Movie Review – Skyfall

Excellent Casting – Yes

Superb Dialogues – Yes

Technically Sound – Yes

Great Performances – Yes

Exotic Locales – No

Multiple Adrenaline Pumping Chase Sequences – No

Bond Girls To Die For – No

A Larger Than Life Plot – No

Gadgets – No

Skyfall is an excellent movie but it is not a typical bond movie, if you can accept that fact and move on, you’ll love the movie or else you may have quite a lot of complains to make. Skyfall, unlike other Bond movies which are generally about larger than life super villains who are trying to paralyze the planet, is primarily about ‘M’. The movie focuses on her ability or the lack of it to head the MI6 operations and how both ‘M’ and ‘007’ need to look for succession planning. So much so that the villain, Silva played beautifully by Javier Bardem, is also primarily obsessed with making sure that ‘M’ is dead and MI6 destroyed. The movie is more about internal issues  of Mi6, ‘M’, ‘007’, ‘Silva’ and The British Government. It is definitely slimmer, meaner & darker.

The movie fails to enthrall the audiences like other Bond movies have due to the lack of multiple chase sequences which is a regular in bond films. There is one with which the movie opens and is without doubt awesome but don’t blame me if I expect more from a Bond film. The makers are the ones who got me hooked to it in the first place. The movie does not take you to exotic locations like other bond movies have done in the past. We’ve been to the North Pole, Russia, India, Korea, etc… in the past. I am sorry but i do not consider a crowded China street as exotic. The women fail to impress too. I mean look at the list Ursula Andress, Halle Berry, Barbara Bach, Denise Richards, Eva Green, etc… These women had meaty roles and added the glamour quotient just as easily but in Skyfall, the women appear to be, well, just eye candy! This movie, unlike all other bond films does not have a next-gen car to boast of either, instead it has an old Aston Martin that come to the rescue of M and Bond, which I kind of like as it goes back into the legacy of James Bond and Britain.

Now the good parts. The movie, otherwise, is a good watch. Judi Dench, Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes give excellent performances. Javier Bardem puts up an extremely impressive performance too but it is just that his character is not deep enough. It has not been explored enough. But he still manages to get a certain degree of madness into his role. Something that reminded me of ‘The Joker’ from the ‘The Dark Knight’.

The movie revisits Bond’s past rather fondly, specially, when 007 drives ‘M’ in that old Aston Martin. Technically the movie is excellent. A few camera angles are particularly outstanding. The movie appears fresh and more realistic but that is exactly where it goes against the flamboyant style of James Bond. Dialogues are good, a few of them particularly awesome, specially the one between ‘Q’ and ‘007’. The background score is awesome too. The title song ‘Skyfall’ performed bu Adele lives up to the brand name of Adele as well as 007. The movie also does have a artistic opening credits, something that the Bond movies are known for.

I would rate the movie 2.5 out of 5 and an extra 0.5 for the old world charm that this movie tries to visit so successfully. So, 3 out of 5 from me.