91% Skyfall

All Critics (242) | Top Critics (44) | Fresh (221) | Rotten (21)

Sam Mendes' 'Skyfall': sleek, slithery, sensual

The cool accomplishment of Skyfall, 23rd in the Broccoli franchise, is that it seems a necessary, rather than mandatory, addition to the year's popular culture.

Among the most ambitious imaginings of Bond to date: dark, supple, and punctuated with moments of unanticipated visual brilliance.

Mendes' approach to action is classical and elegant - no manic editing and blurry unintelligible images here - but what makes the movie special is the attention he pays his actors.

"Skyfall" is a different kind of Bond movie, one that works just fine on its own terms, but a steady diet of this might kill the franchise. One "Skyfall" is enough.

Great heroes are often enhanced by the villains they face, and such is the situation here. To really work, Bond needs great bad guys. Silva is bad at its best.

While [the film] gets more emotional and resonant as it goes on, it also gets much slower and narrower in scope.

Traveling the world, solving a mystery, hunting people down, killing some of those people...everything that you want James Bond to do. Then it takes an interesting turn.

Skyfall might stand as the lone example of a satisfying, standalone narrative blending with all those tried-and-true Bond tropes. Adele tune aside, Mendes makes nary a misstep.

... a bang-up job of interweaving arty visuals. dour backstory, in-jokes, and, for the series faithful, heartfelt comings and goings ... Bardem is the best (read most twisted) franchise baddie since Heath Ledger's Joker.

...just as Marc Forster went off the rails in Quantum of Solace during that silly horse-race juxtaposition, so too does Mendes go overboard with the deconstruction/dysfunction.

If our 21st-century spies must be dark instead of Pop, let them be presented with as much conviction and professionalism as in 'Skyfall,' the best movie yet with Daniel Craig as a particularly vulnerable bruiser of a Bond for a cynical post-Cold War era.

Nothing Like A Good Villian

The villain isn't intent on destroying the world, and the gadgets consist of items you might find at The Sharper Image. The 23rd Bond outing delivers thrills all the same.

Skyfall's 143-minute running time doesn't seem a bit extended. Rather, one sits there taking in this 23rd Bond adventure, wishing to be shaken and stirred indefinitely.

I wanted to like Skyfall more than I did, which is funny because after the opening sequence, I felt sure I would love it.

'Wait a minute, did I just walk in on The Man with the Golden Groin?' asks Bond. 'I was going for Thunderballs,' says Bardem, 'but let's settle on yours!'

In more ways than one, Bond is back.

This is one of the better Bond films in the franchise.

By this point, rejecting the Bond formula has become a clich? itself. It's been three movies, you can't still play the 'This is the NEW Bond' card.

A key aspect of any movie is how quickly it can reel you in. In the case of Skyfall, this box is ticked in the opening few minutes.

never a better villain than Bardem, blonde and mincing with a scathingly brilliant intellect at the service of a twisted, raging mother complex, and there has not been a better mother complex in film since Psycho

Skyfall returns Bond to Solid Ground

It's an old-fashioned Bond movie--or at least promises the next one will be--and that's good news for many.

A bloated, tedious, uninspired, sluggish and vapid bore that can only be enjoyed by very shallow, unctuous philistines.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/skyfall/

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