We've come a long way in the Bond franchise from the days of naked women swinging on gun barrels. I know we watched the opening credits sequence for Skyfall in class on the first day, but that doesn't mean I don't love it just as much this time around as I did over a month ago. Maybe I'm just a sucker for computer graphics sequences, but I found that I wanted to look away from the screen but couldn't. There are so many allusions to death and specifically Bond dying that I wanted to waive my white handkerchief in the air and scream, "Stop shooting Bond! He's too attractive to die!" Speaking of computer images, I found this film to be a lot more artsy than some of the other ones we've seen, like GoldenEye. There are a few scenes where Bond is strategically silhouetted when either running or fighting. One is when he's fighting Patrice as the reflections from various Chinese advertisements are projected across the walls. Another is when Bond is running to the church to save M and Kincade from Silva. He's in silhouette yet again and his body is often only shown in parts, like his feet or head, and is juxtaposed with the dark, barren landscape ahead of him or the burning house behind him. I liked that even though Silva's island is in China, it looked like it could be located anywhere. There was nothing written on any of the walls divulging which language the people who once lived there spoke, so who's to say it wasn't actually in Europe or South America? It reminded me a lot of photos that were taken after WWII when Europe was attempting to rebuild or of the abandoned Chernobyl site.
I felt a little sorry for Bond in the beginning half of the movie when he was constantly shown as being old or told he was too old to adequately perform his duties as a 00 agent. I mean, he's practically gasping for breath after swimming a few laps in the pool in his hotel in Shanghai. Granted, I look like that after climbing just one set of stairs in Mortimer, but I'm not a secret agent. This is also super nit-picky, but I had a little trouble not laughing whenever he ran. I could be the only one who feels this way, but he just looks super awkward and robot-like when he runs. It's totally not natural.
I was a little taken abac that there wasn't an outright Bond girl. There's Moneypenny (who totally blew my mind at the end when her name was revealed) and Severine (who was only onscreen for two seconds before she was outed as an unwilling prostitute to Silva), but neither are with Bond for the entirety of the film. Speaking of Severine, how did she not get the crap scared out of her when Bond snuck up behind her in the shower. I wouldn't complain if Bond wanted to jump in the shower with me, but if he showed up behind me without any warning or without making a sound, I would probably try to assault him with my shampoo. Speaking of silent ninja-like people, how did absolutely no one hear Silva escape and kill one of his guards? There were people in the next room just chillin and hanging out and looked at Bond like he was a crazy person when he did his freakish running style through their office. I would think at least one person in the entire MI6 headquarters would think, "Hmmm maybe I should check on the super dangerous prisoner in the next room since there's some flashing red lights and sirens going off above my head."
One other thing that surprised me was the lack of explosions! I thought for a brief time that gunfire would be the new event that would happen every five seconds to remind viewers just how masculine the movie really is. Then I got to the end. Looks like Silva didn't get the memo the director wanted to take the explosions down a notch. When he busted that hole in the tube tunnel and the District line train fell through and just kept right on going through all the walls, I just shook my head. Sure, the District line is awful in and of itself and I would avoid it at all costs last semester, but this takes major delays to a whole new level.
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