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Skyfall, a Movie Review by Michael L. Johnson
Skyfall may be a James Bond film, but it has the dark edge of a Batman movie. It is action saturated. 007 has one spellbinding adventure after another, and that’s exactly want you want to see in a Bond picture. I filled my popcorn box at the wonderfully glittery Regal Theater in Silver Spring, Maryland, this week. The film synopsis rolls like this: A master list of agents and their true identities are stolen from MI6. The release of this list would put these agents in great danger. Consequently, the recapture of this list becomes a top priority for the British government. Bond is called to track it down.
The Good: Daniel Craig in the role of James Bond was great, and a fresh, smart, approach to the reinvention of Bond by director, Sam Mendes was unexpectedly good. The villain in this 007 movie is not after the world (which has been done do death), but somebody's head. The target of the antagonist's wrath is the iconic character, Bond's boss, known simply as “M.” You see the closeness Bond has for M (played wonderfully well by Judi Dench), as he works his secret agent mojo to protect her. Usually, Bond films are all about Bond. This is a refreshing twist in the saga. Audiences also meet a young “Q” (the inventor of all of Bond's cool tools, portrayed by Ben Whishaw), in this film. That focus on the 007 team, once again, is a big cinematic payoff. There are many other surprises, as well. Most of them are unbelievable and unbelievably entertaining (which is, again, what we expect to see in any good 007 movie).
As is the case in all Bond films, the women are beautiful in Skyfall. This is good. And did I mention that the cars are cool? The cars are very very cool in this movie. That is also good. The locations are beautiful. Some scenes will usher breath from your body, to be sure.
The Bad: I've seen a million movies with chase scenes running into fruit stands or fruit carts. To encounter them in Skyfall didn't fill me with joy. The villain, played by Raoul Silva, is not particularly weighty, or scary and is a bit of a boiler plate character. He is not the late Heath Ledger, who captivated us as the Joker with his complications and charisma in the Dark Knight. He is certainly not as frightening as Anthony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter. Since the director went in the direction of a much more dark Bond film, this time around, I was hoping for a better bad guy.
The most important question: Is it a good movie?
This is a good film in a month when many other good films are opening, I am happy to say. 1-5, I would give it a 4.5. Even if you don’t like the old James Bond films, because he was in the sack with every women he met, and had some cute little saying for every situation, this is not one of those movies. Skyfall falls fresh.
--MLJ
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