Skyfall Discussion (spoilers allowed)

[carl stromberg]

Cpt Arthurs is right that Skyfall did seemed to be filmed in the dark for a big part of the film.

Here is a still of the classic scene in Skyfall where Bond ruminated on the existence of God:

[Omega]

Cpt Arthurs is right that Skyfall did seemed to be filmed in the dark for a big part of the film.

Here is a still of the classic scene in Skyfall where Bond ruminated on the existence of God:

He should ruminated on the existence Ian Flaming and if it means anything.

[Eye Of The Tiger]

I haven't seen Skyfall or done any reading on the plot of the film. Does M really die in it, or was that a joke?

[FormerBondFan]

I haven't seen Skyfall or done any reading on the plot of the film. Does M really die in it, or was that a joke?

Judi Dench's M is dead. Fiennes' character becomes the new M. And Eve is Moneypenny. I didn't need to watch it.

[Eye Of The Tiger]

I haven't seen Skyfall or done any reading on the plot of the film. Does M really die in it, or was that a joke?

Judi Dench's M is dead. Fiennes' character becomes the new M. And Eve is Moneypenny. I didn't need to watch it.

If Judi Dench's M is dead, that would be the one and only thing that would make me want to see it. I'll still pass, however.

I had already had enough of JD after DAD. And then when she tried to make claims of DC being a good Bond.

[Blowfeld]

I haven't seen Skyfall or done any reading on the plot of the film. Does M really die in it, or was that a joke?

Judi Dench's M is dead. Fiennes' character becomes the new M. And Eve is Moneypenny. I didn't need to watch it.

If Judi Dench's M is dead, that would be the one and only thing that would make me want to see it. I'll still pass, however.

I had already had enough of JD after DAD. And then when she tried to make claims of DC being a good Bond.

Great to see you EOTT!

[Eye Of The Tiger]

I haven't seen Skyfall or done any reading on the plot of the film. Does M really die in it, or was that a joke?

Judi Dench's M is dead. Fiennes' character becomes the new M. And Eve is Moneypenny. I didn't need to watch it.

If Judi Dench's M is dead, that would be the one and only thing that would make me want to see it. I'll still pass, however.

I had already had enough of JD after DAD. And then when she tried to make claims of DC being a good Bond.

Great to see you EOTT!

Thank you!

[carl stromberg]

Eye you must watch Skyfall. It's really fascinating with many lengthy scenes of Craig and Dench talking in the dark zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Eye Of The Tiger]

Eye you must watch Skyfall. It's really fascinating with many lengthy scenes of Craig and Dench talking in the dark zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hey, can you blame them for wanting to have Daniel Craig's scenes as dimly lit as possible?

[The Saint 007]

Eye you must watch Skyfall. It's really fascinating with many lengthy scenes of Craig and Dench talking in the dark zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hey, can you blame them for wanting to have Daniel Craig's scenes as dimly lit as possible?

It's kind of like how I prefer to play the James Bond games that feature Craig on the SD Nintendo Wii rather than the HD game consoles.

[carl stromberg]

Eye you must watch Skyfall. It's really fascinating with many lengthy scenes of Craig and Dench talking in the dark zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hey, can you blame them for wanting to have Daniel Craig's scenes as dimly lit as possible?

If only they could have muted the volume too.

[Kristatos]

Well, I have finally ploughed my way through Skyfall, so here is my review:

James Bond has been in the shadow of the Bat since Casino Royale. Whilst comparisons to the Bourne franchise are certainly valid, particularly where Quantum of Solace is concerned, it is Batman who has driven the overall direction of the franchise, from the decision to reboot following the success of Batman Begins to the mythologising of the highly successful Die Another Day as a Batman and Robin-esque franchise killer. Skyfall ramps this up a notch by using Bond’s orphan status – which had only ever been mentioned in passing before, both in previous films and in the books by Ian Fleming – as a major driver of the plot, and by giving Bond a League of Shadows-style vision quest where he became a man after spending two days in a priest’s hole. Stop sniggering at the back there, Skyfall is serious! Achingly, tediously serious.

What’s ironic is that the first hour or so feels like a virtual remake of the much-maligned Die Another Day, albeit an extremely talky one with lots of shots of people staring mournfully out of windows. After an exciting chase sequence, Bond “dies” and is resurrected, returning to active service after a seemingly impossible feat of survival (in Die Another Day it was escaping after a self-induced heart attack, in Skyfall, it’s coming back after being shot and then falling hundreds of feet from a moving train off a viaduct) and then heading off to China to pursue the case. I should be surprised that more people haven’t pointed out these similarities, but then EON have spent the last 6 years anti-selling their own product in order to ensure that the only thing anyone remembers about Die Another Day is that it featured an invisible car. Skyfall does not feature an invisible car, and if it did, the usual sycophants would be on hand to assure us that it was a grittily realistic invisible car that was straight from the pages of Fleming, just as they do with Bond’s superhuman abilities. Having already established in Question of Sport that Bond can survive falling out of a plane without a working parachute, the aforementioned fall from the viaduct is not too much of a stretch, but the climax of Skyfall gives him a new superpower – now he can breathe underwater for several minutes, even in freezing temperatures. Hilariously, the critics’ favourite adjective to describe Daniel Craig’s portrayal of Bond is “vulnerable”.

The kindest thing I can say about Skyfall is that it brings back memories of other, better (or at least more entertaining) Bond films. Unlike the previous two entries in the rebooted series, it seems to have shed its vague air of embarrassment about Bond’s cinematic heritage. Q, Moneypenny and M’s padded office are all in place by the end of the film, and in its most crowd-pleasing scene, the Aston Martin from Goldfinger makes an appearance. However, it can’t altogether resist taking a pop at its predecessors. The new, supposedly geeky Q tells Bond that Q branch doesn’t really go in for things like exploding pens any more, which shows how little the filmmakers understand geek culture. I doubt there’s a geek in the world who wouldn’t think that an exploding pen was the coolest thing ever – in fact a real geek would be more likely to come up with the mink-lined iceberg submarine from A View to a Kill than to be satisfied with a gun and a radio.

So what of the future? The final scene seems to set up the possibility of more traditional Bond films, but Skyfall’s phenomenal box office success shows that there is a market for pretentious, middlebrow Bond films in which people do nothing but talk and talk and talk and talk for the majority of the film’s running time, all but guaranteeing that the next film will be written by Alan Bennett and feature three hours of Bond sitting at his kitchen table talking to camera about custard creams. Those of us who miss the days when Bond films were actually fun can only hope that someone comes up with the idea of making a prequel series featuring the flamboyant, omnisexual Silva, a much more interesting character than Craig’s Bond, back when he was still a British agent. That sounds like something we could all get behind (oo-er!)

[The Saint 007]

Nice review, Kristatos. Yes, it's baffling how Craig is considered more realistic when there are plenty of outlandish moments, or times where Craig's Bond is too overpowered. Craig can seemingly get away with everything that the former Bond actors get constantly criticized for.

[Omega]

Great review Kris!

[Daltonite Toothpaste]

Nice review, Kristatos. Yes, it's baffling how Craig is considered more realistic when there are plenty of outlandish moments, or times where Craig's Bond is too overpowered. Craig can seemingly get away with everything that the former Bond actors get constantly criticized for.

Craig fans... bless 'em.

[bjmdds]

I just fell asleep watching CR on the Oxygen cable channel.

[The Saint 007]

Skyfall does not feature an invisible car, and if it did, the usual sycophants would be on hand to assure us that it was a grittily realistic invisible car that was straight from the pages of Fleming, just as they do with Bond’s superhuman abilities.

I bet if Q ever gives Craig's Bond a flying car, it will be considered very realistic and Fleming-esque, because of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang.

Interestingly, the film adaptation of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was produced by Albert Broccoli, and featured Gert Fröbe and Desmond Llewelyn.

[Kristatos]

Interestingly, the film adaptation of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was produced by Albert Broccoli, and featured Gert Fröbe and Desmond Llewelyn.

And had a screenplay by Roald Dahl, just like YOLT, with a dialogue polish by Richard Maibaum. Also the production design was by Ken Adam.

[The Sweeney]

Interestingly, the film adaptation of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was produced by Albert Broccoli, and featured Gert Fröbe and Desmond Llewelyn.

And had a screenplay by Roald Dahl, just like YOLT, with a dialogue polish by Richard Maibaum. Also the production design was by Ken Adam.

Wasn't Peter Hunt also involved with it?

[Kristatos]

Interestingly, the film adaptation of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang was produced by Albert Broccoli, and featured Gert Fröbe and Desmond Llewelyn.

And had a screenplay by Roald Dahl, just like YOLT, with a dialogue polish by Richard Maibaum. Also the production design was by Ken Adam.

Wasn't Peter Hunt also involved with it?

According to IMDb, he did the title sequence. Also Peter Lamont worked in the art department and the names of most of the stunt crew will be familiar to Bond fans.