Coursework in The Beating of A Dead Horse 101

Rating: 4/10 (2 December 2012)

For all the money and talent available to make a Bond film Skyfall comes off as phony and weak as any of them ever made. Whereas Moonraker was silly guilty pleasure Skyfall is just silly without the guilty pleasure.
The most significant line in the movie spoken by the new Q (a god-awfully written character) when he states that he could "do more damage with his PC by 6:00 AM while in his pajamas" than Bond could do in days of field work. This line represents the attitude of the writers. They feel that they can just write anything and since they wrote it on their PC it is wonderful.
If the writers ever did go out into the field and do field work they would know that it is impossible to just magically make a gas explosion timed to go off when M has her car stopped on the bridge. And just why was M's car stopped? No explanation is given...there was no attempt at a set-up of a terror threat (or else that was edited out).
The writers would also know that it is impossible to just magically have a "virus" program suddenly open all doors, etc., in a building. They would also know that Q is acting like a rank amateur plugging in an unknown PC into the whole network without even contemplating that this may be a bad move. Way too coincidental but ...hey...when you wake up and just magically type magical characters then it is all so easy for villains to do this!
The end of the movie is actually one of the more atrocious Bond endings ever. It is pure video game fantasy. Let's have an isolated building in an isolated area be taken by assault and we will...over a series of very staged scenes...blow up room after room culminating with sending a helicopter into the building for final destruction.
Then...somehow on a beautiful chilly day in Scotland...at night...the moor is iced over! And not just thin ice...noooooooo...it is "breakeable only by bullets" ice. Not only is it night and iced over when one is below the surface of the ice one can see upwards perfectly.
To cap it off...after escaping from the water Bond makes it to the chapel to save M...and he is completely dry. He is completely composed like he is ready to order a martini. No hint of hypothermia here! And he throws a knife with such force from across a room that it impales perfectly in the back of the villain killing the villain in seconds! Just like in "Skyfall...the Video Game!"
Given the run time of the film there are massive amounts of other inanities that can be pointed out but why beat a dead horse? And that is what Skyfall ultimately is...coursework in the beating of a dead horse 101.