Due to the relevance of the plot of the 007 series of movies in Daniel Craig era, before watching the two recent 007 movies, we all need to relive the 2012 "007: The Skybreak ", the first of the two 007 movies directed by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes . The film has a global box office of $1.109 billion, making it the highest-grossing movie in the series.
Following the controversial "007: The Great Defeat ", "007: The Great Defeat 日本" is a compelling new chapter that the series urgently needs. It is closer to the quality of the Craig debut " Casino Royale ", and at the same time reintroduces many classic 007 scenes missing in "Quantum Crisis".
Now 10 years have passed, and the flaws of "007: Skybreaker" are of course more obvious, but this movie is still largely the most clever, most complex, and most unexpectedly influential in the entire 007 series.
is like a perfect storm that brings together a group of talented filmmakers, not only reshaping 007, but also paying tribute to the spy’s half-century history.
Some hardcore fans may prefer to see something more exaggerated and absurd, but there is no doubt that the success of "Celestial Intention" on the technical and character level cannot be easily denied...
12. Stunning opening song, mediocre opening
Although "007: Celestial Intention" opens with a spectacular prelude and then leads to Adele's attractive Oscar-winning theme song - undoubtedly one of the best songs in the series ever - but disappointingly, the opening song itself is clichéd and lacks highlights.
titles are dominated by sexy female bodies and fancy cheap, over-excessive CGI visuals, which basically feel like a chaotic tribute to all previous title sequences of the series.
not only has a very rough visual effect, but it also has no creative response to the story scene and theme of the film: it only symbolically displays the flying Chinese dragon, and also a shooting target with the face of Bond .
Fortunately, Adele's high-pitched voice made the opening of the movie happy. Without her, the opening of this movie that is excellent in other aspects would only look particularly mediocre and boring and meaningless.
11. It has been 14 years since Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" was released, and it still influenced the production of Hollywood blockbusters. No movie has successfully imitated the essence of "The Dark Knight" like "The Sky" .
Compared with many previous 007 movies, Sam Mendes chose a very solemn, realistic and tough style to shoot action shots, especially the highly acclaimed Shanghai scenes, which easily reminds people of their trip to Hong Kong in "The Dark Knight".
Both movies rarely use CGI technology and tend to use intuitive stunts. In terms of narrative, Raoul Silva (Javier Baden) in "Holympics" also has quirks and complex plans that are comparable to the Joker (Heath Ledger), and even deliberately let himself be caught.
It is worthy of praise that Mendes fully acknowledged the influence of "The Dark Knight" and did not intend to hide it from the audience. "Celestial Intention" was very successful in imitating it, and at least in many aspects it can stand the test of time just like "The Dark Knight".
10. CGI is not very good...
Although "Celestial Intention" is very wise to use special effects carefully, to be honest, most of the short-lived CGI shots are quite rough.
From the fancy opening, to the various green screen shots of Bond (Daniel Craig) doing dangerous actions (motorcycle on the roof, standing dangerously on the top of the train), to the distracting Komodo dragons in the casino scene, to Silva's facial deformity, all of which look a little out of place.
Although the film costs about $200 million, it obviously requires more funds to allocate to the visual effects budget. These wonderful scenes ultimately do not bring a stronger sense of excitement and immersion, but instead make the audience lose their play because of the special effects flaws.
special effects lens does not need to be perfect, but at least it needs to look a little better. If you can't take a close-up of Craig riding a motorcycle convincingly, then use a wide-angle lens? No one believes that he will imitate Tom Cruise and go on the fight in person, so there is no need to expose his flaws like this.
9…but still the most "good" 007 movie ever
Even though the CGI of this movie is flawed, it is still the most visually intoxicating 007 movie to date, of course this is mainly attributed to the recent Academy Award-winning photographer Roger Diggins .
The legendary photographer shows his hobby for dazzling gorgeous visual effects at a glance, ensuring that every scene, from simple dialogue to dazzling action scenes, is dynamic, colorful and full of cinematic feeling.
The most obvious highlight of
is of course the scene in Shanghai and the final climax, and there is no scene in the whole movie that looks dull. Incredibly, Diggins lost to the digital special effects of "Pi's Fantasy Drift" in the Oscar for Best Photography , so much so that he waited for another six years before finally winning the award for his outstanding performance in " Blade Runner 2049".
Even other 007 movies that have been regarded as classic for many years are far less careful about the details of the camera than Mendes and Diggins.
8. The casino scene inspired " Black Panther "
Looking back at the 2018 "Black Panther" before the release of the recent hit movie "Black Panther 2", it is obvious that the scene of "Celestial Murder" Macau Casino has a huge impact on the Korean casino clips in "Black Panther".
Both scenes are strikingly similar visually and narratively—the protagonist tracks a clue and falls into a very fashionable riot, and both scenes exudes a warm color—it is no surprise that the two are so similar, given that Marvel boss Kevin Feige once introduced to director Ryan Coogler that Black Panther is a James Bond-like adventure.
In addition, Kugler also added a clip of "007: Skybreaker" to his previous movie "Quddy", which is obvious that he is a fan of the 23rd 007 movie.
However, although both scenes are wonderful, it is still a bit weird to see him paying homage to a recent 007 movie rather than a decades ago.
7. Siflin's sex scene is completely unnecessary
Speaking of respecting female characters, the 007 series of movies have no good reputation. Although "007: The Skybreak" has only been released for 10 years, its handling of one of the Bon girls is quite embarrassing and caressing. When Silva's mistress Sephrin (played by Benanise Marlo) introduced herself to 007 in Macau, the audience and Bond quickly understood that she was once a sex slave, but now she is basically a slave to Silva.
As a result, Bond still sneaked into the bathroom and touched her while knowing this. This scene is quite undesirable. It basically fully adheres to Bond's dark history of treating women like garbage.
Although "007: The Skybreak" was released many years earlier than the #MeToo movement, it aroused many people's doubts as soon as it was released, and today it seems even more grieving.
Moreover, Sephlin was shot dead in a few minutes, and even Bond coldly called her death a "waste of top Scotch ".
6. Silva's appearance is the best of all the villains in the series
To be honest, despite the many iconic 007 villains that have appeared in the past few decades, few of their debuts have really impressed.
But Silva's appearance can easily dwarf all other villains. It was not until halfway through the movie that Bond was taken to his hiding place on an abandoned island that he finally came slowly. Mendes cleverly filmed Silva's arrival with a long shot, immersing both Bond and the audience in his slow, gradual appearance.
It is certainly a good choice to let Baden play this bad guy. He showed some crazy naughty play, which made up for the charm gap left by Matthew Amarek in "007: The Great Quantum Crisis".
In fact, Silva's appearance scene is very simple, basically equivalent to Bond talking with him in the same room, but thanks to creative photography, some exciting conversations and Baden's phenomenal performance, this scene became one of the most praised scenes in the whole movie.
5. M is quite awkward to recite Tennyson's poems
In the third act of the movie, M ( Judy Denchi ) was summoned to participate in the parliamentary investigation and answered how she handled the situation of the stolen hard drive, which led to Silva's final pursuit.
During this period, M specially recited Tennyson's "Ulysses", claiming that it was her late husband's favorite poem. Although "007: The Great Sky" is a very classic work in the 007 series, the recitation of this poem feels a bit too clumsy and stiff, and does not achieve the profound effect it obviously wants.
Even if you can understand Tennyson's complicated wording, it will still be funny to hear M blurt the poem in a public question, because it completely offsets Bond's urgency to stop Silva from doing everything possible.
classic literature into Hollywood blockbusters is "The Dark Knight Rises" released a few months ago. Christopher Nolan used Charles Dickens' "Two Cities" by , achieving a reasonable shocking effect. In the scene of "Celestial Intention", it only makes people feel a bit pretentious and forced.
4. The duration is a bit too long
Although "Celestial Intention" is great, frankly speaking, its 143-minute duration is a bit unbearable. "Castleman" was the second longest 007 movie at the time, only one minute less than "Casino Royale". Although the length of " Ghost Party " and "No Time to Die" has become even more intense after this, you can still feel its length when you re-watch the movie now.
The problem is largely that "Celestial Intention" actually switches different scenes along clues after clues until Silva appears, and after that, his crazy and complex revenge plan took a long time to present it.
Therefore, sometimes you may want the plot to progress faster, but in fact, even if it is only shortened by 10 or 15 minutes, it will feel more concise and compact overall. Anyway, although length is not a big problem, there are some scenes that obviously test the audience's patience.
3. The best ending of the series was born from this
"007: The Skybreak" last 30 minutes is the best finale of all 007 movies so far, which is not casually said.
"Casino Royale" may rank second. "007: Skybreaker" combines unforgettable Scottish beauty, Bond's vivid backstory, Albert Finney ("Welcome to Scotland!"), "Home Imp"-style hot action scenes and M's affectionate death, making it the unique way to end the 007 movie.
Don't forget the final introduction to Naomi HarrisHTM4Monie Penney and Ralph Fiennes' new man, who opened a new era for 007. Considering that most 007 movies are completely lacking in emotions and sentimentality, seeing this series finally have a hearty and tear-jerking ending is indeed a very cathartic experience.
not only has action, plot, beautiful visual effects, and wonderful sound effects, but also lays a good foundation for the next movie.What else do you want?
2. Use swear words just right
"007: The Skybreaker" is that it is the first 007 movie to use the word "f**k". Before the final battle at the end, M said to Bond: "I f**ked this up, right?"
Although some fans think this is out of place with the character M and the entire series, this sentence does help express the seriousness of the dilemma and M's despair. If there is a group of armed thugs ready to shoot your hiding place at any time and you don’t say swear words at this time, then when do you plan to leave it to say it?
Of course, it is best not to turn swear words into a habit in this series. Considering M’s situation at that time, her sentence “f**k” is certainly shocking, but it does deepen her character in a clever way.
1. M is the ultimate Bon Girl
"007: The Skybreaker" seems to not value Bon Girl on the surface: Sefflin was objectified and his role was quite small, while Monipenney was not actually important (she sat behind her desk most of the time in the movie).
Some people may not realize that M is the real "Bon Girl" in "The Sky" . Of course, she may not be as young or sexy as most traditional Bon Girl , but she is definitely an integral part of the film’s narrative and has decades of connection with the villain, which is certainly enough to make her a “Bon Girl”.
After all, there has never been a strict regulation that a woman must be a Bond girl to become a Bond girl—just look at Camille Montes ( Ouga Kerrylanko ) in "007: The Great Quantum Crisis"—so those who feel that the lack of femininity in this movie may need to be open-minded.
M combines wisdom and playfulness. She is the true ultimate Bang girl, and her personality development is more plump than all Bang girls.
What do you think of "Celestial Intention"? Please express your opinion in the comments.
