Just realized that I never did a formal review of this movie
What was I thinking, not doing a review of Skyfall? Well, I'll attempt it now anyway.
I did see this movie in the theatre and it recently came out DVD, so I had another chance to see it. As far as the action aspect goes, this movie is awesome. It's brimming with fantastic stunts right from the get-go. In standard Bond fashion, the action starts immediately and damn is it awesome. There's a great stunt where Bond drives a motorcycle over a bridge onto a moving train. Shit was cash. A lot of the hand to hand combat scenes were done free-flow, all in one take, which is a trend I've seen in a few movies now, for instance, The Book of Eli. I love it. I can't imagine all of the work it would take to choreograph that to get it all in one shot. And hey! This movie used CG right! That gives it my seal of approval!
The acting was awesome too. I've become a fan of Daniel Craig over the past several years so, it's always nice to see him. Judi Drench as M is great in this movie and, in my opinion, is the best she's ever been out of the times she played M. Ralph Fiennes, who you may recognize as Voldemort, plays a smaller role than the other actors, but gives a great performance as always. But the actor who steals the show, is Javier Bardem as the insane and eccentric Silva, who is the lead villain. You may recognize him as the also insane role he played in No Country for Old Men, Anton Chiguhr.
He is absolutely phenomenal in this movie. I think he was better in this movie than he was in No Country for Old Men. There's something about the way he says every line that he comes off as actually being quite funny. There were several scenes that had the audience laughing in the theatre, but I won't give any of it away.
This movie is unlike the other bond movies in the sense that, it explores the character Bond much more than the previous installments. What we have in this movie is an imperfect Bond. He makes mistakes, he doesn't get the girl, he's not the 100% perfect and suave killer that he's often portrayed as. He's only human. The line of work that he leads would take it's toll on anyone and it does to Bond, both physically and emotionally. Along with that, it's also the only 007 movie to give some serious backstory on Bond, but again, I won't give any of it away.
I'd say that this one was a huge improvement over Quantum of Solace, which I thought was pretty far down on the list of best 007 movies. When I first saw Skyfall, I thought that it was inferior to Casino Royale, but on a second viewing, I think I would alter that statement and say that Skyfall is the better film. The acting is great, the action is great and it goes where no other Bond film has gone before. On another random note, I really like the name, Skyfall. It kind of stands out when you compare it to other Bond movie titles such as the other two in this new trilogy, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. It's cool.
It's too difficult to think about exactly where this would go right now, but I think this would have to be somewhere within the top 5 007 movies of all time. It's a great film and I highly recommend it, even for a non-fan. There were scenes in the movie where the audience laughed, cheered and was captivated into dead silence. Only a great movie can do that and this movie is just that. I don't think it would be a stretch to say that this is my favorite movie to have come out in 2012.
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