‘Skyfall’ Reviews Are In: Critics Still Love James Bond
Director Same Mendes’ Skyfall continues to generate a healthy number of positive reviews from critics, according to CBS News. The film arrives in theaters today (November 9).
The film finds Daniel Craig turning in his third performance as the world’s greatest spy. For this particular adventure, 007 is forced to contend with the dastardly villain known as Silva (Javier Bardem). Ralph Fiennes, Judi Dench, and Naomie Harris co-star.
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave Skyfall a solid four out of four stars. His review is overwhelmingly glowing, with Ebert going as far as to declare the film to be one of the best Bond efforts ever.
“This is a brand-new Bond with love and respect for the old Bond,” Ebert explained. “This is a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon, with Daniel Craig taking full possession of a role he previously played unconvincingly.”
“This is perhaps the most visually stunning Bond movie ever made,” said Richard Roeper, Ebert’s former sidekick on At the Movies.
Peter Travers, critic for Rolling Stone magazine, was also quick to bestow a massive amount of praise on Sam Mendes’ James Bond adventure.
“But what makes ‘Skyfall’ top off as Bond at his best is the way Mendes and screenwriters Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan use England itself – past, present and uncertain future – to remind us where Bond has been and where he’s going. You’ll want to be there. ‘Skyfall’ is smashing, just smashing,” Travers wrote in his review.
Kyle Smith of the New York Post wasn’t nearly as impressed as his colleagues. He gave Skyfall only two stars out of a possible four.
“Director Sam Mendes, now riding a streak of five bad movies, borrows heavily from ‘The Dark Knight,’ giving Bond a Bruce Wayne back story and a big, silly shootout at a Wayne Manor-like estate. Silva becomes a Joker-ish master of disguise,” he explained.
The Boston Globe critic Wesley Morris wasn’t a fan, either. “Watching the purposefulness of this movie, the way Mendes argues for conversation and atmosphere over conventional, incoherently assembled chases and fights, I realized I was frustrated. ‘Skyfall’ does every single thing these movies have to do… and there’s little Mendes can do to enliven the familiarity,” he wrote.
Despite a handful of bad reviews, Skyfall currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 92 percent. Do you plan to catch the latest James Bond adventure in theaters this weekend?
