top of page

Review: Skyfall

By Christine Petralia

Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures

November 11, 2012



Once you get past the fact that Skyfall is really long, as most Bond movies are, this is a really good film. I felt transported to this world that Bond lives in.



The film starts off with M16 agents, James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Eve (Naomie Harris) chasing the bad guy, who stole a disk with information on undercover NATO agents in terrorist organizations. While in pursuit, Eve takes a shot and hits Bond, he is later ‘missing, presumed dead.’ As Bond recovers in an unknown location and stays out of the spotlight, it is revealed that since the incident, the head of M16, M (Judi Dench), is now under investigation, along with her practices and the way she runs the organization. On her way back from a meeting where she is told to retire, she finds out whoever stole the disk will reveal the information to the public and that same person blows up the M16 offices.



Bond, seeing the news, makes a decision to return to catch the bad guy. However, M tells him he must pass all evaluations again. M assures everyone that Bond passed and he is sent into the field. He finds the man who stole the disk, but doesn’t learn who hired him before he is killed. Finding some more clues, he heads to Macau, where he meets a woman who can lead him to the man who wanted the disk, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem).



Silva is a former M16 agent with a grudge against M and is out to bring the whole organization down through computer hacking, as he is an expert computer hacker with skills that even the agents at M16 can’t figure out. After Silva is captured by Bond, he escapes the underground headquarters and heads to the hearing where M is, trying to save her job and the M16 group.



Everyone escapes unharmed, so Bond and M head off to Bond’s old family estate and wait for Silva. They are met by the old groundskeeper, Kincade (Albert Finney), who helps them get ready for ‘battle’ and booby-trap the mansion. Silva arrives, literally, with guns blazing, along with an army of men. M and Kincade escape through an underground tunnel, while Bond sets the place on fire with TNT.



Of course, when you think it’s over, Silva and two men survive, and go after the three. And just when Silva finds M to kill her, Bond saves the day. However, M was shot during the shootout and dies in Bond’s arms.



The film ends with an introduction to Eve Moneypenny and Bond getting another mission.

What an amazing film. I was sucked in with all of the action and the simple, yet complex, storyline. Craig is exceptional as the sexy, brooding, mysterious, skilled James Bond and even has his signature martini in the film. Bardem was cast perfectly for the clearly insane, and maybe gay, Silva. And of course, Dench is always wonderful as M, as she defends her methods and ways of running the M16. And despite what the man in the theater thought behind us, Skyfall is not when the bad guy falls from the building. Go see this one in the theater, it’s worth it.

While some may think this is a film about a hero pilot who saves 96 people after a plane goes into a nose dive, it is more about a man who has to come to terms with his addictions.

This film is the true story of the CIA’s rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979.

Boston biology teacher Scott Voss makes it his mission to save his school’s music program and help his fellow teacher by becoming an MMA fighter.

This reboot of the 1990 version of the film is all action and pretty faces, but still a great film.

This installment of the comic by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra forces Judge Dredd and his rookie partner to bring order to a 200-story slum run by drug lord Ma-Ma.

All works created by Christine McGrath; Centereach, New York  All Rights Reserved 2024

bottom of page