SKYFALL... crap

[Von Boy]

Watched the latest James Bond over the weekend.... what a load of bollocks this film is... i do wonder if the JB brand really has run its course!!

[max_tranmere]

I have yet to see it, although a mate of mine said it was poor. I like films with London landscapes in them, and apparently the city is used extensively in the film. I'm keen to see it just for that, even if the story isn't up to much. It's apparently the biggest British film ever though, and the 7th highest grossing film of all time.

[Gentleman]

I had the misfortune to see this dross last week and to say its bad is a understatement.

It seems as though all the effort put into casino royale was thrown out the window.

Thank dench is no more so I suppose that's something.

[bamboo]

I thought it was okay. It's Bond film, it's not really designed to get you thinking deep thoughts.
Sexy women, car chases, fire fights and a couple of one liners. 'twas never trying to being anything else.

It's a 300% improvement on Die Another Day from 11 years ago, where they thought that an invisible car would be believable.
Now that was truly the lowest moment of the Bond franchise.
My disbelief can only be suspended so much...

[Gentleman]

Can't disagree with you but I still feel that the film taking steps backwards.

[max_tranmere]

I watched this film last night and thought it was quite good. I like seeing London landscapes in films and the use of London in the film was done well.

A few things that baffled me: in the chase and fight scene at the start you would think Bond would know who the fiend was, but it took him having to remove some shrapnel from his chest after he was shot, the shrapnel analysed, for him to establish who the baddie actually was. This was strange on two counts: firstly, like I said, you would think he'd know who the guy he was chasing actually was, and secondly it was not the baddie who shot him anyway - but his own colleague.

Also, I don't know why Bond faked his own death. This doesn't seem to have been explained very well. Additionally there is a reference by Judi Dench, M, about 'Skyfall' early on in the film but it's not explained what it refers to. It actually, as all those who've seen the film knows, refers to a house in a remote part of Scotland where Bond grew up and where his parents are buried. We find this out later in the film.

When Bond went to Shanghai he was after the man from the original fight/chase scene who had stolen the list of undercover agents which he was threatening to expose (which he started doing online). Bond also wanted to avenge the killing of a colleague of his. Bond followed him into the building and saw the man shoot the first agent through the window of another building. The shooter then died after falling off the building following another scuffle with Bond. The room in the building opposite, where the agent was shot through the window, also contained a woman and several other people who didn't seem too bothered watching their companion be killed. Bond then finds this woman at the Casino and she says she can take him to meet her boss - who turns out to be a turncoat agent who is exposing agents online and is a major threat to British agents, the British State in general, and who has also been responsible for the enabling explosion at MI6 earlier.

Bond and this man (the woman's boss) formally meet on the derelict island. The man then kills the woman (that I didn't understand, perhaps it was because she had blown his cover and had brought Bond to his secret hideout). What's odd with all this is that the baddie previously was the man Bond was chasing at the start who dies falling off the building in Shanghai which I've just mentioned. Bond somehow knew to pursue the woman, which would lead to him meeting her boos, who turns out to be the arch-fiend. I don't know how Bond knew to do this - nor is it explained very well how Bond, M, and the others originally thought the baddie was the man who fell off the building in Shanghai following the scuffle with Bond, but actually turns out to be the other guy.

Next, I'm not quite sure why he went to that garage in London and picked up the old Aston Martin, complete with gadgets, and so on. He said he wanted to dump his modern car because that has a tracer and driving the old Aston meant he and M could disappear without anyone being able to track them. They were tracked anyway and the arch-villan of the film, the turncoat agent, and his men, found Bond and M at the supposed hideaway in Scotland anyway.

Overall a pretty good film which mostly makes sense. Can someone explain the points I've raised above, if you understood them better than me.

[leatherpantsman]

It was brilliant. So brilliant I saw it twice in a week at an overpriced cinema. and od'd on popcorn!

Javier Bardem was unnerving. Daniel Craig very suave. Best Bond since Lazenby.

Looking forward to the next one.

[bamboo]

Max,

On the first point, Bond is shot at by the assassin on the train. He is hit by at least some fragments of the rounds whilst he is sitting in the cab of the JCB. He grimaces at the time and then when he reaches the train compartment, he feels the wound again and gives a look of being pissed off for getting hit.

I dont't think he faked his own death but rather let them carry on assuming he was dead, after all, he had been shot by his partner and then fell a fecking long way down, into a deep river. All he had to do was stay disappeared.

I think he did it because a. you saw him try and treat his mate/colleague in the hotel room but M told him to go after the assassin. And b. he and others seemed to be intimating throughout the film, that his age was becoming an issue. Maybe he thought to hell with it.

[bamboo]

The dude in the other building, was being set up by the woman and the other two cronies.
That's why, after Bond taught the other guy to fly, he found the guy's payment, in form of a casino token.

When he followed this up by heading to the casino, he cashed the token in and was rewarded with a briefcase full of dosh.

I don't think he necessarily followed the woman to the casino, he headed to the casino from whence the token was issued and then also happened to find her there.
He would've then put two and two together and assumed she was involved in the whole thing.

I think he had involved Q on his and M's disappearance, as it showed him and Tanner (I think that was his name) discussing the route up north. Then the minister came in and suggested using the cameras on the A road, to track them (by number plate recog. presumably).

[max_tranmere]

Thanks for the reply. I do vaguely recall some shrapnel rickashaying onto Bond during the initial chase, prior to him being shot properly by his colleague.

Now you mention it I remember Bond finding the chip which could be cashed-in, in redemption of the suitcase of money, I'm still a bit puzzled how he knew (or how we the viewers were supposed to know) that the man the shooter took-out in the neighbouring building was being set up by those around him. Also why the woman was killed by the man who turned out to be the film's main villain on the island.

There was less of the Bond-style humour of earlier films. Bond's comment to M in the chucrch on the Scottish estate near the end, after he had fought with the man and fallen through the ice into the lake, of how "I got into some deep water" was standard Bond of yesteryear - but there were many more of these in earlier Bond films. I think this was the only one of its kind in Skyfall.

Overall a good film. I saw it on DVD, and I imagine the cityscapes of Shanghai and Macou (or however you spell it) would have been amazing if one had watched the film on the big screen. The huge buildings and the neon, etc.