Two things--

One) The Phantom Menace isn't nearly as hated by the masses as it is by the geeks;

Two (and more importantly) The Phantom Menace didn't spike up from its predecessors. Skyfall isn't just making money, it's making considerably more than its immediate predecessors.

I don't think anyone here truly tries to say that Skyfall is hated by the masses.

Dr. Lecter watching Did You Hear About the Morgans?

In a tutu.

Believe me, I didn't want to dislike Skyfall! It was one of my most anticipated movies of the year... viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67420&p=1781597&hilit=Gatsby#p1781597

At least Cloud Atlas didn't let me down. Now there's a film that proves box office receipts don't have any correlation with the quality of a film itself.

I watch Hugh Grant-movies stark naked, please.

Oh goodness.

fyi you guys are the masses

Fair enough. But don't say "in large part to essentially every impressive beat already being featured in the trailers" and then blame the movie.

All of the trailers for the Bond movies give away the great action elements. They always have and they always will.





It was a well done action sequence that was almost completely featured in the trailers. The only thing that I believe wasn't shown was Bond running through the wall and the two of them sliding from one level to another.



Lacked or didn't need?



That one I agree with and was awesome. But never before, and never again, will a Bond villain get smoked with an entire act left to go.





My point being that Silva is ridiculous fun and a great Bond villain while Le Chiffre has a defective tear duct. To be fair, Le Chiffre and Bond have their great moments together, but Silva is a much better villain.



Repeatedly? Who else does it happen to besides Severine (who was Silva's lover and not innocent)? The guy who gets shot in Shanghai doesn't count because the guy who gets shot was working with Silva. The two set up the meeting and Silva double-crossed him. And what exactly was he supposed to do about Severine? Shoot Silva and immediately get shot by his guards?

Where are all these innocent people?



The one scene where Bond needs Q is when he's in the subway and they don't know specifically where he's going. It's about halfway through the chase when Q realizes that Silva is going after M. They didn't know about this anytime before otherwise Bond would've just met Silva at the hearing and shot him in the face.

Anyways, the only time Bond is tracking Silva is when they first go underground. Then Silva gets too far ahead, and that's when Q tells him to go through that locked door to cut him off. The second time Bond needs Q is when he's deciding whether or not to board the subway car because he isn't sure if Silva is on there or not. Q figures it out.

Constantly = twice.

You know how much fun you're going to have with a Bond movie if you're constantly nitpicking it?



Well I've talked to about two dozen people who've seen it and they all loved it.

See what I did?

People say Bond doesn't react to Severine's death, but he is clearly internalizing anger and/or sadness when he says, "A waste of good scotch." He is hardly going to fall to his knees and weep in front of his enemies. I can't believe there are people who just see this as a flip one-liner.

The first half of the movie is almost unbearably smug, the 'Home Alone' part idiotic and practically superfluous, but overall it quite entertained me. 7/10.

It's Straw Dogs, not Home Alone.

What a mixed movie, at times i was at the edge of my seat and other times i was plain bored, the beggining was great but then it just fell flat until Bardem appeared on screen, he really put life in the movie, without him skyfall would have downright sucked.

It was good, but I prefer Casino Royale, which remains for me the best 007 ever.

3.5/5

Yes indeed. Skyfall is good. Its much better than QoS but I much prefer Casino Royale on just about every level.

The cinematography and direction of Skyfall is top notch and Bardem is brilliant (though he seems to lose steam over the course of the film).

However, overall its hit and miss and perhaps a good 20 minutes too long.

I did like Naome Harris and Bernice Marlowe (the latters screen time too short!).

Atleast the way it ends leaves us with the hope that the next two films will leave behind the baggage and set Bond on new more interesting adventures.

I think Casino Royale is better but its nice to see a Bond film get such success...

The film has some great action scenes and the storyline is interesting and the home alone scenes were very dark and funny

B+

... because that is really rare and puts money where it is direly needed.

Lol no need to bring Ocupy Wall Street Nonsense here...

I was saying CR was really good and this was as good and nice to see Bond we seen as a top class film.

I never got around to write a full review for this, but like the majority the more I think about it the more I end up loving it. I'm not the biggest Bond fan, but even I know that Bardem is easily the best Bond villain this franchise has ever had. He is just so fucking creepy and that thing with his teeth was just nasty. Sure there are a lot of hints of Joker from TDK, but he plays it so damn perfectly that I honestly didn't mind it at all. I loved the bit where he first meets Bond and his scenes towards the end are indeed EPIC! in a sense.

Also, this has to be the most beautifully shot blockbuster in a long time. I have said it once before and will say it again. TDKR has nothing on this in the technical department and I still love that movie more.

Skyfall

I've finally seen it, and I loved it. It's stylistically still Bond, but stylishly very modern. The cinematography is sublime, the score is engaging, and they both compliment each other wonderfully. This is without a doubt the best Bond movie ever. It's like a whole new level of Bond film-making. Gone is the action-adventure Bond, and in its place is a beautifully artistic, subtle yet sexy, spy action-thriller. I'm so happy to name this my favourite film of 2012 above Jack Reacher and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (not least because it's British) because it was made with finesse, precision and direction. Kudos to Sam Mendes, he executed his own vision very well, and it makes light of the Bond conventions (gadgets, shaken not stirred etc.) which I thought was a unique and risky touch, which paid off.

Javier Bardem, in one scene, became probably the best Bond villain ever, and by the end of the film he is the clear favourite. The only gripe I have is the beginning where they're riding on the rooftops with motorbikes, it was obviously a double and CGI backgrounds for the closeups. I thought that everything before the opening titles was pre-Mendes Bond, sort of like an homage to Bond of past, and everything post-opening titles was the new Bond. Talking of the opening titles, that was magic, especially when the title came up and Bond was sinking into the water, very artistic.

The scene in London was absolutely amazing. I was amazed with just how excited and into the scene I was. Using the underground in that way and the police outfit was all visually exciting, but the music leading up to the climax at Parliament was just film-making at its best. Everything in this movie was original. The scenes in Shanghai and Macau were good, but particularly Shanghai, the neon signs gave the impression of a nightclub feeling, and it was super cool. This is easily the best filmed Bond movie, the still shots, the photographic shots, it was beautiful. Each new location gave off a different colour scheme, and I've always loved movies that manage to differentiate locations with the use of colour.

I'd like to see it again. Now.

A

More to come...

Of course. Skyfall is one of the best action blockbuster ever, let alone one of the best Bond movies.

Algren, maybe you want to adjust your WOKJ Awards ballot now that you have seen one more movie nominated.

Or just wait until the deadline, watch even more and then re-vote?

Yes, I'll do that. Thanks doc.

I won't be seeing anymore of the nominated movies before the deadline, so I will now send my ballot for a third time.

EDIT: Skyfall sweeped all of the available categories. It's not just because I've just seen it either, it really did have the best cinematography out of the nominees. The same goes for editing, score etc. The hardest one was supporting actor, I didn't want to drop Samuel L. Jackson because he was excellent, but I figured that Bardem beat all 23 other Bond villains with his relatively short performance, which is an amazing achievemet, whereas SLJ didn't have any pre-existing competition.

Wish I had seen Skyfall before the noms ballot, man would my ballot have been different.

Oh, and I've heard the "Skyfall" song once, which was in the film, and I loved it. It fitted so incredibly well with the visuals and feel of the movie.

I've not enjoyed a Bond movie in such a long time, and certainly not this much. Quantum of Solace was quite frankly disappointing and underwhelming, Casino Royale was good but unmemorable and I disliked Daniel Craig (it didn't give me the experience I required), Die Another Day is laughably bad (I didn't see it in cinemas), and The World is Not Enough was 14 years ago. So long since I've actually enjoyed one, and none to the level of Skyfall, which is a cut above the rest. It's a Bond movie, but with drops of attention and precision just like an arthouse movie.

Glad you liked it. To me, it is the best blockbuster in 3-4 years.

I'd have to do some checking on that, but I'd have to agree with you as of right now. That might make a good poll in Cinemania actually if you can group together all of the blockbusters of the last 3-4 years.