Skyfall: Through My Eyes Only

Rating: 3/10 (7 November 2012)

If you would like Butter Chicken Gravy in Chinese Hunan Sauce, go for it! But I believe. If you were the classical Bond connoisseur you would be disappointed. Only the beginning had some promise. And when the much hyped Adele sings, I feel Golden Eye is still lethal, still the best, but that's a personal choice. But it's a story of yore, when it all started. The Qs and the Ms. It starts off promisingly in Istanbul amidst the din and the fading blue of the famous mosque, which incidentally is captured well before for the song "Mayya Mayya" in the Bollywood film 'Guru'. There are more shades of Bollywood too. Especially the chase with flying fruit carts and running within the Bazaar! The classic cult from Mumbai, Sholay theme comes back too, in between, with the Anglicized concept of Hema Malini tied to pillars for that famous song under the sun and gun! Off course you have to be British to place an apple alternative in the head for the Robin Hood type bow and arrow shoot. Bruce Lee inspires Sam Mendes for the mirror house shoot as in Enter the Dragon!
I, for one like to see Bond films for 3 Gs (pun not intended). Gals, Goons and Gadgets. You will get only one, the Goon. The Gals and the Gadgets will be missing. Eve (Naomi Harris) is excellent, something of a statement for the modern world, her colour, her poise and her statements. We have lots of surprises too. The other woman, Severine (Berenice Marlohe), is a sinister self-destructive femme fatale whose lips are as black as her heart and she has played her role fair enough to make a mark. The goon played by Spaniard, Javier Bardem, which got international acclaim for his role in Woody Allen's Vicky, Christiana, Barcelona is the best act in the film. Javier is Penelope Cruz's husband and he makes his personal life secret as he had his character for this film. But Bond will have only one gadget to boast, the age old Walther PPK with slight modification. But I loved the car on which India's Ambassador was designed.
There are moments of some brilliance though. Like, the meeting of the Quatermaster with Bond at the National Gallery at London. Yes, that is what Q stands for. In front of JMW Turner's 1839 painting, "The Fighting Temeraire" so apt for the time and phase of Bond's career. The Temeraire sold for scrap after the battle of Taraflgar is a simile for the crisis within Bond, MI6 and M! The style statements were there, but Reid and Taylor will not go for any advertisements soon. Just one arrangement of the cuff link within the tube, that's it. As for the one-liners I liked only one when Bond was jumping from one carriage to another. The classic style and sleekness of a Bond movie is missing, the flair is not there. The last sequence is more Harry Potterish, the colours dark, the mood severe, the angst very much there. It is interesting to note the signing off of Judi Dench, which probably won't be seen in future Bond movies as we already have another M by the time the movie ends! Yes, there was another one liner which remains etched in the memory for a long time. 'Welcome to Scotland' and that was Albert Finney's classic and reserved till the end. Finally, for Bond fans you still have to visit the theatre once. And that is what 'loyalty' is all about.