My ramblings: the good, the bad, and the ugly

These are the ramblings of a Bond fan who's first exposure to our hero was in '77 sitting in a darkened theater in amazement at what was unfolding in front of my young eyes.

The Good:
The film was beautifully shot and lit. Maybe the best cinematography in a Bond film since YOLT. Javier Bardem did an excellent job with his character. The final scene when Bond walks into M's office was awesome and gives me hope that maybe we will see a traditional Bond film next time. I thought the titles were interesting. Very Salvador Dali . I'm so glad they brought Daniel Kleinman back. I also thought Adele's song worked very well with them.

The Bad:
The pacing of the pre-title sequence was slow at times between the action. The shots of Eve driving, intercut with Bond fighting kind of lessened the urgency in my view. Part of the problem may have been that the sound in the theater was not fantastic. The music was very muted, which may have contributed to my feelings. (or was it mixed that way) Also, I'm disappointed, again, they didn't use the gun barrel to open the film. All they would have had to do is use a wide shot of Istanbul before cutting to Bond walking towards the camera. And did they use the full blown James Bond theme? There were parts of the theme, but I don't recall a full blaring rendition. Too much M again, which is unavoidable since the plot of the film revolves around her. The recycling of the homer and signature gun was disappointing as well. Especially with Q being re-introduced in the film. The f/x shots of the dragons were not very good. Neither were the shots of the helicopters or the digital overlay of Craig's face on the stunt man on the motorcycle.

The Ugly:
Skyfall didn't feel like a Bond film to me. The story didn't have a rhythmic pace to it. At times it was downright slow.....I'm really tired of someone staring at a computer being in Bond's ear all the time. The entire climax of the film was a major disappointment. More like an episode of the A Team. I was waiting for Craig to light up an acetylene torch and do some welding. After being shot they could have expounded on the fact that M was more seriously wounded than was shown. One minute she is standing there and the next she is in Bond's arms collapsed and dyeing. It felt a little corny to me. Making Eve turn out to be Moneypenny was an eye roller as well.

I'm just in such a shock as to how much I dislike this film. I so wanted to enjoy it. I don't know if I have it in me to give it another viewing. I feel like the odd man out on these boards.

Nah, you have some company.... :cheers: I expected more action...the greatest thing about the film to me was Silva. I'm seeing it again tonight, maybe I'll warm up a bit more to what I found unsatisfactory on first viewing.

Quote :

And did they use the full blown James Bond theme? There were parts of the theme, but I don't recall a full blaring rendition.

secretagent007 wrote:

I'm just in such a shock as to how much I dislike this film. I so wanted to enjoy it. I don't know if I have it in me to give it another viewing. I feel like the odd man out on these boards.

Believe me, you are not alone. I might not be able to write anything extensive about it for a few days, but I will give it my full attention when I do.

I recall at least three full blown usages of the Bond theme. It turned up in the opening train battle when Bond uses the digger, it turns up when Silva is captured and it's given a pretty strong rendition when the Aston turns up. And then the theme plays at the very end of the film. I thought the use of the theme in this film was acceptable, as opposed to possible overkill. Whenever the theme turned up, it really worked, and those moments would have been lessened had the theme been used too much elsewhere.

The theme turned up plenty of times, a lot more than a huge chunk of the Bond films but never in the excessive fashion that TND, TWINE and DAD went about it. The theme was played more times than in GF for sure.