In a way it's lucky that this film saw the light of day, after financial difficulties set the film back a bit. But after the disappointing 'Quantum of Solace', the main concern for me was whether this was going to continue going downhill (Yeah, 'Casino Royale' was good but not great in my opinion, suppose it was better than 'Die Another Day'), or will it start going uphill for a change? There will be spoilers, any major ones will be left till the end.
First of all, Daniel Craig is a much better Bond in this. The charm that we are used to from the previous Bond's is back, as are a few (Actually cheesy) one liners. It is actually really good to see a more vulnerable Bond as well, to see all the hardships and battle scars are taking their toll on him.
The plot is good, I have to say that. There isn't really any plot to take over the world, it's just former MI6 agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) seeking revenge against M (Judi Dench). I must admit, that kind of bugged me, that he was a former agent, since it appeared he was...Spanish? (Insert "I'm not Spanish, I'm Egyptian" clip here) Did MI6 really employ foreign individuals in their organisation? Well after looking on the Secret Intelligence Website, they only employ people who are British citizens, so I can only guess Silva was in fact a British citizen.
To that end, it was weird to see that the villain doesn't really want to conquer the world, he just hates his (former) boss. It is actually a nice change of pace as well, though in the end Silva is doing all of this just to kill one person. Not to say that he's a bad villain, far from it, he's a contender for villain of the year. Bardem has brilliant chemistry with Craig, again it's like a Holmes-Moriarty relationship. It's good to see a villain capable of bringing about so much chaos with so little effort.
With that being said, it appears this film does not follow the previous two films. Which is really bizarre when you think about it, I mean, to have two films relate to one another, imply that the next one will also follow on, and then go on a completely different tangent. From what the trailers showed, it seemed like the Quantum organisation from the last film were doing a 'Empire Strikes Back' thing, but it seems the people behind this film forgot that Quantum now exists.
Then there's the little bits that reference old Bond films, primarily the Aston Martin DB5 (I think) which first appeared in 'Goldfinger', and Q (Ben Whishaw) saying they don't do the exploding pens from 'Goldeneye' anymore. I liked it, because it reminded me of the old Bond films. I didn't like it, because it reminded me of the old Bond films. I'll explain, I liked the references, I'm sure loads of other people do. It's hard to explain, I suppose it's a sense of nostalgia. I didn't like the references because it reminded me of Bond films which, personally, I feel are better than this film and it makes me wonder why I'm not watching those.
The acting is really good as well, like Craig, Judi Dench gives a performance which highlights M's vulnerabilities and the darker part of her history. Whishaw, I must admit I was initially concerned about him at first because Q is meant to be played by an elderly man, someone who can act somewhat as a concerned father (Though more to his gadgets) as well as an individual who possesses great wisdom. But all my doubts went out the window when I actually saw Whishaw's performance, he was passionate about the role, he was charming, he came off as a genius but not a pompous git who looks down on everyone, he did actually care about how to portray a well known and loved character. Naomie Harris...I don't like her. I never liked her. I saw her in '28 Days Later', 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest', and 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End', and I hated her in all three of them. I just find her so dull, so unlikable. I suppose I prefer her in this film than I did in the 'Pirate' films, but the main reason I don't like her I'll come back to in the end.
The effects, are pretty bizarre. Oh sure, we get the traditional brilliant effects we can come to expect from a James Bond film, you know, the giant explosions, the gun fire, gadgets, car chases, etc. But then there are some really bad effects which you just don't expect a Bond film, let alone a big budget production to have, these include horrible CGI komodo dragons, horrible CGI bulls, horrible CGI vehicle crashes, etc, etc.
So, like people did with 'Sinister' by saying it's the best horror film ever, they've have been naming 'Skyfall' the best Bond film, and once again it isn't. But, it certainly is a huge improvement on recent Bond films, especially 'Quantum of Solace'. Craig brings a Bond which is much more recognisable, the villain is not only more memorable than...um...the two from 'Casino Royale' and 'Quantum of Solace' but he actually has a plot which can actually be taken more seriously, the effects overall are good, the acting is spot on, and it does a really effective job in delivering a more psychological impact on Bond. It's probably in my top...ten definitely. But it isn't perfect.
Spoiler section.
The main reason why I don't like Naomie Harris in this, she's Moneypenny. And while it's not her fault directly (It's the scripts), this wasn't the Moneypenny we all know, it's like they didn't have a clue to her character. Moneypenny was a professional, she was...high class should I say, but still a caring individual. Here she comes across as reckless and uncaring. Hell, in the opening scene she (And Bond for that matter, though we can expect that from this version) don't think twice about putting civilians at risk when chasing a target; this includes flipping the target's car in the middle of a crowded area and shooting at the suspect, while civilians are in the way.
Now, for some reason, people seem to like spoiling the main points of this film, in particular M (Hence why I've put this bit at the end of the review in the spoiler section). You see, at the end of this, M dies of a wound suffered by Silva's men. It's weird, one occasion someone said this at work to myself and my colleague, when neither of us had seen the film yet, and someone on Facebook put "Just got back from seeing Skyfall. Did not know M dies :(", to which I responded "Neither did I". So when I finally saw it, I didn't really feel anything for the scene, I don't have much input for the scene because I knew what was going to happen, I didn't get the same feeling as someone who didn't know what was going on.
Now, this isn't really much of a spoiler, but the theme song, Skyfall by Adele. This song got overplayed. A lot. I heard it once on the way to work, I heard it again when I went home from work, I may hear it one or two more times in the evening, I just got sick of it. And what made it worse was that some people were saying that it was the best Bond song ever, one radio show described the song as "the Bondiest" song yet. I swear half the lyrics didn't really make sense when I first heard it, and then when I found out Skyfall was Bond's childhood home, it make even less sense; "Let the Skyfall"...what? It's a house, let the house what?
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