Skyfall (2012)

skyfall

Link: Skyfall

Summary: A mysterious villain begins attacking the secret service of which James Bond is an agent.  The target seems to be agent M herself.  James Bond must save the day.

Thoughts: Overall, I enjoyed the film.  I think it’s certainly the best Bond film starring Daniel Craig.  The opening action was fun, the opening titles and song were great, and the overall story was believable and made sense.  It wasn’t too over-the-top or so convoluted that you lose track of why people are fighting.  They kept the story tight and focused on the characters and their inner-conflicts, and that made the action sequences resonate much more strongly.

The portrayal of technology was a bit silly.  The decryption of computer code is represented by messed up visuals on a computer screen sorting themselves out, as if decrypting is something like solving a slide puzzle.  And then Q says dramatically, “The code is obfuscated!  Security through obfuscation!”  OMG!  Obfuscation!  Oh no!  But James Bond “solves” the obfuscation with a password?  Uh.  Um.  OK.  Or maybe I wasn’t paying attention well enough, because I was laughing too hard at Q’s reaction to the obfuscation.  The technology in the film relies too much on techno-babble.  (“Most audiences won’t know what obfuscation is!  So let’s pretend it’s something really clever!”)

I did a report on komodo dragons when I was in sixth grade.  Though I obviously didn’t become an expert, I did not find the CGI dragon’s portrayal in the film to be very realistic.  It moved too gracefully and was too sinister and quick to attack humans, as if like a mini-dinosaur from Jurassic Park.  The scene made me laugh.  The scorpion and the teeth removal were also too obviously CGI.

And the fight under icy water?  Well, I guess it’s better than invisible cars.