Skyfall

Skyfall is probably the first James Bond movie I saw on the big screen. I have to say that my knowledge about the popular British spy is very limited to sexy scenes, suave action scenes, ballad song for opening credits and a daring James Bond on tux. So I was pretty anxious to see Skyfall. I thought for a non fan, I wouldn't get the story what James Bond is all about.

After the movie, all I can say is that Daniel Craig was my James Bond of choice. He's got enough physical capacity, suave moves, intelligent features and intense appeal.

But unfortunately, the story was a bit of a linear drag. It didn't offer intricate conflicts as I had expected. Batman's was better, Mission Impossible, Charlie's Angels were better. Taken was better, shall I continue? The story is just about an old ex-M16 agent trying to get back at the elusive head of the department, M, played by the excellent Judi Dench because of her failed judgment call on a mission. It's case of an old agent with hurt feelings getting back at James Bond and company. The main villain, played by Javier Bardem, initiated a plot to expose identities of the M16 agents to put M in hot water, plant chaos in the department then eventually kill her. 

I know. I think Fox's series Homeland had a better premise. 

Subplot was more interesting though, it's the idea of conflict within the protagonists' characters in terms of touching the subjects of retirement and letting go. The movie shows how physical limitations and the safer judgement calls brought by experience and sentimentality tend to be liabilities in the spy job. It's how we are reminded that James Bond is vulnerable. And how M tries to hold of retirement until the job is done. That for me is more interesting than putting wasting Javier Bardem's pittance of a character. I was not even terrified. 

And there was this minor thing about the setting. James Bond used the streets and rooftops of Istanbul in their main action scenes. If you've seen the movie Taken, you'll be seeing the same rooftops with a better chase scene. I don't know what's with Istanbul nowadays that makes it so popular in Hollywood action movies.  The country is beautiful, but same rooftops in the chase scene makes me cringe. They also used Shanghai, which comes off as a short imitation to Mission Impossible. Seeing Skyfall using exact locations with less than spectacular scenes just force people to compare. At least in the Bourne was more original, they risked using Manila.

But in totality, I liked the dialogues and the actors are brilliant. Since this is not a drama movie, their exhibits are bit limited, but put the same set of characters in an English piece, I think they would pull it off brilliantly. Some parts in the movie, I imagine them in a different movie. What really disappointed me though was Javier Bardem's character. I didn't like the villain, no sort of impact. At the end, you don't know what the fuss was about. Javier Bardem's character in Skyfall is NOTHING compared to his villain character in No Country for Old Men. There was nothing left to develop. All actors in this movie are brilliant, but I guess unless you're  M or James Bond, it wouldn't have much impact. 

I've been a fan of Sam Mendes as a director, but I think Skyfall is not his best. For a non-fan, it was a bit of a drag and I just loved the movie because of the dialogues and the actors imagined in a different movie. At the end, James Bond is still James Bond, but there's no added stellar value in terms of action scenes, plots and settings. It's something we have definitely seen before and the worst part is that we saw something already better.