during or right after? the writers strike. They were basically making up or changing major plot points during shooting. Never a good idea.

Casion Royale was bloody excellent, shut up the lot of you.

[Surlyboi]

Regardless of how bad the QoS script was, it had Olga Kurylenko so I can forgive pretty much anything else.

[NowhereMan]

I enjoyed this as an action film but really I wouldn't rate it particularly, although I'd differ from Sir T in that I quite liked the first half of the movie but the finale just left me  . It had that same sort of problem Battlestar Galactica had in that they knew where they wanted the story to end up but had no idea how to write themselves there so just kind of handwave stupid stuff in.

[Ubvman]

I enjoyed this as an action film but really I wouldn't rate it particularly, although I'd differ from Sir T in that I quite liked the first half of the movie but the finale just left me  . It had that same sort of problem Battlestar Galactica had in that they knew where they wanted the story to end up but had no idea how to write themselves there so just kind of handwave stupid stuff in.

What he said in bold!

One aspect I miss a lot are the spy gadgets. While I know it got completely out of hand in Moonraker (Bond in space, nuff' said) and Die another day (invisible car, Akira satellites oh my!) It's a much parodied part of the Bond mystique, and yes it got abused and cheesy, but I liked it as an aspect that made Bond unique.


Craig has at least 2 more Bond movies in him. Personally I think he is a passable Bond at best. Like the comments above, he is better than the material given to him.

[Sir T]

I suppose I liked the second half because Bond seemed to come into his own skin a lot better than the first half, plus there was a mission impossible vibe to it, which made up a bit for the lack of gadgets in the thing. And I actually really enjoyed looking at the scenery.

That said, I could have been delirious as the movie theater didn't turn on the heating at all so everyone in the room was freezing their asses off, so I probably missed a lot of the dialogue through the sound of my teeth chattering.

[Ubvman]

This theory to explains a lot of things in the movies:

"James Bond" Is Not a Man, But a Code Name

Apart from the obvious that Bond changes physically every few years; M, Q and moneypenny remaining constant through several Bonds; Judith Dench being M To both Brosnan and Craig (both playing distinctly different Bonds). Even the DB5 showing up in Skyfall makes perfect sense with this theory - he was digging up his predecessors old gadgets. It would have blown my mind if Daniel Craig had killed either Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, Timothy Dalton or even Connery in the opening sequence of Casino Royale (killing his 00 predecessor).

[eldaec]

That one is a very common pub discussion.

But it is only cool if it never gets confirmed.

Also if you want to be fussy about it there have been 3 004s and 2 006s all of whom have had different names.

[NowhereMan]

It was very clearly confirmed in the David Niven Casino Royale.

[Surlyboi]

That one is a very common pub discussion.

But it is only cool if it never gets confirmed.

Also if you want to be fussy about it there have been 3 004s and 2 006s all of whom have had different names.

And multiple Felix Leiters.

[Minvaren]

But he was a Felix Lighter in Live and Let Die, my first and arguably favorite.  

[Kitsune]

I just watched it tonight, and it struck me that:

[Typhon]

Saw it, loved it.  A bit odd that the third movie is the origins story.

[Ubvman]

I just watched it tonight, and it struck me that:

Another installment of "The very unhappy Bond" series. Even the sex is angry sex.

[cmlancas]

Saw this and thought it was excellent.  I enjoy a grittier, less campy Bond.  Craig fits this perfectly.

Reasons:

P.S.:  This movie was -really- fun to watch with a Bond relative-newbie.  Take a friend!

[dusematic]

I really enjoyed this reboot of the Home Alone franchise.

[eldaec]

Finally saw this. It was frustrating as hell.

Great performances, fantastic action, beautifully shot, good concept, pretty sure bardem was the best villian there has been.

But.

Still awful scriptwriting, structure of the story was a mess.

I'm kind of a broken record on this, but Purvis and Wade shouldn't be allowed within a mile of a film script.

[Abagadro]

They have apparently now stepped away from Bond and won't work on the next script.

Should have given Finney a Thompson in a nod to Miller's Crossing.

[Tannhauser]

Saw it yesterday.  Enjoyed it but I won't sit thru it again.  Better than Quantum, worse than Casino Royale. 

[IainC]

Saw it yesterday in Zürich. Was worth watching IMO.

[shiznitz]

I really liked this movie, but it was not really a Bond movie other than having Bond characters in it.  This infuriated my brother, but I could enjoy it nonetheless.

[eldaec]

[Tannhauser]

[shiznitz]

[eldaec]

[eldaec]

On shiznits second point...