Movie Review- "Skyfall"

Ok, before we get into my review of this movie, keep in mind that I have only seen a few Bond flicks. I tried watching "Dr. No" back when I was a teenager, but found the beginning so boring I turned it off. Then, someone (i don't remember who) suggested I start with "The Living Daylights" (and Timothy Dalton was the worst Bond ever). I don't remember that much about it, except for the scene where a blond chick rides down a snow bank in a cello case. Then, I saw "Die Another Day", which to my understanding, was the last of the "formulaic" Bond movies. I kind of liked the hokeyness of it, from what I remember. Finishing up with the Daniel Craig incarnations of "Casino Royale" (which was ok), and "Quantum of Solace" (which I did not really like very much).

At first, I thought that "Skyfall" was a 3rd part, continuing from "Quantum of Solace", but was informed that this was a new adventure. So, with that in mind, I decided to give it a shot. The starts out with a very good chase scene, with Bond working with a partner named "Eve", played by Naomie Harris, who I haven't seen since Johnny Depp became a pirate. She was nice and loyal and charming in this, as well as beautiful. But then again, most Bond girls are. She was the one with a good, moral compass.

And they introduced a new "Q", a young 20-something. His scenes are brief, but he does have this camera presence that makes him a very likable character. Hope to see more of him in future Bpond movies.

Javier Bardem plays the main villain Silva, who we don't even see until 1/2 way through the movie (something that kind of bothered me). They could have at least shown him in shadow or something, prior to his somewhat comical entrance into the film. He seems to have a slight "Joker-ish" quality about him. Other people on IMDB pointed out how much this film borrows from "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises". Some of those borrowed features are very easy to spot. I was just waiting for Silva to ask Bond (while strapped to a chair), "Wanna know how I got these scars?"... LOL. Maybe I'm a bit of a "Bond n00b", but does EVERY Bond villain have some sort of physical deformity or impairment? At least with this movie, they did not make it glaringly obvious until halfway through what his deformity was.

********************SPOILERS BELOW***********************

But, this movie never has a dull moment. Although, I was say that the ending was a bit of a letdown and very anticlimactic for me. I guess I was expecting more for an ending in a Bond flick. And I'm talking about how the villain died. But, one thing I really liked about this was how they broke tradition. Judi Dench made a great "M", from the few movies I saw her in. But, I really liked that they killed her off. Not that she wasn't a good character. Far from it. But, I don't think she has ever died in the series before. And that was a refreshing change.

So, keeping all that in mind...

Final Rating: B-