Ok, my wife, grandson and saw I saw this yesterday and I'm going to stick with my 5 star rating system I've adopted over the years, err decades, to rate movies. I've watched every Bond movie made, multiple times and watch them every time they come on TV or theater. This is my 1st review, perhaps my 2nd here on ATS so go easy.

It is my love for the 007 series that makes me write this in hopes that the next 007 will be better written & directed.
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Ok... well first off... some of the trailers were totally mis-leading to me, in particular where he says ..."who else did you expect " (or something similar)

As I saw this... I was like “cool~!” which kind of set me up for “sweeet ... This is going to be awesome..!” However, sad to say, there was none of that... I completely expected for something along the lines of... “WT* wow!!” factor...Bond style~! Yeah…there was none of that…at all.

Train Fight
Ok, M tells penny to “take the shot”! M, 007, and Moneypenny are ALL on comms, penny takes the shot randomly hitting Bond making him fall off the bridge.

WHAT I EXPECTED
HOLD up, you’d THINK Penny would be communicating to Bond just before she pulls the trigger so He can position himself to help her take the shot and nail the bad guy so they can get the drive or attempt to.

Nope, she says nothing to Bond & takes the shot and hits 007. So I’m thinking... ahh ok...so this is where the trailer fits in’ …of “who did you expect to see” …Bond dies at this point, which would make an awesome plot theme. Nope, not even close.

No one, unless your Bond, falls a 1/4 mile off a bridge and hits the water below and survives. Now that being said, I was waiting with anticipation that there would be a scene where as he hit the water or just before, there would be Q’s cool technology of some sort would break his fall or lessen the impact.

Nope, 007 just re-appears as normal in a couple of scenes later with no cut-scene to explain this survival.

Bond getting older

So, M tells 007, since he’s dead/died has to re-take the tests to be eval’d for the field, he actually fails and this leads to a reoccurring theme that 007 is getting old, however, this only allow us to realize Bond is …yes getting older and leads us no place other than this.


WHAT I EXPECTED
Yes, Bond is getting older, but, I full expected that due to his excellent physic (sp) that kept showing up and being alluded to through out the movie, this was actually a ploy to execute a surprise when Bond made the bad guy.

The New Q Tech
Having a new Q on board was a good idea, however, the entire lack of Q tech through out the movie was completely a downer, a radio and a palm matched gun was it. Period.

WHAT I EXPECTED
I fully expected a WHOLE lot more gadgets from Q~! Hello, we live in 2012, and the BEST Q can come up with is a mini radio and a palm matched Beretta….yes, I’m Laughing out Loud right now .. I mean... LOL... Seriously! Tom Cruise had more than this in MI LOL

~I fully expected Bond to be somewhat surprised by Q’s tech and made the mention of his tech at the bridge scene.
~Q tech faking the death of 007 though out the theme of the movie

Fight Scene at the Assassination window
A Shadow boxing scene……of sorts

WHAT I EXPECTED
Something along the lines of … 007 style or at LEAST that of’ Born Identity ‘and hell of a lot more lighting and bit more, hand to hand techniques, and if this was not another 00 then it should have been a lot quicker death or scene..

Going After M

Half way through the movie, or there abouts, it’s discovered that M is being targeted by said bad guy

WHAT I EXPECTED

Hmmm.. The head director of MI6 is the sole target of assassination….

And to be whisked away to a location called Skyfall…Bond family residence, and it’s just the 3 of them.. Hmmmmmm... LOL... Let me repeat that...

Hmmm...The head director of MI6 is the sole target of assassination…

And I fully expected a on–slought of fighting going on here a the end between bad guy and MI6 personnel …period. Not 3 people. Q tech would have been able to get her location through separate/secret/ or other unknown Q’s abilities.
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Anyways… Sorry to bring such a downer review but, I have to call it like I see it...

I give it a 2 Stars…..

and that’s being gracious~! and definitely NOT worth the $18.00 for 2 pops and Popcorn we DIDN'T buy .. 18$ for pop and popcorn .. 1,260% mark-up~!?! .. hmm I'll save that for another thread.. ~Cheers !

1 Star = Don’t recommend it to anyone~!
2 Star= Wait for the DVD
3 Star= I would recommend it
4 Star= You seriously need to watch it on a Digital Big screen!
5 Star= You should watch it every weekend till it goes DVD and then buy it~!

Thank you for review.
I used to watch Bond movies, but in time I noticed they became repetitive and other than few special effects, worthless. My boy just watched it this weekend, and he said is "ok". (and he is 14 y/o). I'll wait for a movie that is "excellent".

Had to put this in a seperate reply since the word limit was getting limited..

In the scene where he's getting the pysch eval, the psych says 'Skyfall' .. and Bond says .. "done".. after thinking about the movie and discussing it with the wife... there's no real plot for the code name of skyfall ...and my only thought for this was they, MI6, already knew what was going on or might have had an idea that is needed to be used as a safehouse...

I still can't understand why exactly they even code named it skyfall unless they already knew there would be an assination attempt.. but, in the movie, there wasn't this foreknowledge .. to my recollection or missed it some how.

Originally posted by WhiteHat
Thank you for review.
I used to watch Bond movies, but in time I noticed they became repetitive and other than few special effects, worthless. My boy just watched it this weekend, and he said is "ok". (and he is 14 y/o). I'll wait for a movie that is "excellent".

My pleasure.

well.. I wasn't a big fan of Bronsin being a 007, still not.. to me, he just doesn't fit the role as a tuff guy.. when Craig came on scene ...whew* finally a good role model for a 00, I was impressed with the plots and the reps will always be there, bond sets up for bad guy, bond gets girl(s), bond gets bad guy, bond wins..

However, In CR, where his gf dies was quite surprising.. and was great plot twist

ETA: movie that is 5 Star Excellent but a only a 1 time watcher .. The Game. (10 years old now)

I think you are being a little harsh on the movie. Yes there was not any fancy gadgets but that gimmick was getting old anyway. Exploding pens and whatnot are so 1960s. They did have the classic silver Aston Martin DB5 car. And even though it is the second longest Bond movie of all time, the pace is brisk and you never feel like the plot is dragging.

Also, Javier Bardem is excellent as the villain. You may remember him from his Oscar-winning performance in No Country For Old Men.

I'd give the movie a solid 4 stars out of 5.

I would not even call it a James Bond
It's a disgrace
-a complete letdown
big computers are shown again but nothing more
and Moneypenny is shooting... wtf???
total crap
one star!