Skyfall

Skyfall took me on a ride down memory lane, but not necessarily the way you would think. It was a pleasure listening to the song during the opening credits - somewhat reminiscent of Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger. There was a point at the beginning of the film where I thought that they slipped in a scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  A real audience pleaser was the appearance of Bond's Astin Martin.  What really drove me to distraction, though, was the music during the final confrontation and requisite explosion - the theme was way too familiar. When I got home, I was compelled to watch scenes from Thor and The Avengers to identify the film. The theme in question appeared in The Avengers when the giant metal dragon attacks the city.  No, wait a minute, now I have to re-watch Battleship!  I just watched a clip from it, and heard the same theme.

The movie itself was not the best Bond fare; but I did enjoy it, even though it got to a point when I wanted to pull out my phone and check the time.  Judi Dench was competent as ever as M, Ralph Fiennes was enjoyable as Mallory, Ben Whishaw made a passable Q, Naomie Harris provided a nice surprise as Eve, and Albert Finney was a real treat as Kincade.  There was some amzaing acting from Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine. Then there was Javier Bardem as Silva, the mad and evil computer genius.  His role was over the top and just too cartoonish.

Daniel Craig is not my favorite Bond, but then nobody can really replace Sean Connery.  It's not all Craig's fault, but he plays Bond as too flawed and too emotional.  There is a scene, though, toward the end of the film that is actually silly and somewhat un-Bondish, but can be attributed to that bond between a boy and his car.