Fun Action Movie Dulled by Plot line Absurdities

Rating: 5/10 (9 July 2013)

There's a lot to like about Skyfall: the entertaining and fairly creative action sequences and the beautifully shot videography. I particularly enjoyed the first third of the movie, which indeed had the look and feel of a traditional Bond film-- a high-speed, globe-trotting, action-packed adventure. I generally have no problem with Daniel Craig's tougher, beefier Bond.
However, once we meet the villain, Silva (Javier Bardem), the film is forced to flesh out its plot and things deteriorate quickly. There are numerous plot holes and contrivances in Skyfall, but I'm willing to overlook most of them except the two glaring ones that are central to the movie.
Firstly, the movie has an Aha-He(Silva)-planned-it-ALL moment a bit over halfway through the movie. A movie can do this, so long as the plot leading up to this fits. But considering that Skyfall up to that point was a sequence of seemingly arbitrary, fortuitous events, this strains credibility and indicates sloppy, contrived writing.
Secondly, Bond hatches a devious, cunning plan to counter Silva in the final Act of the movie. Except it's not devious. It's a horrible, illogical, arbitrary plan, put in place only because the writers wanted to shift the movie's setting. Lazy writing like this only serves to undermine the characters.
Skyfall is not a bad movie, but the plot problems make it feel like a "stupid" movie-- one that was a written for an unthinking audience. I don't require that movies be impeccably realistic, but I do hope that writers take the time to address the most logical and obvious questions that are likely to pop into the viewers head.
On a side note, the movie actually seems more chauvinistic than its predecessors. All the female characters are portrayed as unreliable and error-prone, as dependent on male counterparts, or ultimately as mere sex tools. Perhaps this is what the critics were talking about when they raved about Bond getting back to its roots?