Skyfall: Bond #23

Who cares about plot in action films anyway?

ade otm

I love how it was just youtube videos and youtube didn't take them down

Dumbest part of this was how the one video we showed announced that he'd be releasing another video every week or 10 days or w/e, but it was numbered 1/8, and 2/8, 3/8, 4/8 etc were all in the sidebar

not to mention by the time it was released youtube's new recommendation algorithm doesn't even show you the rest of a series in the sidebar, lol your movie is as out of date as your sexual politics, pwned

action movies are always more exciting when you actually care about whats happening

― turds (Hungry4Ass), 12. december 2012 23:42 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As long as the cinematography is as good as it was in large stretches of Skyfall, I'll care. Plotless setpieces sorta linked, that is the way to go. (I think my favorite contrivance is the assasin using rare radioactive bullets. Wtf? And they didn't check the bullets from the dead agents in Istanbul?)

Dumbest part of this was how the one video we showed announced that he'd be releasing another video every week or 10 days or w/e, but it was numbered 1/8, and 2/8, 3/8, 4/8 etc were all in the sidebar

― ( ͡° ͜ʖ͡°) (sic), Wednesday, December 12, 2012 6:19 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark

that drove me crazy too

what if he twittered all the names from @nathanbarley instead?

q was fuckin shit an all

movie should have had bond get shot in pursuit of something other than the leaked data (but still related). then the whole movie could be about the establishment thinking it was the shot, awol, angry, over-the-hill bond behind the leaks. M doesn't want to believe it, moneypenny can't handle it. bond has to figure out who the f silva is and dodge his own people. might as well go whole bourne with it! you could even work in digging up all kinds of janky old spy tech from forgotten safe spots, not just the car.

Fucking hell, that's a great movie.

Goole should've written the screenplay for this obv

Would screen.

I'm sure

Watch it, Iowa.

Seeing this again, made a point to really focus in cinematography. A couple shots reminded my of a more nuanced version of Christopher Doyle's work on The Limits of Control. Had a brief daydream of a Jarmusch 007 film.

The penultimate scene with bond on the roof had some amazing shifting between him and the flag.

a Jarmusch 007 film

lol

Exactly. I want to have this daydream.

http://i.imgur.com/Kswwb.jpg

uncanny

left: teletubby baby
right: idk, touch of warhol?

a more nuanced version of Christopher Doyle's work on The Limits of Control

kudos for bringing up a dreadful art film in this context.

also u guys watch 007 pulp much too closely

Did you like the cinematography on that one, though, Morbs? I thought it was a big obvious at most times but immaculate.

its hard to say "it's just a silly action movie, who cares about PLOT" when the movie takes itself soooo seriously

same thing with the dark knight rises

(more with the latter)

moore in the latter

would see a Nolan batfilm with Roger Moore as Wayne

regarding the "seriousness" of Skyfall, I wonder if it really is more than most of the previous ones (like the T. Dalton ones weren't exactly big fun !).

like the T. Dalton ones weren't exactly big fun

Er, Living Daylights has a chase scene with Bond riding a cello case as a sled, and a villain who kills people with explosive milk bottles.

ahah, oh yeah ? I don't remember any bond post Moore, I think ! (except the one with Denise Richard as a nuclear scientist).

its hard to say "it's just a silly action movie, who cares about PLOT" when the movie takes itself soooo seriously

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), 14. december 2012 07:54 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't get this? It might take itself seriously, but it doesn't care about it's plot... It cares about themes, characters and visual thrills, and it delivers on the last two things. Plot is a complete afterthought. Plot progression in Skyfall is Bond finding a chip from a casion -> cut to said casino...

'doesn't care about its plot' is not really a good excuse, I mean it has a plot, that came from somewhere, people spent millions of dollars making scene X or Y happen, why not spend 10 minutes figuring out a way to explain why scene X or Y is even happening. it doesn't have to be a *good* plot, and it definitely doesn't have to be a believable plot, it just has to be a sequence of events that have some reason to follow each other.

like 'oh man they were just too caught up in making a rad action movie' doesn't cut it, there are lots of rad action movies that have completely unbelievable plots, plot holes, deus ex machina whatever - but at least they contain sequences of events that make sense on a certain level, clear character motives etc.

whereas everything from bond finds casino chip to helicopters arrive at island just adds up to total nonsense

Bond is trying to meet her boss why because radio + gunships -> he convinces her that he can kill her boss -> she tells him about the ship going to meet her boss -> Bond arrives on the ship and basically gives himself up, possibly because fuck finding Silva in a place that size when he can be just taken to him, possibly because he is sure that he can escape why because Bond -> she has judged poorly.

― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 12 November 2012 19:58 (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what doesn't make sense is why bond doesn't kill silva at earliest opportunity (or vice versa)

what doesn't make sense is why sam mendes gets work let alone cool work like bond movies

I don't get this? It might take itself seriously, but it doesn't care about it's plot... It cares about themes, characters and visual thrills, and it delivers on the last two things. Plot is a complete afterthought. Plot progression in Skyfall is Bond finding a chip from a casion -> cut to said casino...

― Frederik B, Friday, December 14, 2012 11:46 AM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you were too distracted by the awesome themes is what you're saying?

thats another terrible nolan thing, action movies with important ~THEMES~

I would have preferred it if this had a coherent theme instead of hinting at like 5

I said quite clearly, that the themes aren't as good as the characters and the 'visual thrills' (ie cinematography etc). They are quite rubbish, and really the worst thing about the film. Much more damning than the failings of the plot.

'doesn't care about its plot' is not really a good excuse, I mean it has a plot, that came from somewhere, people spent millions of dollars making scene X or Y happen, why not spend 10 minutes figuring out a way to explain why scene X or Y is even happening. it doesn't have to be a *good* plot, and it definitely doesn't have to be a believable plot, it just has to be a sequence of events that have some reason to follow each other.

― iatee, 14. december 2012 17:51 (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Because those ten minutes would have been boring? And superflous, because who cares? The sequence in Singapore, the scenes in Scotland from the helicopter onward, the chase in Turkey. It had several scenes that was as stunning as anything in any movie released this year. None of it made sense, so what? Neither does the car-scenes in Solaris, which Skyfall ripped off in the Singapore-sequence...

I sorta do care about the plot, because I find most of it hilarious. But really, in an action movie, I want spectacle. Real spectacle, not just CGI-creatures and explosions. I want stunning stunts, incredible imagery, tense suspense. Skyfall has this at different turns, plus it's fun to pick apart afterwards. Who could ask for anything more (except that they hold it with the misogony next time, though that is probably wishful thinking for a Bond-movie)

movies that turn out to be clueless about basic stuff like cause and effect, time, motivation, or women, are bad. this is a bad movie!

stunning scenes where you spend the whole time grumbling 'yeah but why are they here doing this, this is so dumb kinda spoils those scenes imo

I didn't mean the movie needed 10 more minutes - it clearly did not - I meant some writers could have spent 10 minutes thinking about this and changed the existing dialogue.

xp

I actually agree with you fred, I did enjoy a lot of this movie, but asking for a movie to not be dumb is not too much to ask imho. my favourite action movies are all very smartly written.

They are too much to ask from bond movies though --
It is their own fault for raising that expectation by going broody parkour bond in casino royale.
Should have gone Mitchell and Webb route with Thunderwang or something.

movies that turn out to be clueless about basic stuff like cause and effect, time, motivation, or women, are bad. this is a bad movie!

― before and after broscience (goole), 14. december 2012 18:36 (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Who cares about cause and effect and motivation? Yeah, the woman stuff is bad, but directors who were clueless about women include Mizoguchi, Tarkovsky, etc, so... But Time? You can't deny, that the scene at Skyfall was pretty ambitious and spectacular in it's use of time? The only other stuff I've seen this year, that used time so well, was Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and Tsai Ming-liang's Walker (though admittedly I live on the periphery of the film-world, so I won't get to see most the good stuff until some time next year)

Skyfall isn't dumb. Most of it is extraordinarily well thought-out and realized. Not the plot though, that is stunningly bad. I just don't like plot, and think it is unimportant, most of the films I care about really don't have plots. And the fun thing is, while most of the time people think that is an elitist view, this time millions of people basically agree with me :)

nobody thinks that liking dumb movies is elitist :)

In the nineties, they sorta did :)

directors who were clueless about women include Mizoguchi

huh?

Who cares about cause and effect and motivation?

spies

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/366364/Screenshots/-le3.png

- Sansho the Bailiff

I don't get this? It might take itself seriously, but it doesn't care about it's plot... It cares about themes, characters and visual thrills, and it delivers on the last two things. Plot is a complete afterthought. Plot progression in Skyfall is Bond finding a chip from a casion -> cut to said casino...

― Frederik B, Friday, December 14, 2012 11:46 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

not convinced it cares about characters tbh