Mediocre action movie, weak Bond film

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2012)

For me this movie was quite good up until about an hour and a half into it, after Silva kills Sévérine the movie falls apart and goes steadily down hill until it just sort of ends.
The action sequences are fairly generic and offer none of the bond-esque flair we've come to expect. We go from parkour battles on top of cranes in Casino Royale and the awesome boat chase in Quantum of Solace to generic fist fights in dark alleys or on rooftops. Its not that action sequences are inherently bad, but they are NOT Bond action at all.
The new Q - I like the approach they tried to take with him, until he unveiled there would be no gadgets at all besides a dermal-sensitive pistol. There isn't even the Bond watch a staple of pretty much every film past. I thought the idea of a young, brilliant, arrogant Q would be a good direction, but none of the quibble between Q and Bond that defined many films past is present. Also given the personality of the new Q you expect him to not only embrace gadgets, but to constantly come up with new and wild ideas for them. We don't get anything close to that with this Q.
Silva's introduction as the villain is great, and at that point in my first viewing of the film I was thinking 'this is one of the better bond films yet'. Silva brings an interesting blend of eccentric flamboyance, psychopathic rage, and intellect to the table which hasn't been seen in a bond villain in quite the same combination before. His use of Sévérine as an object for his own entertainment and a statement to bond is cold blooded, and again at that point in the film I was expect the movie to continue ramping up the tension and explode with an amazing finale. Sadly I was severely disappointed when all that good stuff about Silva comes crashing down with a generic and bland 'intentionally gets captured as part of his ingenious plan' cop out plot. Its a dirty trick used in sub-par action films and its quite disappointing to see a bond film resort to it. They had all the elements for a great weird, psychotic genius of a villain and they squandered it.
The theme for the entire film is good ideas not properly realized, or just simply peppered in for fun and not touched on again. Sévérine the bond girl for example (I bet most people never even caught her name in the film) is extremely hot and exotic looking and her accent is quite sexy. She is on film for approximately 15 minutes. No character development is done of any kind, even the 5 minute character development from Tomorrow Never Dies for its bond girl crushes Skyfalls development (as there was none). Sévérine is just popped in for eye-candy and she isn't even on the screen long enough to really enjoy that aspect of it. Bond doesn't care at all when she dies. Its puzzling just like the entire movie. After all the effort in Casino Royale to make it known that Bond did love a woman once before (Vesper) and because of his line of work she got killed. Again in QoS the first bond girl, Fields is killed because of line of work. The next girl he doesn't even sleep with because of remorse for that. Then we see bond use Sévérine in the new film in much the same manner Silva does. It simply doesn't make sense. In the films before Casino Royale its always fairly clear to me that bond only sleeps with the women and doesn't pursue further for fear of them getting to involved in his job, or getting hurt. Casino Royale was supposed to explain that. But then Skyfall throws that idea out completely.
Bottom line: If you want to see a mediocre action film that simply happens to have James Bond as the titular character, you will enjoy this one. If you are looking for Bond, real Bond, like in Dr. No, Thunderball, Goldfinger, or The World is Not Enough you would be best to simply watch those classic instalments than waste your time and money here.