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sarnathJust came home from watching Skyfall, and wow, that. was. AMAZING.
I don't know if I've ever said this about anything, but this film was practically perfect. I don't think I have one single complaint. Fascinating.
The opening scenes were great, I loved the opening theme (both music and animation), I loved all the characters, the story, the portrayal of women, the emotional reactions of Bond and the glimpse of his past, M...
M. I didn't expect that, but that whole sequence at the end was fantastic. I loved her throughout the film, and I think it's great that she was so involved in the story. The air between her and Silva whenever they were in the same room was charged, and the final scene between them, just wow. I will miss Judy Dench as M. She had such presence, and is, of course, a great actor. Ralph Fiennes has some big shoes to fill!
I love how Bond's emotional reactions come through, how he's actually impacted by what happens to him. The parallel between him and Silva was great, I thought, in showing what such a life can do to someone who only is that little bit weaker.
Some thoughts in no particular order:
The settings.
Living in a small, very thinly populated country with no great cities, seeing places like Shanghai and Macau like that was pretty amazing, to tell the truth. Yeah, I know that they are filmed as dramatically as possible, but there still are areas like that to be shot in that way in those cities. The high-rise buildings of Shanghai might just as well be science fiction to me, haha.
The contrast with the epic landscape in Scotland was wonderful, in my opinion. And then we had London, shot mostly as the ordinary, the homebase, the everyday. And I mean, London is pretty fantastic but they chose to do the Underground as a main point, and there is a clear difference in how it was filmed.
Themes.
Yeah, new against old, obviously, but just because it's obvious doesn't mean it wasn't very well done. It was. It was amazingly done, in my opinion.
There is old and new contrasts everywhere, in buildings, in people, in dialogue. And it's not a clear cut thing that one is necessarily better than the other, really, but there are several points made about the strengths and weaknesses of both.
The old vs. new is also done on a metatextual level, sometimes almost breaking the fourth wall (exploding pens - we don't do that any more). The car as well, and M's comments about it.
On a personal level for Bond, I think returning to his family home and more or less dealing with his feelings about that freed him from "the old" in a way. In the end he blew it up with his own hands, and I think the implication of him freeing himself from his childhood trauma (mentioned in his test) is what we should take away from it.
In the end things are solved by old and new working together, by them reconciling.
The other theme, I'd say, is trust. That's why Bond is shot at the beginning - M doesn't trust him to manage - and it's why he does win in the end, when M trusts that he can.
It was lack of trust that made Silva stray in the first place, I think, though it's unclear, but also distrust in him from M that made her let him go. Bond's trust in M (and what he does, the secret service, and his country) is what keeps him on track when Silva reveals she's been lying to him.
The women.
Not usually the strong part in Bond films, but I really don't have any complaints. That M is fantastic is evident, of course. Eve Moneypenny was a competent agent throughout, and most important of all, communicated with Bond on an equal level. Sévérine was tragic, but not just a tool; I really felt for her, despite having such a small role. She wasn't portrayed as a vehicle for Bond's feelings, but had the main role in the sequence she was in. Her death scene was more about Silva than her, though, but also the major showcasing of his true character.
Most of all, I think the women are portrayed aspeople first and foremost.
OK, I have one complaint; there still aren't enough women, especially as field agents and in authority positions. This film does well with the ones in it, though.
Fandom and slashing.
Hey, I'm a slasher, of course I'm going to talk about this!
I've seen some complaints on fail_fandomanon that all the slash is Bond/Q. and almost nothing is Silva/bond, and the usual "ATG MSF" accusations. To be honest, after seeing the film I understand completely why all the slash is Bond/Q.
* Silva died.
* Silva is a creepy, unsympathetic lunatic.
* Silva died
Really, I understand very well why someone wouldn't want to like to slash a character like Silva (in a normal romantic (for a given value of romantic, this is Bond after all) relationship). He's a psychopath! He does some truly horrible things for awful reasons! But even if one doesn't care about that, there's still the fact that he's dead. It's a bit hard to go the "what happens next" route with that.
I really loved that scene, though. The tension! But everybody talks about the thigh touching, which yes, all right, but to me the the most sexually charged touches were the fingertips lightly, lightly, going over Bond's bared neck, and most of all the jugular notch. Those areas are so often sexualised in a vulnerable way, and Bond's reaction to it, the widening of the eyes, the sudden insecurity... I loved it.
I also really liked his answer about it not being his first time, because it both acknowledges the existence of same-sex relationships (which is bafflingly rare in mainstream films) and opens up a great many possibilities when it comes to Bond's relationships.
There are also very good reasons for feeling the connection between Bond and Q, because it was not only there in their meetings but also strongly weaved into the theme of the entire film. Q and Bond's reconciliation is one of the symbols the film uses to highlight its theme; in the beginning they're in conflict, and through joining their skills they facilitate victory.
Maybe a bit of a jumble, but I thought I'd get it out while I had it fresh in my mind.
I don't know if I've ever said this about anything, but this film was practically perfect. I don't think I have one single complaint. Fascinating.
The opening scenes were great, I loved the opening theme (both music and animation), I loved all the characters, the story, the portrayal of women, the emotional reactions of Bond and the glimpse of his past, M...
M. I didn't expect that, but that whole sequence at the end was fantastic. I loved her throughout the film, and I think it's great that she was so involved in the story. The air between her and Silva whenever they were in the same room was charged, and the final scene between them, just wow. I will miss Judy Dench as M. She had such presence, and is, of course, a great actor. Ralph Fiennes has some big shoes to fill!
I love how Bond's emotional reactions come through, how he's actually impacted by what happens to him. The parallel between him and Silva was great, I thought, in showing what such a life can do to someone who only is that little bit weaker.
Some thoughts in no particular order:
The settings.
Living in a small, very thinly populated country with no great cities, seeing places like Shanghai and Macau like that was pretty amazing, to tell the truth. Yeah, I know that they are filmed as dramatically as possible, but there still are areas like that to be shot in that way in those cities. The high-rise buildings of Shanghai might just as well be science fiction to me, haha.
The contrast with the epic landscape in Scotland was wonderful, in my opinion. And then we had London, shot mostly as the ordinary, the homebase, the everyday. And I mean, London is pretty fantastic but they chose to do the Underground as a main point, and there is a clear difference in how it was filmed.
Themes.
Yeah, new against old, obviously, but just because it's obvious doesn't mean it wasn't very well done. It was. It was amazingly done, in my opinion.
There is old and new contrasts everywhere, in buildings, in people, in dialogue. And it's not a clear cut thing that one is necessarily better than the other, really, but there are several points made about the strengths and weaknesses of both.
The old vs. new is also done on a metatextual level, sometimes almost breaking the fourth wall (exploding pens - we don't do that any more). The car as well, and M's comments about it.
On a personal level for Bond, I think returning to his family home and more or less dealing with his feelings about that freed him from "the old" in a way. In the end he blew it up with his own hands, and I think the implication of him freeing himself from his childhood trauma (mentioned in his test) is what we should take away from it.
In the end things are solved by old and new working together, by them reconciling.
The other theme, I'd say, is trust. That's why Bond is shot at the beginning - M doesn't trust him to manage - and it's why he does win in the end, when M trusts that he can.
It was lack of trust that made Silva stray in the first place, I think, though it's unclear, but also distrust in him from M that made her let him go. Bond's trust in M (and what he does, the secret service, and his country) is what keeps him on track when Silva reveals she's been lying to him.
The women.
Not usually the strong part in Bond films, but I really don't have any complaints. That M is fantastic is evident, of course. Eve Moneypenny was a competent agent throughout, and most important of all, communicated with Bond on an equal level. Sévérine was tragic, but not just a tool; I really felt for her, despite having such a small role. She wasn't portrayed as a vehicle for Bond's feelings, but had the main role in the sequence she was in. Her death scene was more about Silva than her, though, but also the major showcasing of his true character.
Most of all, I think the women are portrayed as
OK, I have one complaint; there still aren't enough women, especially as field agents and in authority positions. This film does well with the ones in it, though.
Fandom and slashing.
Hey, I'm a slasher, of course I'm going to talk about this!
I've seen some complaints on fail_fandomanon that all the slash is Bond/Q. and almost nothing is Silva/bond, and the usual "ATG MSF" accusations. To be honest, after seeing the film I understand completely why all the slash is Bond/Q.
* Silva died.
* Silva is a creepy, unsympathetic lunatic.
* Silva died
Really, I understand very well why someone wouldn't want to like to slash a character like Silva (in a normal romantic (for a given value of romantic, this is Bond after all) relationship). He's a psychopath! He does some truly horrible things for awful reasons! But even if one doesn't care about that, there's still the fact that he's dead. It's a bit hard to go the "what happens next" route with that.
I really loved that scene, though. The tension! But everybody talks about the thigh touching, which yes, all right, but to me the the most sexually charged touches were the fingertips lightly, lightly, going over Bond's bared neck, and most of all the jugular notch. Those areas are so often sexualised in a vulnerable way, and Bond's reaction to it, the widening of the eyes, the sudden insecurity... I loved it.
I also really liked his answer about it not being his first time, because it both acknowledges the existence of same-sex relationships (which is bafflingly rare in mainstream films) and opens up a great many possibilities when it comes to Bond's relationships.
There are also very good reasons for feeling the connection between Bond and Q, because it was not only there in their meetings but also strongly weaved into the theme of the entire film. Q and Bond's reconciliation is one of the symbols the film uses to highlight its theme; in the beginning they're in conflict, and through joining their skills they facilitate victory.
Maybe a bit of a jumble, but I thought I'd get it out while I had it fresh in my mind.
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Date: 2012-11-19 06:37 am (UTC)