I don't know where to put most of the blame, Sam Mendes, the script, which seems less a script then a disarticulated body stitched together....an unholy Frankenstein script, of absurd action sequences, cliches, and insanely expensive lavish stunts and sets that can't mask the hollowness and lack of depth in the movie. The warning was a few minutes into the gorgeously shot opening scene, which I loved, the costumes, the theme of 'Day of The Dead', as it relates to Bond is perfect, and could have set the tone for the movie, instead it fumbles, just getting off the bench. The building explosion. The collapsing building and him falling into the couch. Elements of the helicopter fight were strong, but it was so overdone. From the beginning, it seemed they were going to the campy excess of earlier Bond movies, which is the last direction they should have tried.
Then the tired scenes of yet another dressing down from M, and Bond being grounded, for what feels like the 100th time in the series...I understand it's a good way to set up the story. But, Bond going rogue? Hasn't he done that in at least 3 of the last 4 movies? M, communicating her last wishes through a 'Scream 2' style monolouge, delivered via video? The only touch I like was his apartment, but they set that up, and didn't go any further into what must be a bizarre existence as a 00 agent. The one character is SO obvious from the opening frames....so predictable. Stealing the car. Getting it to Rome. Why? More cheap laughs and gags. I did like Mendes direction in the Rome sequences....beautiful, and the Belluci scenes, they seemed a step in the right direction. No denying the council scene was well shot, but the entire narrative makes little sense....why does the goon chase Bond? To kill him? Capture him? This flies directly against everything we are told in EVERY other scene. Maybe to have Bond destroy another vehicle for no real reason. You shouldn't be as bored as I was during such an expensive car chase.
The next scenes were somewhat better, but the movie keeps doubling down on the thin subplot of technology, and the slimy C, and switching locales constantly....You have to care about the characters, or it doesn't matter where they are. Why kidnap Swan? Where did Bond get that plane? Do we care? So Bond could get that plane. So we get a car/plane chase in case we were losing interest. I did not. I liked his answer about killing people for a living. The hotel scenes and Swan as the latest women in peril were tiresome and Swan brought nothing to that role. No chemistry, just tossing off cliche lines that feel like they are written in stone somewhere in the Broccoli headquarters. 'I'm going with you'. 'You can't it's too dangerous'. The train fight scene was too much, but a few effective moments. Then they fall into bed, after destroying three cabins in the train. Then they get picked up to go to Blofeld's oasis. This has to stop in Bond movies. It's too much. I liked Waltz, I thought he worked well, but his character was marred by a bad script and lack of motives.
The last act is by the far the worst. Capture, recapture, check. Horrendous dialouge between M and C? Check. Girl says she can't do this, leaves with no protection. Turns up captured. Embarrassing sequence with M16 as some sort of haunted house. Did Blofeld have his henchmen do that? LOL. A scenario straight out of Austin Powers..save the girl or save yourself....or do both with no real consequence either way. The boat chase was cool, direction wise, visually...but shooting down a helicopter with a pistol at hundreds of yards? 'I am out of bullets' 'I have better things to do'. Awful lines, one cannot believe the emotional stakes that have been raised from nowhere, in a cliched sequence on the bridge. This is a mess of a movie, a debacle of a Bond film, I was sincerely let down, this must have been a mess of a production. Nothing works. It isn't serious enough to give it gravitas, it isn't fun enough to be entertaining.....a complete misfire. Mendes took EVERYTHING from 'Skyfall' that I loved, and disregarded it for shlock, nonsense, 'Fast & Furious' franchise bullshyt.....awful movie. This is barely worth watching in a hotel room in another country at 3:00 AM, much less anywhere else.
