Solid Bond movie

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2012)

I saw this as a fairly enjoyable movie with a good deal of spectacular action, particularly at the start in Turkey. It's a solid Bond film, worth about 7.5. I liked the fact that the movie changed direction several times. Hang on for the ride.
No, it's not a perfect movie. It's a little too long. This film is rather overloaded with shootouts, martial arts fights and chase scenes.
Although I suppose the ending worked, and was well played by Dench and Craig, I found the last quarter of the movie to be contrived. Was it really necessary for Siliva to go to London? To bring M to Skyfall? After a while you have to wonder whether saving M is worth all those lives.
There were a few aspects of the Silva character that I didn't quite get. Where did he get all these resources? That knowledge of computers? And what was Silva's hold over his henchmen? How was he able to hold his own against Bond?
The Komodo scene with groan-worthy. That's a return to the camp Bond of Roger Moore's day.
After more than 110,000 votes on IMDb, this movie garners the high rating of 8.1. It also does well on other movie sites. This is turning out to be one of the most popular Bond movies of all time -- like it or not.
And yet most reviews that give this movie a high score are getting an unusually high number of thumbs down. I'm not sure what this indicates, but there seems to be a small number of disgruntled movie reviewers who are gnashing their teeth at the popularity of this movie and trying to show their displeasure in any way they can. I'm sure they are not even reading the reviews they are thumbing down. Many of them have reviewed only one film on IMDb.
This movie still has the basic elements of a Bond movie. Besides, part of the pleasure of this franchise is to see what the directors and actors have done with the concept.
And what they've done with it is to bring it firmly within the current mainstream fad for shootouts, martial arts fights and chase scenes. Many movies are like this now. In this world of blurred genres, it's difficult to tell a superhero movie from a superspy movie. All our movie heroes seem to be invulnerable now. Is this the inevitable by-product of the video-game age? It's hard to see where this will end. Maybe they should make everyone human again.
At the very least we all should be deeply grateful that Pierce Brosnan is no longer playing Bond. I certainly hope this disgruntled minority is not pining away for the return of Brosnan.
Anyway, those are a few of the good points and quibbles. It's a big movie (a long movie) and worth going to see. You know you'll have to: it's a Bond movie.