By Kelly Chian
Back from the dead, Skyfall, a James Bond movie, achieves great heights with nail-biting action, development of characters, and a little bit of romance. In Daniel Craig’s third movie, he bounces from his second movie The Third Solace for the 50 year anniversary.
After pretending to be dead, James Bond comes back to save the MI-6 from cyber villain Silva. The chase continues as Bond goes from London to Shanghai to Scotland. Bond tries to save the day, but he faces various challenges and obstacles. The PG-13 movie opened Nov. 9 and grossed over $11 million in its opening week. Starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, Javier Bardem as Silva, and Judi Dench as M with Sam Mendes directing, Skyfall changes the James Bond franchise.
The quality of the writing in Skyfall with plot and character development is exceptional with only minor flaws. With turning twists add to the plot, and throughout the story the viewers are continually guessing what will happen next. In the beginning of the movie, Bond is shot and thought to be dead. The death looks contrived, because normally a person does not survive a gunshot and a hundred-feet fall. With the little twists, the perspective of the whole movie changed, when the viewer thought the movie was going to end the plot thickens and more action occurs. As the plot changes so the the characters, they have an intertwined histories, that ultimately change the decisions of the characters. Bond’s childhood is brought up, allowing the reader to make inferences as to why Bond stays loyal to MI-6. The loyalty of Bond to MI-6 adds more personality to the tough James Bond. He is tested after he pretends to be dead, there is a terrorist attack that makes him realize the need for him in MI-6. Later, Silva asked Bond to join him, but after some thought Bond rejects Silva. Skyfall writing makes the movie great.
Directing in the film Skyfall makes the viewers’ experiences more exciting becuase of the scenery and actors’ performance. Throughout the movie, the scenery is beautiful and meaningful. The first part is set in Turkey, the scenes move from car chases on the roof tops to motorcycle chases in the city. The most breathtaking scenery in Turkey was the intense chase on top of trains. Apart from Turkey, scenes from London clearly show the dreary state the MI-6 was in. The scenes in Shanghai, China showed a more modern view of James Bond as it was filmed with all glass skyscrapers. In Bond’s hometown, Skyfall, is gray and dark to show the gloom set over the situation and what is to come. Other than the scenery, the director helped make the actor’s performance more enhanced. Craig made Bond’s personality show by snide comments, and his actions. Craig works well with his two female companions to create a small romance. Bond and M,the MI-6 leader, show this kinship bond that demonstrates the motherly love she has for him. The emotion in the characters are represented with the facial expressions. With exceptional directing, Skyfall’s scenery and acting performance shine through.
Daniel Craig’s other James Bond movies, Casino Royale and Quantum Solace, show qualities to the most recent one, Skyfall. The famous slogan, “Bond, James Bond”, is said in all the James Bond movies and Skyfall is not an exception. The characters remain all the same only a few more characters are introduced. The general plot of having action and love scenes is kept in each movie. Although the movies are similar, Skyfall has some differences. The most impressive difference is Skyfall’s usage of in-depth character development. In the other two movies, the killing of Bond’s lovers was routine and carried less meaning than it did in Skyfall. Each character had more history and in-depth relationship to Bond in Skyfall. In Skyfall, there are less romantic scenes and more action scenes in the movie. Even though the movies are similar, the differences are what make Skyfall special.
Skyfall displays great writing, directing, and is the best Daniel Craig James Bond movie so far. In theaters right now, the 50 anniversary of the James Bond is unforgettable. The two and a half hours of exhilarating footage will not disappoint.