Sky-fall from grace.

Rating: 6/10 (18 February 2014)

This 007 movie has a little more action than Quantum of Solace, where James Bond (Daniel Craig) inadvertently exposes secret agents from around the world after a botched mission, causing M (Judi Dench) to relocate MI6. With the agency compromised, M can only rely on Bond to crack the case and follow the trail of perpetrator Silva (Javier Bardem), who has a personal and lethal mission of his own.
The opening sequence was well done, with the very nice "Skyfall" song sung by Adele capturing the majesty, charm and mystery of all the intro songs from previous 007 movies, with the exception of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace; this is a great throwback to Bond's heyday. My favorite part is when Bond and M hop into his Ashton Martin and speeds off, where the classic Bond theme plays in the background. It was also nice to see the introduction of Q (Ben Whishaw), but I wish he would have resembled the classic Q more rather than a computer nerd who looks like he was fresh out of college. And, Javier Bardem makes a love-to-root-against villain, sending Bond on a wild and thrilling chase around the country.
Like the previous two Bond films starring Craig, this movie lacks the charm, suaveness, substance and humor you've come to recognize and love from the earlier 007 movies. This film's atmosphere and storyline were dark, which deviates to the more light-hearted Bond movies of the 70s and 80s. In addition, the time-line for this and the previous two films are supposed to be set before the events of the pre-Craig movies; however, this was not explained very well (i.e., as good of an actress Judi Dench is, they should have had a different actor/actress portray M since she was also in the Pierce Brosnon movies, which are set after the events of Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall). The story itself wasn't too appealing.
Overall, not one of the better Bond films. It's just another action flick with some neat special effects, but minus the 007 flavor.
Grade C