Skyfall – Not even close

Rating: 6/10 (31 October 2012)

Sometimes you watch a movie and read the reviews where you wonder: did we watch the same movie? This is one of those cases. Of course it's interesting that this is Bond nr. 23 and the 50th anniversary but let's review the movie itself, not it's history or the emotional load carried by the actor playing James Bond.
The story line is exceptionally weak in my perception. The opening scene is full of action, as one might expect, but full of strange actions. Of course the scenes on the rooftops of Istanbul are sensational, but realistic? I think not. Than there is the point where James has to jump on a train from a bridge. He does that by crashing into a railing in a way that would injure anyone profoundly. His co-star Eve, played by Naomie Harris manages to take her car from the bridge through traffic, and within seconds next to the train. Even more bizarre, in minutes they are high in the mountains. Not a very well written script.
The traveling around the world to Shanghai was necessary for Bond to put him in different locations, but the high-rise assassination was weird first of all because of the assassination it self, where everyone in the other building knows of the assassination, but than why do it so difficult. There are millions of ways to kill someone that are easier and more logical. The glass panels in the tower, with the commercial signs flashing in the background where a bit weirdly shot.
The subway explosion and subsequent tumbling down of a complete subway train was shot in an clumsy and stupid way. The whole train remained full of light during the tumbling down, it went through 8 columns which didn't show when it finally came to a stop. It didn't crash but sort of kept on driving over rails and after 8 support columns are smashed, you expect the building above also to crash down or so. And how does the new Q track people in tunnels?
The scenes in Scotland were of course well done. Although the light of a big fire carries apparently for miles when they arrive in the little church, a bit unbelievable. But about those scenes many questions arise. Why was M injured, and how do you die so quickly after walking for 2 miles? And than the scene in the house where it felt like watching an episode of McGiver or the A-Team. Very poorly scripted and not realistic for James Bond himself.
The weirdest thing of all is the plot of the storyline itself. The question being asked in the movie, for instance by the minister of internal affairs is, is there relevance for the existence of MI6. The answer in the movie: No there is not, because all of the worlds problems have disappeared. And the only things that remain are personal vendettas within the rankings of MI6, or old agents that have personal problems. Reason for abolishing the whole of MI6 and it's ancient agents. Apart from the fact that three villains attack the room of where M is interrogated by the minister and nobody of the MI6 agents or police officers know how to shoot and kill a bad guy.
There are many different ways to make James Bond more 2012, this was definitely not the way to do it. Basically it's the end of Bond, unless in the next 007 they know how to give world problems a better view by a more realistic storyline. Of course the movie was shot with nice cameras, nice lighting, one might expect that. But for me this James Bond is not in the Top 10 of best movies from the agent that we all know so well.