Skyfall Film Club Review

Following on from participating in the From the Red Carpet film club for Looper and Premium Rush, I joined in again for the discussion of latest James Bond flick Skyfall.

Some of my contributions included:

‘Probably my favourite Bond ever, but then again I’ve never been the biggest Bond fan in the world.’

On Javier Bardem's terrific baddie: ‘Personally I would say he’s easily ONE of the best ever. So sympathetic, and what an incredible backstory. I loved how it was such a personal vendetta.’

‘Naomie Harris is absolutely gorgeous, but the verbal sparring between them was a bit lame and it was a shame she had to be told what to do in the action scene at the start. She seemed pretty capable but could have been more badass.’

Check out the From the Red Carpet review of Skyfall here.

I absolutely loved the film.  I thought the opening scene was filled with spectacular action, the cinematography and production design was some of the finest of the year and the mixing of the old with the new made it a Bond for all audiences.  I can't see how it would fail to satisfy any Bond fan or anyone who just loves a good action film

Adele's theme is a classic and the opening credits were suitably morbid and beautiful. Bardem made a hugely satisfying baddie with a standout scene that made me care more for him than any other Bond villain in history and finally the other cast members slotted into place in very exciting ways for the future of the franchise.  I had hoped for the ending to get more emotional but this is a minor complaint.

What I most loved about it was how it went from such huge epic globe-spanning stuff at the start to an incredibly personal and restricted story by the end.  I leaned more about Bond than ever and setting the action in one location for much of the final half was genius.  I hope Sam Mendes will be back for more.

 In other news, please go vote for The Master to be this week's film club pick as otherwise it's Twilight!

What did you think of Skyfall everybody?  Feel free to post links to your reviews in the comments!

Prequel gets Sequel

Big news today!  Bond 23 gets a title... wait for it... Skyfall!  Wow!  As usual this means nothing to me.  It's just another random naming of a Bond adventure that will inevitably lead to another completely average theme song and a much more interesting trippy opening credit sequence featuring sillhouetted women posing suggestively with guns... or something.  Slightly more promising than the underwhelming title is the news that Javier Bardem will be following his creepy turn in No Country for Old Men with a stab at a Bond villain.  Oh and apparently Bond may have a beard in this one.    Being directed by Sam Mendes could be reason to get very excited or it could be a reason to go; Bond? The director of American Beauty? WTF???

Forget Bond.  The real big bit of news for today is the signing of Andy Serkis to the Rise of the Planet of the Apes sequel.  Recently I suggested here that this might be the first prequel ever to not suck.  After getting all excited by the trailer, I was not disappointed by the film and actually really hoped that there would be more to come in this franchise.  The prequel spent so much time setting up a great character in Caesar (played perfectly using performance capture technology by Andy Serkis), that it only just got to the rising of the apes in the last few minutes of the film.  The scope for the sequel is epic.  I can't wait to see how these apes are going to bring an end to the rule of us pesky humans on this planet.  It should be two hours of (guerilla/gorilla) warfare!

The signing of Serkis means the return of the prequel's anti-hero Caesar.  This is a character easy to empathise with and root for, the CGI playing second fiddle to Serkis' motion-captured performance.  Go read this excellent post on why Serkis should get an Oscar nomination for his work!  It remains to be seen if James Franco will return, though despite being the hero and a great actor to watch, it was Caeser's story that needed to be continued as he leads the revolution.

Anyway, despite the ever increasing reliance on franchises, sequels, prequels and the ever-diminishing originality in Hollywood, this is a sequel to a prequel that will hopefully be a pleasure to see rise at the box office.

Check out Serkis at work in the video below: