Like what I have written in my previous post, “Skyfall” is considered as one of my must-watch films in these last months of 2012. Honestly, I don’t really track all Bond movies from the beginning until this 23rd release. Yet, I paid concern to it since Daniel Craig played 007, which means from “Casino Royale”. Celebrating the 50 year of James Bond, “Skyfall” has been proclaimed to be a grand festivity for this legendary film character. Then, what do you think I will say about “Skyfall”?

Okay, perhaps if I compare it only to the previous two Craig-version Bond films, “Skyfall” found a narrow win. The story of “Skyfall” actually was more centered on M (played by Judi Dench) instead of Bond. James Bond (played by Daniel Craig) failed to chase Patrice (played by Ola Rapace) who had stolen data of all agent of MI6, spionage organization chaired by M. This data was then leaked to the internet, triggering a terror attack in London. Finally revealed that the mastermind of all this destructive action was Silva (played by Javier Bardem), an ex-MI6 agent who felt betrayed by M. As M was pushed by Gareth Mallory (played by Ralph Fiennes) from Intelligent and Security Committee for proving her responsibility, Bond rushed to stop Silva from his effort to kill M.

In “Skyfall”, we’re no longer focusing on Bond’s girl or sophisticated gadgets. Just like what Q (played by Ben Wishaw) said, Bond will no longer play with stuffs like “exploding pen” or something like that. On the other side, Sévérine (played by Bérénice Marlohe), who I think will gonna play a “wild part” of this film, just went so plain and unnoticed. Not so much romance was built from her and Bond. Not even with agent Eve (played by Naomie Harris), Bond’s new partner. Instead, the screenplay made by trio Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan, was like trying to direct Bond to get emotionally closer with his boss, M. In “Skyfall”, Bond’s integrity and loyalty to M was tested so much that, at last, I saw “Skyfall” felt more dramatic compared to, at least, Bond’s two latest films.

Sam Mendes handled “Skyfall” more attractingly. This Oscar-winning director from his work, “American Beauty”, showed “Skyfall” with a more intelligent and aesthetic touch, which I found mesmerizing. Actually I don’t really attracted by the first-half of this film, until the character Silva had his role. I think, from all these new characters presented in “Skyfall”, Silva is the most significant. I really appreciate how Javier Bardem acted as Silva; he really nailed it! The scene when he had his first meet-up with Bond was priceless: so beautifully killing, supported with a good presentation of a meaningful dialogue. It’s just regretful how I lose all those strong dramatic touch hiddenly appearing from this action-crime story in the ending. Yet, don’t worry, you’re gonna find out some surprises in the last minutes of this film that make all Bond’s fans keep on waiting for the continuation of this franchise.

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 ▲  Good innovation, good cast
 ▼  The ending was undramatically terrible