Underwhelmed

Rating: 6/10 (15 June 2013)

Now am I a bond music person and the First ominous sign about the movie's tone was Adele's Skyfall theme, released prior to the movie. As lovely sounding and deftly delivered as it was, there was a certain drabness about it. It just lulled and lumbered, and titillated, but never arrived. (No, I wasn't expecting a full house, belting, herald like Tina Turner's, or Shirley Bassey's, after all my most preferred Bond themes are the tame Carly Simon's 'No body does it Better' (TSWLM), and Armstrong's 'We've got all the time in the world' (OHMSS), not to mention the divine Chris Cornell's 'You Know my Name' (CR)). I listened to skyfall over and over again to maybe gain an acquired taste for it...nothing. Its a lovely theme, but it won't make my top 15 bond themes.
Then I saw the movie, it was the same: nice, lulling, with deftly shot scenes, and the whole shebang. But something was awry, and that something is the thin line between a movie that is somewhat off because certain viewers find it hard to seamlessly suspend belief from the start to finish, on the one hand, and on the other hand, a movie with a plot so speckled with large enough holes that a large percentage, albeit a minority, of viewers leave the theaters feeling happy but less than satisfied, without fully appreciating the scope of the void that it had left in their movie loving hearts.
When I first shared my misgivings with some of my movie paddies, they felt the same way as I did, but there was a hesitancy to readily admit it, proving that everyone wanted skyfall to be all it aspired to be for an eagerly awaited Bond Movie. We all wanted it to work; and here lies the keystone to the puzzle: There is a large gulf of a difference between the aspirations of the Bond fans who really welcomed and wanted more of the freshness of 'Casino Royale' and accepted 'Quantum of Solace' for what it was worth. On the flip side, are the desperate aspirations of the Skyfall's producers and writers, vastly different from what the fans had in mind.
First Skyfall felt like a fresh Bond reboot too soon after the Casino Royale reboot. It could even be argued that it was a reboot of the Casino Royale reboot much in the same way 'The Amazing Spiderman' or 'X-Men First Class' were considered to be reboots done too soon, thereby making Skyfall somewhat unrecognizable as a bond movie to dedicated bond fans.
Second, the producers possibly aimed at and succeeded in pulling in a fresh audience through effective marketing and a bringing on a blinged up ambiance and grandeur of a feel to the movie, thoroughly Nolanizing it. What resulted was a visually satisfying action flick, but the skyfall characters, like many in the super hero genre, lacked depth and development. There was no chemistry between Craig and eve (Naomie Harris), M was too grim, Bardem's Julian Assenge like Silva was too demented a bond villain ever, and was more Ledger 'Dark knight' crazy, than the evil genius 'super villain' Blofeld like antagonists we've come to love and expect. In fact the debonair,gravitas, and level headed lunacy of the typical Bond villain is one of the striking attributes of what makes a Bond movie, a Bond movie. Bardem was brilliant, Silva was very irritating and confused (roll back to his attempted suicide scene, argh!!!).
Third, there was no Bond girl in Skyfall, its that simple. There were bond females, but no bond girl (no decent feminist should watch a bond movie so no complaints about my attachment to the term Bond girl). So I repeat, there was no bond girl in Skyfall. The emotional, tortured sex slave of Severine didn't sell as readily as Mariam D'Abo in TLD, Maud Adams in TMWTGG, or Jane Seymor in LALD and many others. I didn't get her, her easy access to bond, and her over staged death. Then lest I forget to mention the movie lacked any hint of a believable love triangle.
Forth, and most tellingly are the plot holes. Most movies have plot holes that we tend to ignore, but gaping ones leave you drained trying to fill up the voids as the movies progress.
Fifth, the Sykfall Bond is unrecognisable as Bond. We all always wanted some insight into the true bond after 50 years, we shouldn't be surprised that producers would want to fill his character out a bit. A plausible back story would be welcome. Bond is actually basically a spy and an assassin (which means he should be conflicted and disturbed to some extent, and most fans expect that), but he needn't be drunk, disheveled, and bungling, boss killing, and dumbed down to make him more human. Bond ain't no Hancock.
Bond is action fantasy A.k.a. Our Man Flint. Plenty in a bond movie should defy reason and transport you to another world. But it must have cohesion, an it must make sense. Funny thing is this movie has been a huge success, honestly it was well made. But its not a Bond movie, it could have been, and then it would be one of the greatest bond movies ever, but it wasn't. So far, with Skyfall, Bond is dead. I hope the next one revives the bond we know and will simultaneously bring on all the Nolan bling to boot