Skyfall (2012)

Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe

Director: Sam Mendes

Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Rating: B+

During a mission in Turkey Bond (Craig) is shot by another MI6 agent, Eve (Harris) and presumed dead.  The mission was an integral one, an attempt to retrieve a stolen computer hard drive that contained details of almost all undercover NATO agents in terrorist organizations. With Bond presumably dead, however, the thief gets away.  Fast forward a couple months and M (Dench) is being pressured to retire by Intelligence Security Committee Chairman Gareth Mallory (Fiennes).  Then MI6 is hacked, an explosion occurs in the offices, and the names of several NATO agents are released.  Bond hears of the attack and decides to come out of the retirement that he had decided to take following his presumed death.

I really liked this movie.  Two things pop out right away; first there's the fact that while the story isn't a continuation of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace it's still a sequel to this new Bond, and it really pays tribute to things that we saw being developed in these earlier films.  The second thing is that, in continuing with this tribute, Skyfall also pays tribute to the older Bonds, especially the original ones.  There are a lot of little references and allusions to the origins of Bond, which I absolutely loved.  There's even a point when Bond and villain Silva (Bardem) simulate a sort of "toast" with a 1962 whiskey, in tribute to the 50th anniversary of Bond.

Beyond that, I liked the plot of the movie overall.  It goes back to the rouge agent plot, which Bond really likes playing with, but also nicely plays off the pairing of Bond versus someone who really was his predecessor. There's a lot of build up on the relationship between this Bond and this M, which I loved. I also really liked the action sequences, from the really extravagant ones to the less extravagant ones - personally, I really loved the silouhetted fight between Bond and Patrice (Ola Rapace) in Shanghai.  It might have been my favourite moment, or at least fight scene, out of the movie - which says a lot because there were a lot of really good ones.

There's also a lot of humour here.  It doesn't descend into the campy level of previous Bonds, and at times is intentionally uncomfortable, but I liked it.  I like the idea of Bond being funny, as long as it's not ridiculously so.  There are some great moments between Bond and most of the characters.  I thought it was well done.  What I didn't think was well done was Naomie Harris' Bond girl.  I really wasn't a big fan of her character in general, and she kind of left me with a sour taste in my mouth following the movie.  I understand where they were trying to go with her, but I wasn't a fan.

So You Think You Can Dance (Season 9)

Starring: Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Cat Deeley

Creator: Nigel Lythgoe and Simon Fuller

Genre: Reality, Dance, Competition

Rating: C

I was rather disappointed by this season of So You Think You Can Dance.  I haven't been a fan of the show for long - this is only the third season that I've watched as it airs - but I've always previously enjoyed it.  I had my favourites in season 7 (the first season I watched), and loved the dances in season 8 even if I knew who was going to win for a long time.  This time round... the judging and eliminations in general seemed so at random that I really didn't know who to root for.  It seemed like I would pick new favourites each week only to have them eliminated the next week.

The biggest problem with the season, which related rather nicely to the above critique, is the airing.  Things moved really fast but at the same time really slow; the season seemed to go on forever (especially in the try-out period, which lasted for four weeks because of the elimination of the second weekly episode) and was repeatedly delayed in airing - the Olympics and the Fourth of July both did the show a disservice.  Rather than just have the show go on longer, things were changed by doing double eliminations, to the great disservice to the dancers.

Because of the removal of the results episode the eliminations took place at the end of each episode. I'm not really sure how I feel about this; for one it made the episode feel even more cramped, especially as they also tried to add in performances by various dance companies.  I enjoy the showcase and understand why the show does it, but I felt like this really did a lot to prevent us from getting to know the dancers.  It wasn't until near the end of the season that I really felt like the show began to invest in showcasing the dancer's personalities - which is sad, because it does a lot for helping them get votes.  In years past I've always known the names of everyone that makes it onto the show, this time round I didn't really know everyone until the top 10.

There were some amazing moments in the show and some amazing dancers in it.  Even the ones who weren't as diverse were still amazing at what they did and I really did enjoy watching the dance.  I just rather felt that throughout the whole season it was this poorly guided last hurrah for the series.  Between the way it was treated while it aired and the fact that Fox eliminated the Results show I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last season of So You Think You Can Dance.  Which is sad, it'll be a part of my summer TV that I'll miss.  I won't, however, miss Nigel Lythgoe being a creepy perv when judging the young, attractive dancers.

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Joan Allen, Albert Finney
Director: Tony Gilroy
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rating: C-

I think my biggest problem with The Bourne Legacy was that it didn’t need to be made.  The Bourne Trilogy ended well – both book-wise and movie-wise.  Robert Ludlum wrote three Bourne novels, concluded the series, wrote a number of other books, then died.  Then in what has the appearance of being a case of greed and laziness the Ludlum estate gave permission to Eric Van Lustbader in order to write more Bourne novels.  The ending that had wrapped the trilogy up was shattered and Van Lustbader to this day is popping out a Bourne a year.  As someone who enjoys writing and creating characters this rather bothers me – I don’t particularly like the idea of continuing someone’s work posthumously.  It’s one thing in the case of Robert Jordan, where he made arrangements for it to happen prior to his death and wrote down how the story was supposed to end so that someone could continue The Wheel of Time series.  It’s another thing if the author ended the series, died some time later, and then someone decided to resurrect his books.

Okay, so now that that rant is out of my system, let’s move on to the movie itself. Continuing the theme of The Bourne Legacy didn’t need to be made, or at least didn’t need to be a Bourne film, is the fact that it doesn’t actually involve the titular Jason Bourne – at least not really.  In my opinion plans for the film should have been axed once Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon announced that they would not be involved in the film.  Despite being set in the same universe an being based around another member of the Treadstone Project Legacy has a really different feel to it and in my opinion could have easily been based in a similar but different world.  In fact, I think it would have been better off had they taken that route.

The events in Legacy are initiated by Jason Bourne (Damon, seen only via a photograph) exposing Operation Blackbriar and the Treadstone Project, leading to an investigation of CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy (Allen) and Operation Blackbriar supervisor Noah Vosen (David Strathairn).  Upon learning of this, the CIA calls in Eric Byer (Norton) to deal with the situation and make it go away – which he does by eliminating all members of Operation Outcome, which I think was another aspect of Blackbriar and Treadstone.  This elimination is a problem for Aaron Cross, codename “Number Five,” who would rather not be killed.  He goes on the run, but he’s disabled by his dependency on pills the agency has given him to enhance his physical and mental capabilities – greens and blues.  Conveniently for him, the CIA is also attempting to kill all of its Outcome scientists, leaving Dr. Marta Shearing (Weisz) pretty much dependant on him for her continued survival.

So, just to start, this series does not need the Bourne connection.  The premise can exist really easily without the Bourne connection and would have been better off having severed it.  The few actors who were in both movies aren’t utilized properly – but then few of the actors in this movie are utilized properly at all.  The characters are, for the most part, flat and dull.  They fit stereotypical roles and are never given any real reason to expand.  I was particularly disappointed with Norton, who basically just stood around and barked orders.  Renner and Weisz bring a lot to the show and really stand out simply because they make the most out of their flat characters and try to add some depth.  I don’t know what’s motivating any of the CIA type agents, beyond the fact that bad guys are bad guys.  I only know that the good guys are motivated by the hey, let’s stay alive mentality of things – I’m not really given any reason to root for them beyond the idea that I should be rooting for people to stay alive.  There are a few good moments and I actually really liked Weisz’ role in the chase scene.  Her role was, in my opinion, the only perfect element about both this movie in general and the chase specifically.

With that one perfect moment behind us, let’s discuss the other failures of the movie. The chase scene where Weisz was awesome was, in my opinion, poorly done. There were elements that I loved about it – namely the fact that the police weren’t shooting at the fleeing protagonists, which is something that I always hate in action movies (if you’re fleeing from the police in a crowded area, they’re not going to shoot. The chances of hitting one of the many innocent bystanders is too great). The music was lame and rather redundant, which I guess kind of made it fitting for the sequence itself, which was also rather redundant. There were a few good action sequences overall, but none that was worth the cost of admission.  Really, when it came down to it this was an unremarkable addition to the series.  Oh, and the ending sucked.  I'm not going to explain why, because that would be a massive spoiler, but it was a let down.  I'd say skip this movie and hold out for The Expendables 2.