Skyfall (Sam Mendes, 2012)

8/10
Action movies that aren't strong in their middle acts are a rare breed indeed, and it's Skyfall's strength to a fault. It takes a little too much time doing little in the first act, and trots out the woefully overused reluctant hero trope which, after The Amazing Spider-Man, The Avengers, and The Dark Knight Rises, needs to be murdered immediately. The title credits and opening sequence are exhilerating, but after that, some patience is tried - despite the impressively filmed Shanghai fight scene
. But the heart of the movie is when Javier Bardem shows up as Silva, in an incredible role that rivals even his Anton Chigurh in all-around creepiness and psychosis. Amazingly, the most bracing sequence in the film is not any fight or chase scene, but the first conversation between Bond and Silva.
The final act is good, but not great - while I appreciated the "personal" level the movie aims at (Silva going after M for revenge, rather than the head of some evil corporation trying to get megarich or what have you), it necessarily resulted in a somewhat underwhelming ending.
But overall, the movie does a lot of things really well, and several things exceptionally so. The much-lauded photography by Roger Deakins was good, but considering the hype, I was expecting to be a little more blown away. Same could be said for the movie as a whole, maybe.