Skyfall (2012)

I think it's okay to create a separate 'review thread' for new releases in the review section alongside the build up thread, if not then feel free to move this or what not. Seeing as it is a new and popular release I thought it would be better to start a thread.

Skyfall (2012, Sam Mendes)

I went in to this film with high expectations for a number of reasons, not only the positive reviews it has already began to receive but the recipe for success that this film has with Sam Mendes as director and Javier Bardem as the lead villain.

I wont talk much about the plot to prevent any spoilers, I went in to the film knowing nothing more than what I had seen from the trailer and was pleasantly surprised with what is a simple yet effective storyline that allows for strong performances from film's main actors.

Sam Mendes' 2002 film Road to Perdition picked up an Academy Award for its cinematography and as one would expect for a modern Bond film the cinematography and visuals all round are superb. The use of lighting is superb throughout, in the first half we see the characters entirely surrounding by glass, with the Hong Kong neon lights shining through to great effect and then there is the fantastic final scenes where we see the films technical capabilities used to their full effect.

Javier Bardem is brilliant as the villain, his slightly similar to his Oscar winning performance "from No Country for Old Men" although this type his craziness comes half through his fearful personality and half through his comedic touch. His role as a villain is perfect for Bond, he brings to the screen a good balance, whilst he is a serious, sadistic and feared character, he allows us to enjoy the more light hearted side of Bond with some excellent moments. There is one scene in which he reminds me of Hannibal from "The Silence of the Lambs", once you have watched it you will get what I am talking about.

This serious but fun side of Bond is not only visible in the villain, but the film as a whole which plays at a great pace and is well set out, it is relatively straightforward but that helps in a way. The film's final third is full of everything we love about Bond, the situation is very much serious yet we get moments of comedy between the great chemistry of the actors, we get the old Aston Martin car and the inevitable face off.

I wont say much more about the film, is it the best Bond film yet? It is hard to say right now and even harder to compare the new style of Bond to the old, but such claims are not ridiculous. Mendes brings us everything we love about Bond, enjoyable characters and relationships, humour, a memorable villain, a mixture of old and new Bond themes and applies his usual quality in terms of direction and cinematography.

My Rating

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It is perfectly fine to create a review thread for a single film. I've been hearing nothing but great things, saying this is the sequel that should have come after Casino Royale. Look forward to it.

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Suspect's Reviews

I'll be watching this tonight. I get a semi just thinking about it.

I agree on the whole with your review dude, especially to do with the cinematography, its up there with Ken Adams best work as one of the best looking Bonds. Some of the location choices and stuff were inspired too, made everything feel really unique (i'm thinking of the London Underground and Shanghai scenes)

I thought it was absolutely fantastic, right up there with Casino Royale in terms of overall quality. I'm gonna try and get back to see it again sometime this week.

Hmm, I watched it last night.

The acting was very solid, except for Bérénice Marlohe. Craig confirms he's cut out for the part; Judi Dench is awesome; Fiennes was good and the other supporting cast was all around solid.

I like what they've done to Q, and the 'exploding pen' reference made me laugh. The references to other films were a nice touch as well. The cinematography is terrific imo and there were some very nice sequences, definitely a notch above what you're used to seeing in a Bond film. The soundtrack was good too. And the dialogue was pretty good too.

The plot was well-constructed up to the final 30 or 40 minutes of the film. It felt like a more sophisticated version of an episode of The A-Team, and I don't mean that in a good way. The logical progression of the plot and the fact that it was well-constructed and engaging was kind of diminished by the third and final part of the film, and as a result, I left the theater with mixed feelings.

This was certainly one of the better Bond films, but not the greatest Bond film ever made, not by any stretch of imagination. It's borderline top 10 imo. I'd have it at # 8 or # 9 I think.

This amounts to a .

Any chance you could expand on way you were so disappointed by the final 30/40 minutes, use spoiler tags if needed. The A-Team reference, were you applying that to the final act?

Yes, seeing as the final act took half an hour.

Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in this movie that is also celebrating 50 years since the Bond franchise began. After a lengthy delay, and the 50 year celebrations, there was plenty of hyp behind this, but did it live up to the expectations I had?


The movie starts off with a solid start. We begin with Bond hunting down an assassin who has just taken out a bunch of agents and taken a hard drive that holds valuable infdormation. After an excellent chase scene Bond ends up being shot and falling off train that is travelling over a bridge and we last see Bonds body going down a waterfall. He is missing presumed dead, but come on, its Bond, it wouldn't be much of a film if he was.


Bond has been living under the radar for six months, since his apparent death. An attack on MI6 forces Bond to come back from obscurity to the aid of the British secret service. However, Bond looks more weather-beaten, older and damaged since coming back, and no longer the agent he was. M however signs him fit for duty and re-asigns him to locate the man he was originally chasing at the start of the movie. The hard drive that was stolen contained information for every undercover operative in the world, and could expose every undercover spy in the secret service.


This movie does include some exotic locations and excellent fight scenes, but this more Bond back to his roots, I felt like this movie took more from the novels than the movies. It tells a story, there is only action when the story requires it, the plot was extremely well done with some nods to the Bond of old, including seeing the old Astin Martin that Connery often drove, complete with ejector seat and machine guns, and a little sprinklingly of the old Bond theme for great effect.


The main villian of the plot, and ex-agent himself, Raoul Silva is an excellent villian for Bond, he is eccentric, odd and most certainly insane. He comes across as a modern version of classic a classic Bond villian, with shades of Red Grant, Goldfinger and Scaramanga mixed together with a modern kick. Javier Bardem is definately a memorable villian and seems to enjoy every second of playing the character. He does an outstanding job and makes ensures this character has a lasting impact on the Bond franchise.


We also get to see alot more of M, who takes a centraly role for the first time in this movie and it is great to see. She stands up well on her own to feet and discover the is alot more to her character than simply being the head of the secret service. Q is also re-introduced as a young man looks barely old enough to be out of school. He doesn't give Bond any 'exploding pens', he is definately showing Q as being more practical than over the top gadgets.


Danile Craig is flawless as Bond, I remember when he was first announced and I certainly gave him a luke-warm reception, but he has actually done a fantastic job since coming into the role. Here he shows a vulnerable side to Bond, he plays the part to perfection. You can see when he comes back he is not quite ready, and he is not quite the same man he was, and Craig does a great job of epxressing that to the audience. I think this is Daniel Craigs best Bond performance to date. With the plot allowing for alot more character development gives the characters and the actors time to shine and that is exactly what Craig does. This is one of the best Bond performances I have seen.


What makes this movie great is all of the nods it gives to the stories of old without becoming cliche, it is stylish, sophisticated and slick, but respects it roots. I think Bond is ready to go in a new direction and it has been done in the right way. Not only does this Bond movie stand up against any other Bond movie, but is also stands up against any other spy movie out today.


Any Bond fan has to see this movie, it is a fantastic effort, and definately a high point in an exceptional movie franchise. This movie helps to endorse Daniel Craig as one of the best Bonds, if not thes best Bond, playing a charcter that closely resembles the character from the novels, and steers well clear of the camped-up Roger Moore outings. This movie is well worth the five stars it receives and definately one of the best movies of the year.

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I'm undecided on it whether it was just good or great.

The opening sequence didn't quite have the kinetic energy in the action scenes, scenes seemed more like 'scene with abandoned city - interrogation scene' without much seguing in between for a natural flow and led to some jumps in logic too.

Bardem was excellent but needed more screen time to develop relationship (i think I fell asleep so may have missed some of this). His plan, however, seemed unnecessarily convoluted.

The lessened budget definitely did it favours but kind of agree with Brodiniski in the somewhat unsatisfying finale, the church conclusion with M needed a bigger bang to give some more impact.

Deakin's cinematography was fabulous though and utterly distracted from finding too many flaws.

Predicted the final twists but loved it all the same. As well as the cheeky references.

Only thing really lacking was a strong Bond girl.

It's somewhere between and

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News just in, literally within the past few minutes:

Skyfall has broken UK Box Office records knocking Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 from the top spot in the UK.

Skyfall UK opening 7 days: Ł37.2m...

Can't for the life of me find the opening 7 day numbers for Deathly Hallows Part 2... all the sites are only showing Skyfall's numbers and aren't showing Part 2 as a comparison, they're just saying that it's beaten Potter.

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The previous posts kind of say it all (maybe even too much). A really good movie. Truly worth of your time even if you are not a 007 fan.

If you think about 007 what are the first things that come to your mind? Probably something like fast cars, beautiful women and a solid confidence that the thugs will shoot and miss. This is really a nice variance from the old habits. Bond actually bleeds like the normal mortals and even forgets to shave... And the fast, gadget filled cars are missing altogether.

I have not read the original Ian Fleming's Bond novels so could somebody more civilized comment how this new movie fits into the original Bond concept? Or does it fit at all?

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I agree with this, just got back from watching it.

Very much an improvement on Quontam of absolute **** but perhaps not as good as Casino Royale.

The film up to the ending I thought was very good.

I don't think there has been such few action sequences in a Bond movie since the first ones. Not that it mattered, this one was really something special and lived up to the expectations Casino Royale set.

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Saw this last night, and the jury is still out for it. It's a solid film but I do believe in terms of action sequences it could have had a bit more. Yet I also feel it dragged a bit in parts. My favorite part of the film is easily Bardem, who stole the show in my opinion. For now, a 7/10 sounds about right. Probably lies somewhere between 6-10 in the bond rankings.

There is a Aussie motorbike rider who works for the crusty demons whom did the scene on the roof tops in ? I forget where!. Just a fact...

Lovely best-off blend of old and new. Charming really.

Technically, I thought this was very well done, but I must say that I did not come away feeling as excited as the reviews suggested I should. I am probably in the minority here, but I have never liked Daniel Craig as an actor, or as Bond. He is far too stoic, and I don't buy him as a ladies man, because I don't think he's very attractive. I much preferred the other actors who portrayed Bond to Craig. He is most like Timothy Dalton, who I also did not enjoy. I've never liked Craig in the role, and I think that that harmed my ability to enjoy this film as much as others may have. I also didn't really see the point of the way they wrapped up the M character. There were a lot of other ways they could have gone with the character, and I thought the way they chose to conclude the film was not the best way to go.

How does everyone else feel about Daniel Craig as Bond? If you like him, what is it about him that resonates so strongly with you. If you don't, why do you not? I've never understood why people think he's so great in this role.

I reckon you're a Moore fella..that cracks me up.

I liked Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan. The last two movies Brosnan did were terrible, but I thought he was good as the character. Daniel Craig shows no emotion, and has little to no personality as Bond. I just don't like his take on the character.

Do you realise that the books about Bond, he was a hard Man,,no emotion and such?