In Which I Review Skyfall

Que theme music.
 

After listening to Adele's beautiful song on repeat, accidentally developing a huge crush on Ben Whishaw's portrayal of Q without having seen the film, sat through rave review after rave review, and seeing The Hobbit first, I can now boast that I have seen Skyfall.

Being a British culture junky, I kind of had a precursory knowledge of James Bond. You know, Sean Connery, sexy women, weird gadgets, cool music. But I decided if I was going to do this properly, I should probably watch a few of the films prior to this one.

So one viewing  of Live and Let Die, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace later, I considered myself ready-ish.

Okay, FINALLY, I sit down and watch the thing. And I liked it quite  a lot. It is rare that a movie lives up to it's hype. Skyfall manages it.
I feel a bullet list coming on.

-Okay, action sequences are superb. Very easy to follow, while still being impressively done. I especially liked the back-lit sequence. In a world where fight sequences are a dime a dozen, these manage to stand out.

-Acting wise we have a veritable primer in British actors doing what they do best. Judi Dench in her bajillionth turn as the grumpy and yet kind of likeable M.  Ralph Fiennes also has a small part to play that has so many spoilers attached to it that I can't even say anything about it, but he does well. As I already mentioned, Ben Whishaw's take on Q was getting a lot of buzz on tumblr, so no surprise here when he nails it and manages to add himself to my list of Geeky British Boys Whom I Will Watch In Anything, Especially Shakespeare (I will post that list some other time). Daniel Craig finally gets into the swing of things around here, with great results. Javier Bardem is especially hammy, but in a good way, as it's what the character requires. He's great to watch. You're always curious as to what his character is going to do next. Albert Finney does great with his ten minutes as well.

-Storyline wise, there's actually quite a bit going on, but also plenty of chances to showcase the fantastic action sequences. I especially enjoyed the Skyfall revelation. This movie revolves quite a bit around M, so be prepared for that. There's actually quite a bit of quiet drama thrown in to balance everything out, which is cool in my opinion.

-If there is one thing to complain about, I thought the holding tank scene with Silva and M is perhaps a bit too Avengers influenced. I mean, Avengers is not the only film to have an interrogation scene with one person behind glass, but the tanks looked basically the same and there was a lot of the same elements to it. I don't know, maybe that was just me. I mean look at it.

But either way, go see it! Really well done, and I can't wait to see where we go from here.