Skyfall (2012)

SPOILER WARNING!!! This post spoils movie Skyfall (2012).

Skyfall is twenty-third Bond movie. Bond movies are not good movies by cinematic values, but always entertaining, if you don't think too much. Movies have form they follow. You get action scenes in certain interval and jet set life style in between. You don't remember plots after watching the movie, but you were entertained during the movie. That was until this movie, which decided to be anti-Bond Bond movie. Movie knows Bond movie formula, but stays away from that as much as it can. It has to include some Bond movie stuff, which makes movie even worse.

Movie doesn't know what it wants to be. Main story tells story of old agent, who world has passed by. Then it tries to be Bond movie too. Main story would be good, if this wasn't Bond movie. Bond got shot by another agent during mission and mission fails. Bad guys get list of undercover agents and start to publish videos of undercover agents. Everybody thinks Bond is dead. Bond survived and became alcoholic and pill addict. He didn't take lightly the fact that another agent shot him, when he was fighting the bad guy. When MI6's headquarters is attacked, Bond returns. Bond is unfit for active duty, but M sends him to mission anyway. Main villain is M's earlier favorite agent, who M sold to Chinese to get six other agents. Now he wants to get M and has made complicated plan to get her.

Only Bond and M return from older movies. Q is now young nerd, because young nerds are cool at moment.  He doesn't give any cool toys to Bond. Only cool toy we see is Aston Martin from Bond movie decades ago. M's right hand man is copy of Agent Coulson from Marvel movies. Villain is taken to transparent prison like Magneto in X-men movies or Loki in Avengers movie. Movie tries too much to be current and show us what it thinks we want to see. Almost all jet set life is gone. Action scenes are toned down. Last battle is closer to old westerns than what we expect from Bond movies.

Villain is interesting for moment. He and Bond were in similar situation, where M had betrayed both. M told another agent to shoot, when she wasn't sure, if agent would hit Bond or bad guy. Then villain's obsession for M takes hold and his plans start to work with supernatural precision. And we see him as little as possible. Character is good for main story, but not for Bond movie. If movie was one and half hour-long and without Bond movie stuff, villain could have been memorable. Now he had to have control all over the world, because this is Bond movie. For the main story he needed to be bitter old man, more down to earth villain without superior planning and programming skills.

Everything in this movie tries to remind us, time has passed Bond and Bond movie by. Action scenes are toned down and made more realistic. Jet set moment in casino made jet set life style look cold and pretty only on outside. Almost every Bond thing was toned down. No fancy gadgets. Aston Martin was most uplifting moment, because it reminded us what Bond movies were. They were fun. This is not fun. It is cold, dark, good-looking movie. This story and tone doesn't suit Bond movie. This would have been good one and half hour movie, if it wasn't Bond movie. Now it is almost one hour too long and most of it is there because this is Bond movie.

This is a strange movie in series. It doesn't continue Quantum of Solace storyline. It is anti-bond movie, but in the end it set the stage for regular Bond movies. Bond was old and unfit for field at beginning of this movie. From halfway point on he was regular superhuman James Bond. Movie replaced everyone except Daniel Craig. This could be new beginning. That would make more sense, if Daniel Craig wouldn't return in next movie. Interesting to see where they go from here. Not interested enough to go to see it in theater, but when it comes to streaming services like I did with this one.

One more thing. I think that shower was far from sexy, when you consider dialog before shower scene. Didn't anyone realize, what it would look like to anyone, who paid attention to movie?

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