The Review: Skyfall

The Premise: James Bond fights an assassin, gets shot at, dies, and before you expect anything extraordinary, he returns to deal with an ex-agent who is out to teach M a lesson or two about death.

The Good:

·        Judi Dench: This dame is an acting encyclopaedia. The lines on her face do all the talking and her eyes and eyebrows enact all the loathing, desperation, and agony her character, M, has to go through when her authority is challenged. And of course, the times she opens her mouth, her voice is captivating enough to not pay attention to the implausibilities around her. Judi doesn't try too hard for she doesn't have to. And that is the mark of an accomplished actress.

·        Ralph Fiennes: He has just a bit to play but he does it well. He is sincere as he was in Quiz Show, and he is the very epitome of the Brit you expect in such a role.

·        Ben Whishaw: Q has never been this young, this boyish, and this vulnerable in the looks department. Ben carries the weight of making you believe in his character deftly on his delicate—almost nubile—shoulders and earns a truckload of approval.

·        The theme song: Adele sculpts a song of great excellence with her silky alluring vocals. She swims to the exact lows and rises to just the very highs the lyrics need her to, as if the song is in her breath. Strains of Dusty Springfield's The Look of Love haunt Adele's rendition and the ensuing melody is a classic to listen to. The surreal visuals that walk the length of the song serve up just the right doses of melancholy mixed with psychedelic colours to drown you in the mood Adele sets for the melody.

Towing the Line:

·        Javier Bardem: He does follow the James Bond Manual of Style for Villains down and up to every detail. So, as a textbook example of Bond villains, he does get a perfect 10 for his job. However, when you start to look for something more than just creepy and sinister in his act, you realize that that something more is just not there. What you do find is platinum blonde hair paired with albino-esque makeup, which—I am quite sure—is not a feast for anyone accustomed to seeing this accomplished actor do much more with his face and act.

The Bad and The Ugly:

·        The script: Consider this: The Military Intelligence, Section 6 (MI6) headquarters get blown up, and its data networks are compromised. So, it shifts underground, literally! That done, the suspect is then caught and brought there as well! Even worse! Q plugs the rascal's laptop into MI6's network, and yawn yawn! The network goes down yet again! 

Now I may not be ridiculously clever and neither may you be devilishly shrewd. But we both know that if we have to deal with someone who hacked into the MI6 network, we definitely need at least a free antivirus to scan the bloody someone's laptop, don’t we?

·        The utter lack of logic:

You and I know that I will not:

•  Survive a bullet that throws you off the roof of a train and flings you into a waterfall that dives several thousand feet to meet a river.
•  Send an MI6 agent all alone to tackle a notorious insider (whom you manage to track despite a hacked intelligence network!) and then fly in help almost half an hour later.

 But the world—and its MI6—under the bizarre direction of Sam Mendes definitely will!

·        The explosions: They are all very spectacular and crackle with all the right booms and what have you. However, you cannot help but notice that they all seem to have no point to prove.

·        Albert Finney: He is wasted in a role that does no justice to his fine acting calibre. Probably, Finney got lured by the money. For there seems to be no other explanation as to why the man who romanced Audrey Hepburn in Two for the Road, played Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, and electrified the proceedings of Erin Brockovich agreed to play bounty keeper and mouth lines that waltz between being pathetic to downright tiresome!

·        Daniel Craig: I don't quite know what went wrong with him. I understand that the Bond series has gone from lightweight sex and thrills to darker sinister alleys. What I don't, is why that is an excuse for Bond to sport one lonely dull deader-than-the-pan expression 9/10th of the time! There’s no denying the fact that Craig's blue eyes are a treat to watch in all the closeups and so is his grim expression. But he repeats it so often that you are forced to look at the extras being bashed up or walking down the bazaars for want of variety!

·        The Climax: Yes, our heroes and villains are now darker than the Prince of Darkness. Yes, they all love to wear dark shades and strut around in dark Tom Ford suits. But that is no reason to leave us in the dark as to why the climax was so so tame! Several explosions and mutilated cars later, the least one expects is a gritty end to the proceedings. But what the director cooks up lacks several pinches of salt and needs some spice as well.

The Verdict: Go read an Alistair-MacLean novel or watch an adaptation of one if meaning and sense mean much to you. Else, leave your brains in the deep freeze, rave about the special effects, remind yourself it's sheer Bond magic; and two and a half hours later, thaw your brains to room temperature and I am too tired to say anything further.