[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-wanting-to-love-skyfall":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"I want to like the new Bond films, I really do. I love the mad chase scenes and the way Bond always somehow manages to catch the baddie, or escape, in style. Last night Stuart and I went to see \u003Ci>Skyfall\u003C/i> and I was a bit reluctant, because I really hated \u003Ci>Casino Royale\u003C/i>, and didn't even bother with the one after that. I had a chat in the studio with Gary about it, and he loved \u003Ci>Casino Royale\u003C/i>, for all the reasons I hated it: it's a 'return' to the original Ian Fleming books, Bond doesn't treat the whole mission like a big joke. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/skyfall_james_bond-c12f6defcf.gif\">\\r\n\\r\nI'm a Pierce Brosnan girl. I know you're not supposed to say that, you're supposed to say Sean Connery was the best Bond. I know, my mother had a real Thing for Sean Connery; I think it may even be a tiny part of the reason I have a Scottish dad. But Stuart got me \u003Ci>From Russia With Love\u003C/i> on DVD, and I lost any interest in Sean when he was on the train and smacked that chick across the face. Nope, the Bond I know doesn't need to hit chicks, that's an earlier era and it doesn't translate for me. \\r\n\\r\nWhat I liked about Pierce Brosnan was that he knew the whole thing had a stupid plot and I got the feeling we were doing the joke together. \"C'mon, Sarah, let's go pretend we're secret agents and wreak havoc! And get laid a few times, yes, that, too. Perks of the job.\" I think he has great comic timing, unlike Roger Moore. I can't even watch Roger. When he delivers a sassy line, it just makes him sound like a dirty old man. Blegh. But when Pierce says something very flirty and un-politically correct, I gasp happily at his witty audacity. How does he get away with it? \\r\n\\r\nHey, what ever happened in \u003Ci>Skyfall\u003C/i> to that poor lady in Shanghai, the one who was married to the baddie and helped out Bond? She goes through hell, and gets a Bond shagging, but we never even find out what happens. I hope she woke up in a comfy hospital bed with a nice cup of tea laid next to her by sympathetic nurses. \\r\n\\r\n**\u003Ci>Edit\u003C/i>: The more I think about this part of the film, the less I like it. Boo. Here, read \u003Ca href=\"http://reciperifle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/bond-villain.html\">Giles Coran's article\u003C/a>, he gets it spot on. No wonder \u003Ci>Skyfall\u003C/i> makes me feel so uneasy.\\r\n\u003Ci>Edit 2\u003C/i>: Ah, and another good article about the role of Severine by \u003Ca href=\"http://grummelmaedchen.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/follow-up-to-007-skyfall-severine/\">Grummelmaedchen\u003C/a>.**\\r\n\\r\nWhy don't I like Daniel Craig's \u003Ci>Skyfall\u003C/i> and \u003Ci>Casino Royale\u003C/i>? I guess his appearance put me off slightly. He looks exactly like the New Russian mafia types I saw everywhere when I lived in Moscow. Those guys were often buffoon-like, but very seldom funny. Dan's tough and brawny and you can actually imagine him beating up people. I guess that's the thing I don't like. People actually get beat up. And die. But it feels like the film makers haven't \u003Ci>earned\u003C/i> the right to do this to me. Why should I have to feel real sorrow for fellow Londoners who get shot to pieces and blown up when it's all in the name of a bit of light entertainment? Those bits in\u003Ci> Skyfall\u003C/i>, where the tube train gets derailed and policemen get shot up on Whitehall: that reminded me very much of the day when Stuart was working in that same building and I couldn't get through to him on the phone after I saw on the Internet that there'd been bomb attacks in central London. That was a horribly unsettling day, I don't think it will ever make me laugh. In \u003Ci>The World is Not Enough\u003C/i>, Pierce causes a lot of damage on the riverfront, and comes crashing out of MI6, but it's all a lark; I think only a few people get blown aside in an oil explosion, it's not really about pain and death and dying. \\r\n\\r\nJust to add, I sometimes \u003Ci>like\u003C/i> films about pain and death and dying, but I think I appreciate them when they make me feel it's part of a larger reflection about life and meaning and, oh, I don't know, just not a shoot-'em-up-bang-bang film. I think that's why I didn't like Pierce's last Bond film, \u003Ci>Die Another Day\u003C/i>. It was the opening title sequence; I didn't like watching Bond get tortured as a decorative effect. Torture isn't pretty, it isn't funny, it didn't even really help along the plot. It made me feel antagonistic for the rest of the film.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"2339\"/>\\r\n\\r\nBut, oh, going back to that river chase scene in \u003Ci>The World is Not Enough\u003C/i>, I LOVED being able to recognise all the landscape in that. Actually, that's one of the highlights of Bond, seeing familiar places turned into dramatic settings. Stuart and I both did a squee in \u003Ci>Skyfall \u003C/i>when we saw M being driven down New Cross Road (exactly the same place you see outside the car windows in \u003Ci>\u003Ca href=\"http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0253200/\" target=\"_blank\">Last Orders\u003C/a>\u003C/i>, funnily enough). But in in \u003Ci>The World is Not Enough\u003C/i> river chase scene, none of it makes actual sense; most of those waterways don't link up in real life. But that's partly what makes it fantastic, it's London as a sort of palette, to pick and choose from to make something happen that's exciting, funny, and so obviously fictional. \\r\n\\r\nOh, and I should point out, that stunt where Dan and that blond hacker dude in \u003Ci>Skyfall\u003C/i> go sliding down that middle bit of the Underground escalators? Well, \u003Ca href=\"http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/163437.html\">VERN AND LETTUCE DID IT FIRST.\u003C/a> Ha ha. I've even been reworking a cover for the paperback version of \u003Ci>Vern and Lettuce\u003C/i> that features this scene, but I only just realised that now it's going to look like a quotation from Skyfall. Nope. But well, why not? That's the fun of Vern and Lettuce, letting them run around London and wreak havoc. I guess there might be a bit of Bond in that.\\r\n\\r\nAnd now I can't get the Skyfall song out of my head. Thanks, Adele... \\r\n\\r\n\u003Clj-embed id=\"2340\"/>","2012-11-29T11:21:00.000Z","wanting-to-love-skyfall",[],"wanting to love skyfall",1776628724475]