Skyfall at a Director's Standpoint

First off, watching Skyfall for the first time I must say I was very happy with how the movie turned out.  It truly was a stand-out from other Bond movies which is definitely important at this point in the franchise. Other than the plot, the movie was built up through lots of fighting and action scenes.

Observing the lighting in this movie I noticed several things. First, there are many differently lit shots due to the vast range of areas this movie was shot. However, there are some key techniques that I noticed more frequently.

• The first was the use of Cameo lighting in the first seen. We see Bond's silhouette step out into the end of a hallway. The vector from this causes him to walk slowly toward us until...
• Hard directional light with low key lighting reveals his shadowed face. While shots outside during the day don't have low key, many of the indoor shots are low key. This makes the mood more dramatic and intense!

Concerning color in the movie, one thing really stood out to me. The villain in this Bond movie always wear a light tan jacket. Normally a villain would wear a dark color, and something with a prominent hue. I believe he is dressed in white to contrast Bond, not only to show they are good and evil though. In a way Bond and the villain are very similar, as they both were MI6 Agents. The warm hue also bring heavier energy/attention to Silva, the villain.

The Villains We Love To Hate

Bad guys.
Everybody loves a good villain. Someone who can match, if not even over-power the hero can keep the story moving, and give the hero's journey some more meaning - beating this guy is important, and a challenge. Sometimes, if the villain is dastardly enough, he can almost become the selling point of the whole movie - The Dark Knight's Joker comes to mind, where Heath Ledgers performance became the main reason to see the movie, even earning him a posthumous Oscar award for best supporting actor.
Of course, James Bond is no stranger to great villains. The new "Bond villain" is as highly anticipated as the new "Bond girl," or in some years, the new Bond. But how does this years main baddie compare to the evil doers of other recent summer blockbusters?
For this post, I'm going to compare Skyfall's villain to those from The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, and The Avengers - arguably three of the most anticipated "good vs. evil" movies of the year

Lets start with, in my opinion, the weakest of the bunch. The Amazing Spider Man's villain was The Lizard. He was a guy who turned into a big lizard and wanted to make everybody else into big lizards, and do so as chaotically as possible. Not much character, not much development, just a big lizard trying to make things bad in the city. Next!

Loki from The Avengers was a bit more developed. His main goal is to, of course, take over the world, and enslave the entire human race to do his bidding. Though it's as generic of a reason as you can get, his jealousy of brother Thor certainly adds some depth to it. He was always looked down upon in favor of his brother, so his ability to take over an entire planet would show his capabilities. Nothing deep or complicated, but a good enough comic book villain for a good comic book movie.

Bane definitely had a lot to live up to in The Dark Knight Rises after the incredible performance of The Joker in 2008. Unlike the other two baddies up above, Bane is a bit more relatable, especially in the wake of stuff like Occupy Wall Street. At his core, Bane is a revolutionary, and a showman. Rather than taking apart Gotham City, he invites the city to do it for him. "Take back your city," he cries, until the streets are filled with chaos and disorder, all by it's own hands. Of course along the way he doesn't mind blowing up a football stadium or two. Now towards the end (SPOILERS, of course), he does loose some credibility, as he is revealed to be the sidekick of Talia Al' Ghul, the red herring main villain of the movie, and especially when it's revealed he has an unstoppable nuke ready to wipe Gotham City off the map, no matter what it's citizens did. So, in the end, he gets a little flat, but overall Bane shows that villains don't always have to be motivated by nothing more than "evil"

Which brings us right back to Skyfall, and Raul Silva. This guy is fantastically interesting, a bit of a change from Bond villains who just want money or power. Silva's motive is simple, but firm - revenge on MI6's leader, M. Almost a picture of a future James Bond, Silva, a top agent in his prime, was given up by MI6 to the Chinese government in exchange for six hostages. Ever since then, he's made it his goal to get revenge on M, in as flamboyant and showboat-ey a manner as possible. Leading Bond and the gang on an insanely wild goose chase throughout London and then some, Silva's fascination stems from his simple desire - to watch the world burn. Much like The Joker, villains who are simply sadistic and narrow minded are incredibly fun to watch. They let us escape from well minded society to watch "true evil" do it's crazy, messed up work. 

Bond, James Bond

    The new James Bond flick Skyfall is definitely one of the best films of the year. Skyfall contains all of the heart-pumping, hand clinching, adrenaline rushing action that viewers have been experiencing since the first James Bond film. Daniel Craig does an amazing job of playing Agent 007 yet again. 

     There have been many films that have came out in the past five years that portray a hero with an important agenda of being the good guy. Superheroes such as Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, Spiderman and Thor for example have taken the box office by storm recently. But what makes 007 think he can hang out with the big boys? James Bond has many characteristics and attributes of a hero. I came up with a few topics that compare Bond to other superheroes.

Weapons: Although we couldn't classify James Bond as a Superhero he still has an amazing selection of the most updated weapons. His weapon selection especially in Skyfall is mind-blowing. From Bond's bare knuckles to his new gun that can only be shot by him, his selection never seizes to amazing the viewer. 

Athleticism: Another important topic when comparing heros is their athletic ability. James Bond is physically fit and shows great stamina when some fights come down to the wire. Due to his commitment at the gym Bond shows to be an extraordinary athlete. The most important is that his strength is all natural, no offense to the Hulk.

Fighting Skills: Skill sets that heros adapt to are very important. 007 never seizes to amaze us with his fighting scenes as bullets fly across his body. His finesse, acrobatic movement, and strength puts him up there with Captain America, without a suit and shield.

    James Bond in Skyfall was a different Bond experience. James Bond and the heroism that he displays undoubtedly make him an important hero. His demeanor, attitude, leadership and bravery are like none that other heros have which makes him a unique figure. 

   

Did Adele Help?

This week my team decided to critique the new James Bond movie: Skyfall. I found it interesting that the people in charge of music had Adele do the introductory song into the movie. I think this was a very good idea because it she is very popular and very talented so this could potentially draw more viewers in.  I think that this drew more publicity to the movie because they could play the song on the radio and then be like “Go see the movie!” and talk about how good it is. I think that bringing in a big name artist was a great idea for them because they could build the hype before the movie came out just by playing the song on the radio. I think that in the long run this will help the movie to continue to grow just because of the music. Also in the movie there was a lot of great music, a lot of it was to build the suspense. I think that they picked great music in the movie to describe each scene. Over all the movie was great and they used their musical sources very well!