Don't headache and text...

I just sent two texts to my boss, the first originally meant for my mom, the second, to tell my mom that I accidentally sent the first to my boss.

FML.

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Skyfall (2012)

I'm not a James Bond fan, but I heard glowing reviews (Ebert's wasn't out yet at the time) and decided to catch it. And, on opening day even! Know why?

Annual leave, baby!

*overdue and kinda spoilerrific*

The plot is generally a departure from the usual Bond formula, as in there's no more world domination this time around. Rather, Bond's superior, M, faces an enemy from the past that's returned to haunt (and attack) her on a large scale, and of course, it's up to Bond to save the day.

I've not seen any of the Daniel Craig Bond movies (my last was Die Another Day), so I thought they'd done away with the stylized opening titles in favour of realism and more grit. I was pretty much blown away by the music videoopening titles. Usually the opening theme scenes reflect what's to come, but maybe I missed spotting that out during the movie.

Compared to most Bond movies where the focus is on Bond, women and gadgets, this one (thankfully) doesn't really focus that much on the women (which I guess adds glamour to espionage, but doesn't really serve much apart from eye candy). The only girl (Judi Dench is a woman) I could stand was Berenice Marlohe (who gets shot offscreen too soon); Naomie Harris doesn't seem to be able to walk properly, and this annoyed the stuffing out of me whenever she has a scene where she's not sitting or running or being stationary (and she has quite a bit of those). Forgive me for being nitpicky on something so minor, but she does have quite a few scenes of her own.

On the gadget side, things are still minimal and not as full-blown technological as the Brosnan Bond films, though I laughed when the new Q (played by Ben Whishaw) takes a dig at good ol' exploding pens.

["We don't really do those anymore."]

Though there's plenty of high-octane action to keep things going, the pacing of the story is a bit slow, as first we had to find out who and where the guy at the beginning was, then we had to find out who he was working for, then we had to find a person who could snitch the whereabouts of that first dude's employer.

*deep breath*

My point is, we don't even see or find out who the main villain is till the middle of the film. And after a brief exposition and a fairly-long escape attempt, we progress to the third act where you have a Scottish stand-off and the villain dies kind-of lamely.

[Yes, the movie is that long.]

Which is a shame, really, because the movie could do with more Javier Bardem. One of the things that make me love a movie is seeing an actor having a ton of fun with his onscreen character, and that kind of fun is usually infectious. Pulling off another bad hair day as the psychotic Raoul Silva, Bardem steals every scene he's in, though Revenge is a dish most often served.

I really don't mind the focus on development and backstory on the good guys (especially M), but you can't have an entertaining villain on film and then give him less than 50% of screen-time.

And on an EDITED final note: Skyfall itself is actually rather disappointing. You'd think that with a term like Skyfall it'd at least be a weapon of mass destruction, but no.

Overall, it's a good, entertaining film, but I'm still not seeing the big deal about it, nor do I feel that Dench deserves an(other) Oscar for Skyfall, despite her commendable turn as the cool and ruthless M, who's feeling the repercussions from her past actions.

Oh well, at least she's in this one for longer than 10 minutes.

[FYI, Dench won a Supporting Actress Oscar for Shakespeare in Love.]

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Running and piling?

Just saw the trailer for World War Z, and for a brief excited moment I thought it wasn't pushed back at all, and would opening this year as planned.

[It's not.]

Considering this is a trailer for a zombie movie, there aren't really any close-ups of the zombies; only tons and tons of running, piling, most-likely-rabid people.

The movie looks good enough, though. Running zombies are just updated versions of the old, but for me, the walking, shambling ones are easier to outrun.

Anyway, below is the embedded vid. Enjoy!



Since it's based on a book, I guess I've something else to check out at the bookstore soon.

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