"It always makes me feel a bit melancholy. Grand old war ship. being ignominiously haunted away to scrap... The inevitability of time, don't you think?"
Few things feel so good as stepping out of a movie theater with the same sort of satisfaction you might feel after a great steak dinner. The official apology for Quantum of Solace has finally arrived. Skyfall is thrilling where it is required to be thrilling, twists where you don't expect it to twist (or bends in another direction), and draws out a hearty laugh or two in the process. It is the Dark Knight of Bond films - both hard-hitting, and graceful. When the audience laughs it is not at the expense of the script's dignity - it is because the script has shone us wit deserved of a Bond picture, without slapstick or pandering. The action boils and moves forward, kinetic and relentless, without becoming obtuse. The dialogue is sharp and to the point - when the movie threads on 007's back-story, it threads delicately so as not to turn up anything unnecessary. Even the facts surrounding our enigmatic protagonist's past are handled with the utilitarian caution as might an actual Intelligence Agency.
And beneath all that, the newest addition to the Bond legacy manages to be charming. Where Casino Royale de-constructed and broke apart conventions that had been staples of the Bond franchise for so long it was hard to remember an MI6 without them, Skyfall manages to embrace those conventions while simultaneously re-inventing them. Even the opening sequence (though, in this small detail, overshadowed by Casino Royale's) caters back to Bond tradition - that blur of action offering a sample of what's to come, and not so clumsily as Quantum's shakily edited and quickly forgotten car-chase-shootout. The stakes are set immediately, the audience is engaged, and when Bond falls into the water and the film breaks into a new anthem for the agent, the tone has been set.
Part of me wants to nit-pick at something - my nature demands it - but I left that theater smiling
and all I can do is encourage everyone to pay for a ticket-stub, cram popcorn into your face, and watch the bloody movie. The action is high-octane, dictated by both character and environment while still being grounded in reality; the plot is gripping with a marvelous villain, physically deformed (as a good Bond villain should be) and mentally unstable; and there are just enough light-hearted moments so as to not weigh the audience down. Not to mention a few clever, tongue-in-cheek jibes as the franchise itself, which will warm the heart of any fan.
"James Bond will return!", the credits roll. We can only hope he does with as much eloquence.
Few things feel so good as stepping out of a movie theater with the same sort of satisfaction you might feel after a great steak dinner. The official apology for Quantum of Solace has finally arrived. Skyfall is thrilling where it is required to be thrilling, twists where you don't expect it to twist (or bends in another direction), and draws out a hearty laugh or two in the process. It is the Dark Knight of Bond films - both hard-hitting, and graceful. When the audience laughs it is not at the expense of the script's dignity - it is because the script has shone us wit deserved of a Bond picture, without slapstick or pandering. The action boils and moves forward, kinetic and relentless, without becoming obtuse. The dialogue is sharp and to the point - when the movie threads on 007's back-story, it threads delicately so as not to turn up anything unnecessary. Even the facts surrounding our enigmatic protagonist's past are handled with the utilitarian caution as might an actual Intelligence Agency.
And beneath all that, the newest addition to the Bond legacy manages to be charming. Where Casino Royale de-constructed and broke apart conventions that had been staples of the Bond franchise for so long it was hard to remember an MI6 without them, Skyfall manages to embrace those conventions while simultaneously re-inventing them. Even the opening sequence (though, in this small detail, overshadowed by Casino Royale's) caters back to Bond tradition - that blur of action offering a sample of what's to come, and not so clumsily as Quantum's shakily edited and quickly forgotten car-chase-shootout. The stakes are set immediately, the audience is engaged, and when Bond falls into the water and the film breaks into a new anthem for the agent, the tone has been set.
Part of me wants to nit-pick at something - my nature demands it - but I left that theater smiling
and all I can do is encourage everyone to pay for a ticket-stub, cram popcorn into your face, and watch the bloody movie. The action is high-octane, dictated by both character and environment while still being grounded in reality; the plot is gripping with a marvelous villain, physically deformed (as a good Bond villain should be) and mentally unstable; and there are just enough light-hearted moments so as to not weigh the audience down. Not to mention a few clever, tongue-in-cheek jibes as the franchise itself, which will warm the heart of any fan.
"James Bond will return!", the credits roll. We can only hope he does with as much eloquence.
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