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wildestrangerLast night yan_tan_tether and I went to see Skyfall.
I find Daniel Craig pleasing; his performance of Bond avoids the worst of the cliches perpetuated by Pierce Brosnan, and he comes across as a thug with secret feelings. After Tom Hardy, my brain has been trained to find this attractive. I like his physicality and the way it suggests strength but also delicacy, with all the things that one can extrapolate from that. I wondered, during the scene in the shower with Severine, whether their previous encounters would have impressed me enough to let him in and, well. I can see how she might have extrapolated enough for that. I blame Tom Hardy for this as well - I used to like skinny boys with ties and cardigans! Fortunately, the film had one of those as well.
I very much hope that this becomes a fandom, because although there wasn't much interaction between Bond and Q, there was enough to promise more. Ben Whishaw is always a delight, and his characterisation in this film, from his glasses and cardigan to his choice of venue for their first meeting, is rich in potential. It was also interesting to watch him next to Rory Kinnear after Richard II, and the potential of their dynamics.
Eve Moneypenny, and her relationship with Bond, was enjoyable until the end, but I'm disappointed that they chose to make her a secretary. I expect they're trying to set up the dynamic and this serves as a background for their future interaction, however, I would have liked to see her continue as a field agent, especially as we are given no reason why she would change her mind. Moreover, this changes the office chain of command from female boss with male assistant to male boss with female assistant, and I'm not happy that they've given up one of the few non-normative gender conventions of the series. I also don't see why M had to die. Not least because I can't accept Ralph Fiennes as a good guy after Voldemort, and frankly, everything else he's done.
The worst part of the film was the set up for Bond's ancestral manor in Scotland, complete with a loyal retainer who knew him as a child and taught him to shoot. I can see why in times past this form of characterisation would have been accepted as adding a certain something to the hero, but to insert that into a 21st century Bond film (and this is not, I think, an adaptation, but a script they created specifically for the film) is deeply problematic. It's a cliche, and one which only works within a set of classist assumptions. Ian Fleming wrote him as Scottish and posh, and while this might come with an ancient manor and loyal servants, it is not necessary to add them to a current plotline. To do so uncritically simply reiterates those assumptions.
In short, I liked it but with caveats, and mostly I feel there should be fic. Even if it 30000 words of gen about Q and his cardigan choices.
yan_tan_tether and I went to see Skyfall. I find Daniel Craig pleasing; his performance of Bond avoids the worst of the cliches perpetuated by Pierce Brosnan, and he comes across as a thug with secret feelings. After Tom Hardy, my brain has been trained to find this attractive. I like his physicality and the way it suggests strength but also delicacy, with all the things that one can extrapolate from that. I wondered, during the scene in the shower with Severine, whether their previous encounters would have impressed me enough to let him in and, well. I can see how she might have extrapolated enough for that. I blame Tom Hardy for this as well - I used to like skinny boys with ties and cardigans! Fortunately, the film had one of those as well.
I very much hope that this becomes a fandom, because although there wasn't much interaction between Bond and Q, there was enough to promise more. Ben Whishaw is always a delight, and his characterisation in this film, from his glasses and cardigan to his choice of venue for their first meeting, is rich in potential. It was also interesting to watch him next to Rory Kinnear after Richard II, and the potential of their dynamics.
Eve Moneypenny, and her relationship with Bond, was enjoyable until the end, but I'm disappointed that they chose to make her a secretary. I expect they're trying to set up the dynamic and this serves as a background for their future interaction, however, I would have liked to see her continue as a field agent, especially as we are given no reason why she would change her mind. Moreover, this changes the office chain of command from female boss with male assistant to male boss with female assistant, and I'm not happy that they've given up one of the few non-normative gender conventions of the series. I also don't see why M had to die. Not least because I can't accept Ralph Fiennes as a good guy after Voldemort, and frankly, everything else he's done.
The worst part of the film was the set up for Bond's ancestral manor in Scotland, complete with a loyal retainer who knew him as a child and taught him to shoot. I can see why in times past this form of characterisation would have been accepted as adding a certain something to the hero, but to insert that into a 21st century Bond film (and this is not, I think, an adaptation, but a script they created specifically for the film) is deeply problematic. It's a cliche, and one which only works within a set of classist assumptions. Ian Fleming wrote him as Scottish and posh, and while this might come with an ancient manor and loyal servants, it is not necessary to add them to a current plotline. To do so uncritically simply reiterates those assumptions.
In short, I liked it but with caveats, and mostly I feel there should be fic. Even if it 30000 words of gen about Q and his cardigan choices.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-11 10:31 pm (UTC)I have nothing coherent to say other than, "Yes, this."