Good Movie to End the Series On

Rating: 1/10 (23 December 2013)

The Bond movie series started off quite original. It was really a combination of Hitchcock's "North by NorthWest," the T.V. series, "Danger Man" and numerous Mike Hammer type detective movies. However, Ursula Andress in a bikini, Sean Connery in a tuxedo, and some great sets by production designer Ken Adams gave it a sheen that no other film had before it. Every spy film in the 1960's tried to copy it and failed. This was a mixed brew that nobody had ever tasted before.
How sad to see the series now shamelessly copying other movies. The lost list of all our agents which triggers the plot comes from "Mission Impossible," The Exotic locations, including China are also from that movie series. The smiling, invincible psychotic killer villain is the "Joker" from "Batman"/"Dark Knight" Stealing again from the same source, the capture and imprisonment of the villain in the middle of film turns out to be a planned maneuver by the villain. The second major plot of betrayed agent going after his organization is from the Bourne (Robert Ludlum) movies. It is clear that the spy series that everybody else ripped off has run out of fresh ideas and is now shamelessly ripping off from other successful big budget movies.
One can imagine an honest trailer for this movie: "See the latest James Bond adventure. This is James Bond, older, uglier, stupider, and more vicious then you have ever seen him before. This film explores the one relationship you've always wanted to know about - the love/hate relationship between James Bond and "M." Does he love her? Is she a mother to him? Does she hate him? Is he like a wayward son to her? What is the truth about their relationship? See "Skyfall" and find out.
Anyways, this is as good a place as any to stop the series. It is clear that it has outlived its time and does not fit into the postmodern world.