Skyfall (2012)

The film began and the anal Bond fan in me from the first frame of this film, just said “oh for God’s sake, where the ... is the GUN BARREL!” I was sat there like a spoilt child saying my head, “oh come on just make a Bond MOVIE, stop trying to be different, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” Well, this fan was right and happily so wrong!!! It is quite frankly the most original, the most simple plot in the world, an ex-agent from M’s past wants her dead and Bond is on hand! What you have here is a classic styled thriller, with just an absolute respect for the franchise. You can tell Sam Mendes is British and grew up watching what we have been watching over the last 3 days. Skyfall is an amazing piece of filmmaking – everything across the board is just so well done.

You have a cast at the very top of their game. Craig is just immense as Bond and further more his Bond has aged the four years he’s been off screen, giving even further believability of this re-booted franchise; Judi Dench is fantastic as M, given an extended role (really she should be included in the main cast rather than the ‘and’ credit). Ralph Fiennes is great as government official Mallory, whilst Ben Whishaw is fanastically geeky as the new Q. The villain- Silva- is played by Javier Bardem and he is just amazing; he’a bit camp but utterly menacing and there’s more than a hint of Hannibal Lecter to him (especially when M comes to visit him in prison). Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe are great as the Bond girls and Albert Finney makes a great cameo appearance as Kincade.

The stunt work is immense – the opening pre-title sequence when Bond rips the train apart with a JCB really sets the scene; it’s a slightly larger-than-life start which is against the reality of the previous two films. However they keep it within the style of the Craig universe.

This quite simply deserves the praise it is receiving and I won’t talk any more because there are so many twists and spoilers that this geek wants to talk about.

Put Simply Rating: 5 out of 5

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With this we have succeeded in our own mission, we have watched the entire franchise in 3 days. But, never fear as James Bond will Return, so shall we.

This mission is complete – but we will debrief Skyfall further beyond the challenge.

We are going to record a spoiler Watchers Geek Chat of Skyfall (obviously over a beer) – so watch out for that extra post.

Thank you all who have sponsored us and all the support. It has been an experience to say the least.

Rhys Jones