50 years of Bond! Wow, you’ve got to respect that staying power. Though it’s had its fair share of hits and misses, the Bond franchise is a cinematic success story. Speaking of hits and misses, Skyfall has both. In general, the first half hits, while the second half misses. From the lush, creative and very visual opening and title sequences, Skyfall awes audiences with smart, fun action, a promising premise, great cinematography and direction, and cute punctuated dialogue. The ride builds nicely up to and including the proverbial meeting of the titans. The entire film pivots on that one incredible scene. Javier Bardem has Bond and the audience in the palms of his hands. It’s a boldly written, masterfully-acted, lovingly-directed, creepy scene that will engage you completely. It’s squarely the best drama the film has to offer. It’s so good, it feels like the climax, but it’s only the halfway point from which the rest of the film continuously struggles unsuccessfully to compose itself. In fact, from here, the film descends with a rather tedious display of hostility, killing, insulting implausibility, and unfulfilling action to a climax leagues below the film’s “first” one. Sigh. One shining scene graces this messy second half: Berenice Marlohe‘s strong acting chops in the floating casino scene which really should have earned her character more respect by the writers.
Speaking of writing, the film relies on a rather messy screenplay that feels arrived at by teams of differently directed writers without anyone quite in control of the final product. I’m a huge fan of Daniel Craig (really enjoyed him in Casino Royale), but his Bond as written in Skyfall is a rather empty action hero, vacant even of any romance.
-- Books by Ross Anthony, Author/Illustrator --
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