Skyfall thoughts: James Bond, a hero?
I watched Skyfall last night - I’m not a fan of the Bond franchise, but I did like Casino Royale, and this one got great reviews for some reason… Why, I really don’t know. The story is deeply unsatisfying and even more problematic than The Dark Knight Rises. What I get from this story is that Bond doesn’t care about saving people other than his boss
[Spoiler (click to open)]
(and doesn’t actually get to save anyone in the whole movie),
MI6 is endangering the world more than it’s actually protecting it, and M would be completely unlikeable if she weren’t played by Judi Dench: she puts MI6 above everything and ‘is ready to sacrifice anyone’s life, except her own. local_max goes into more detail about the problems of Skyfall’s story: http://local-max.livejournal.com/52540.html
Skyfall could work as a really dark story about an antihero spy, an orphan who doesn’t really have anyone or love anyone except his Mother Country, who kills without remorse, doesn’t care about saving people, uses women and treats them like shit and is ready to let them die, while the only person he’ll go out of his way to protect and that he’s willing to risk his life for is his mother-figure boss, the embodiment of MI5 and Mother England, who’s using him and treating him like shit and doesn’t care if he lives or die. And even when he has an out to be free and live a different life, he comes back to the fold to work for them again, like someone who keeps coming back to an abusive relationship.
The problem is that the film can’t commit to this dark interpretation despite offering so much in favor of it, but tries to make Bond, M and MI5 into heroes and the ending into Bond’s triumphant return to his life in her majesty’s service.
The best part of the film, by far, is the amazing opening title sequence and Adele’s theme song, and I can’t help thinking it would work much better for some other, better story.