Skyfall

Skyfall, the latest installment (23rd, I believe) in the Bond franchise, was released late in 2012, the 50th anniversary of the first Bond film's release.  Many hailed Skyfall as an amazing film, the best Bond in years, and a revitalization of the franchise.  I don't agree with them- read on for spoiler-laden explanation of the issues I have with this film.

The plot of Skyfall: a MI6 laptop has been stolen- one that happens to have the true identities of many field agents.  Bond is enlisted to get it back, and tracks down the thief.  He discovers that this person, Silva, is a former agent, and is passionately bent on vengeance towards M, who made operational decisions in the distant past that have left Silva physically and psychologically scarred. The rest of the film is Bond chasing Silva, while Silva chases M.

Here are my beefs with this film:
1) early in the film, Bond is shot while on a moving train, falling off the train, hundreds of meters, into a roaring river.  He's presumed dead for several months.  Later, Bond returns, apparently having recovered from his shot/fall/drowning having lost a step, but nothing more.  No explanation is given for this, which I found odd.

2) the story has many elements that appear to have been "lifted" from Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  Here are the ones I noticed:
   a) Silva, the main villain, is uncannily similar to the Joker, in both physical deformity, temperament, and abilities (he's one step ahead of everyone the whole time, and has resources in all places)
   b) The portion of the movie in Shanghai is eerily reminiscent of the Hong Kong scenes in the Dark Knight
   c) The portion of the movie in Macau has echoes of Bruce Wayne's training grounds in Batman Begins
   d) The music in one scene sounds almost exactly like Hans Zimmer's Dark Knight soundtrack

3) the story seems to "veer off."  Initially, Silva tells M he'll release the names of 5 agents a week.  I assumed the rest of the movie would have various progressions in this area, but you see that happen only once . . . and then the story just drops that plot line and becomes an extended cat-and-mouse chase sequence. 

4) the story seems anticlimactic.  Silva has tremendous assets at his disposal- he blows up a portion of MI6 headquarters, escapes a maximum security holding cell, hacks MI6's network and decrypts the hard drive containing names of agents.  With that power, what is his goal?  Just harassing/killing M.  No "take over the world" or "watch the world burn"- type objective: just making M pay for her "crimes."  Why go to all that trouble just to try to kill M?  I could get humiliation, but again, he broadcasts only one set of agents, rather than drawing it out and forcing M to choose between public humiliation/death and the continued exposure/death of agents.  The end of the movie especially is just him chasing M . . . the power he had was wasted.

Overall, I wasn't impressed, though I'm clearly in the minority here.  However, you may be surprised to know that I would recommend watching this movie.  Why?  One reason: the cinematography is phenomenal.  The movie is truly a visual masterpiece- it just falls down in every other area.  The best Bond movie in recent memory is still, I believe, Casino Royale.

Rating: B-