James Bond fans as all of you will know this weekend was supposed to see the release of twenty-fifth James Bond film No Time To Die. Well what you don't know is that since that film is supposed to be Daniel Craig's final film as James Bond I was going to post a review of what many consider his best film in the franchise well of course as we all know the release of No Time To Die was pushed back until November and well I was faced with a choice do I put of my review of what many consider his greatest Bond film or do I carry on as planned well your seeing this review in April so what does that tell you I of course chose to stick with the date that I had in mind and so here is my review of twenty third James Bond film "Skyfall" enjoy.
The plot of the film is after being presumed dead Bond is tasked with taking down a cyberterrorist who just so happens to be an ex-MI6 operative who holds a grudge for M. That might be the most epic summary for a film that i've ever written and the story is honestly just as epic with the story taking us to many locations across the world as well as being really well told at least in this Bond fan's opinion.
Reprising his role for the third time is Daniel Craig as James Bond and he is honestly really good in the movie I really cannot fault his performance at all. He is of course joined by the rest of the MI6 regulars here consisting of Dame Judi Dench as M , Rory Kinnear as Bill Tanner , Naomie Harris as Miss Moneypenny and Ben Whishaw as Q. Now I know that Ralph Fiennes is technically an MI6 regular given that his character becomes M at the end but I thought since for the most part he's basically a guest actor and so it makes sense just to credit him with them as for the acting from the MI6 regulars it was really good of course the returning regulars are great but even newcomers Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw just fit right in and deliver great performances.
As for the guest cast we have the likes of Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva as well as Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory. Also joining them are Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine , the late Albert Finney as Kincade , Ola Rapace as Patrice and Helen McCrory as Clair Dowar. The acting from the guest cast I feel is truly fantastic heck i'd go as far to say that this is best guest cast in any James Bond film official or not heck I don't have to do if the acting is good or not because you can tell that it is just from who's in the guest cast.
This film basically has two Bond girls and so it's hard for me to say for sure which one is the official Bond girl for this film. Since there's M who as mentioned is played by Dame Judi Dench and then there's Sévérine played by the stunning Bérénice Marlohe and both of which fill the role of Bond girl for this film and so it's hard for me to say for sure who the official Bond girl is for this film.
If I had to chose who I wanted to be the bond girl for this film it would have to be M simply because we've had more time with her as a character and since her death has so far had a lasting effect on this version of Bond that would make the most sense to me. However that doesn't mean that Sévérine isn't an interesting character because she is it's just that we don't spend alot of time with Sévérine before she dies and so we don't really feel anything when she dies however we do feel alot when M dies because we've been with her technically since Goldeneye in 1995 so when she dies it means alot more to us the viewer as well as Bond himself.
I would like to take a minute to talk about the delay of No Time To Die since we do need to talk about it. We all know the reason why it was delayed and so I won't tell you why but I do have to say that I like alot of fans were hurt by the release especially since it was delayed until November however like alot of you i've come to terms with the fact that it was delayed but that doesn't make it sting any less but now it gives us all something to look forward to which is always a good thing.
What I kind of don't like about this film is that for the most part the film takes place in London. To me London isn't really an exotic enough location for a James Bond adventure it's not a bad location for a bond adventure by any means but to me it just doesn't suit James Bond a location that fits Bond is somewhere Asian or American having the film mostly set in the UK somehow makes it feel a lot smaller then it actually is.
Many bond fans will say that Skyfall is there all time favourite James Bond film which they would have every right to say. However that simply isn't the case for me as I will always say that Goldfinger is my all time favourite because it does alot of the things done in this film only better like think about it in both films we see Q branch for the first time and we also see someone who is possibly close to bond die now while M's death was indeed effective it wasn't shocking because we see her get shot and see her slowly bleed out what makes Tilly's death work is the fact that we don't see it coming so it comes as quite a shock when we see her die.
As for the the introduction of Q and by association Q branch in this film they have to introduce the character and put across his characteristics which is something that they don't have to do in Goldfinger. Since the character was kind of introduced in Dr. No the very first James Bond film and so all they had to do was just have fun with the character which is something that they do really well in my opiniuon.
Returning from Quantum Of Solace to do the production design for this film is OSCAR winning production designer Dennis Gassner. Even tho he's worked on other Bond films those being Quantum Of Solace and SPECTRE I personally don't feel that he's a good fit for this franchise because it seems to me that doesn't understand the world of James Bond and how everything in Bond's world should be bigger which is something that I think every production designer for Bond should understand. That being said tho the sets for this film do look really good but none of them feel like they belong in a James Bond film they look like they belong in any film which is something that you never want for a James Bond set you should always know that the set your seeing belongs in the world of James Bond and not another film.
The director of photography for the film was the great Roger Deakins who most recently worked on the great 1917 which if you haven't seen that film what are you doing with your life. Back to this film tho he makes this film look stunning he somehow makes the Scottish Highlands look both mysterious and beautiful at the same time which I don't think any director of photography has ever done.
Of course the song for this film was "Skyfall" and was performed by the great Adele. Like alot of you I like this song alot i'm not going to say that it's my all time favourite James Bond theme song because it's not that honour goes to "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon but this is honestly a really good song and it's one that I always try and sing along to whenever it's on the radio and it really does help that Adele is such a good singer and so she sings this song which she co-wrote with the song's producer Paul Epworth.
Doing the titles for the film is the great Daniel Kleinman and if you've seen my previous James Bond reviews then you know what i'm going to say next. T are honestly really stunning the titles for this film I really cannot praise this man enough all of his titles even the ones for Die Another Day are really good and the films are worth seeing just for what beauty we're going to be given in the titles.
I can't believe it's taken me this long but let us now talk about the villain of the film Raoul Silva who as i've mentioned is wonderfully played by Javier Bardem. While I do get why people like this villain I personally like Blofeld alot more and when I say Blofeld I mean old school Blofeld and not the one we got in SPECTRE Raoul is indeed a good villain but to me he's not that intimidating which for me is a key thing since I want to be scared of the villain but with Raoul i'm just not scared of him at all.
Now then since this is an action film that does mean that we have to talk about the action sequences in the film. I honestly feel that while the action is indeed good the action scenes can go for a little bit to long which does in turn make the film feel alot longer then it actually is which is a shame because when the action starts it's really exciting and thrilling but it just goes on for a while and it gets to the point where I was begging the scene to stop because I was getting bored by it and the same thing is also true for the pre-title sequence which again is a shame because it's a really fun pre-title sequence but it just goes on and on.
Overall this is a great James Bond film that is something that I will never ever deney. However those who love the film need to except the fact that there are going to be others who don't feel the same way and the fact that the film does have it's faults most of which i've covered in this review as well as the fact that the film is far to long however like I said it is still a good film and just like those who love the film need to except something the same goes for any who don't like it as much and so this film gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me and just like James Bond I will return soon possibly.
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