Runtime:
144 minutes
Directed
by: Sam Mendes
Starring:
Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Finnes, Naomie Harris, Judi Dench
From:
MGM/Columbia
Finally,
last night I was able to check this out in a jam-packed theatre; I
had heard much about the movie from messageboards and what have you
since it was released in the UK and elsewhere then made its way to
North America a few days ago, where I heard mostly strong buzz for
it. I was at least hoping it'd be better than Quantum of Solace.
Don't
worry, it blew Quantum out of the water.
The
plot... I don't want to give too much away (at least what wasn't
shown in all the trailers) so I'll just use what the movie has used
to describe the plot: “Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past
comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track
down and destroy the threat, no matter the personal cost.”
The
first thing I'll mention is that the threat here has nothing to do
with the Quantum organization you see in the first two Craig Bond
films. The villain here, Silva (a blonde-haired Bardem, who delivers
an incredible performance; I've already heard some compare the movie
to The Dark Knight in terms of villain and his plan; it's not the
worst comparison as I had the same thought. The character and his
motivation are great, but Javier was awesome in the role and made it
so memorable) is doing things on his own and his plan is vengeance.
In some ways I was reminded of Max Zorin, played by Christopher
Walken in A View to a Kill. Both have light blonde hair, act rather
crazy, and they happen to use the technology of the time rather well.
I'll leave it at that. I won't even say where Bond travels to except
you see action both in Europe and Far East Asia.
I
wasn't sure what to expect action-wise from the director of American
Beauty but it turns out, he films it quite well. No shaky-cam or
quick-editing crap. Plus, the action itself is quite great. The
opening bit before the famed credits and Adele title song (and that
song is much better than that crap you got from Quantum) is
tremendous and sets the mood perfectly. The story too... it is more
of a Bond film than the first two; 007 is happy to bed women, for
example, and as you know from the trailers, the new Q shows up. Yet
the story is also mature and deals with the lead characters having to
deal with serious conflict and doubts about themselves, looking to
the future as well as the past.
So
all around, this is one of the best films I've seen this year, let
alone in comparison to the 007 films of the past 50 years. I give it my highest recommendation. I'll be back Monday night.
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