Impossible to Rate

Rating: 5/10 (3 February 2013)

Skyfall isn't really a movie at all, so much as about three or four movies loosely crunched together. On its own, any one of those movies might have been pretty good. Run together as a 'medley,' they make a pretty chaotic and frustrating experience.
There's the missing spy-list, Bond-is-dead thing. There's a really good one-on-one foot chase through downtown London (practically the only locale Bond hasn't previously visited). Plus another chase, with motorcycles on rooftops in Istanbul. There's the spooky abandoned-city sequence (culminating in the most abrupt departure of a significant character I can recall seeing in any Bond movie). And then there's the Straw Dogs finale, with a barely-armed Bond holed up in Scottish hovel.
Oddly, I didn't hate all this. Each of the segments had things in it that were entertaining, surprising, occasionally even clever. They don't add up to much, true enough. But what does *any* Bond movie add up to? Even the best of them consist of loosely strung-together action sequences.
That's not to say Skyfall is a good movie. But it's not without some entertainment value. The action sequences are pretty good. The range of locations is better than usual. The lack of gadgets is refreshing. The title song is good. The new Q is a huge improvement over the last few versions. Javier Bardem is a great over-the-top-villain, even if his character really doesn't make much sense. I also enjoyed seeing Daniel Craig once more as Bond, even though this third film does very little to cash in on his off-beat Bond persona.
Skyfall is not quite the least of the Bond films. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to a casual viewer... But I think Bond completists can find quite a bit in it to enjoy, if they can get over their entirely understandable sense of disappointment.