Jul 28, 2012

New Skyfall TV Spot

James Bond was a huge part of last night's Olympics coverage on NBC. In addition to stealing the show in Danny Boyle's impressive opening ceremony by parachuting into the stadium withe the Queen(!), Daniel Craig's 007 also made an appearance in an ad break with a brand new Skyfall TV spot. While a lot of the images are recycled from the teaser trailer, there is new material, too, including our first good look at the face of Javier Bardem's villain (albeit brief) and a very impressive train stunt. It's a tad reminiscent of Transporter 3, but with what's obviously a much bigger budget behind it and that panache only the Bond brand brings! Speaking of panache, it's clear from this spot that Craig's Bond has now matured into the ultra-confident agent we know from the other films. The moment when he adjusts his cufflinks after leaping onto a partially destroyed train car recalls Pierce Brosnan straightening his tie while driving the tank in GoldenEye. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is likely to stir up a lot of debate among Bond fans. Overall, though, this TV spot serves to further strengthen my impression that we're in for a great movie this fall! Judge for yourself:

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You may want to try to give the Jason Steed books a try: he's younger than Alex Rider, has a father, tried smoking, and carries a gun when he can and kills people (bad guys) all the time!

2:30 PM
Anonymous said...

Also a Alex Rider Short Story A TASTE OF DEATH was written but no one seems able to get it.

2:31 PM
David said...

Why does Brosnan get so much attention for that "tie-straightening" bit? It's not like the other Bonds didn't do it before him, going as far back as Sean in FRWL (after the fight with Grant). In fact, there's not much in Brosnan's bag of tricks that wasn't inherited from someone else.

That rant aside, it's a good TV spot. Great trailers, too, though they give away far too much (so what else is new?)

9:47 AM
Tanner said...

I hate to admit, Anonymous, that I still haven't read the last Alex Rider novel, Scorpia Rising! I bought it the day it came out but haven't gotten around to it yet. So I haven't sought out any new short stories for fear they might spoil how it ends. But thank you for sharing, for sure! I have the first Jason Steed book, and am looking forward to reading it eventually, too!

David, I probably associate the tie-straightening moments most closely with Roger Moore, but of course all the Bonds have had their versions. But I was trying to draw parellels with Craig's immediate predecessor. And that was a very defining moment in Goldeneye, where it worked wonderfully! It was just silly in TWINE, though.

1:03 PM
David said...

I guess what ruined it for me in GE was that it came in the middle of the horrible "tank chase" scene. I've never figured out why people love that scene so much. There's zero suspense since Bond is pretty much invulnerable while he's in that thing; aren't the most dramatic action scenes the ones where the hero is in at least *some* danger? Also, the whole "bull in a china shop" feel of the scene spotlights one of my pet peeves with the Brosnan era, where Bond was less a spy than a commando, hosing down enemies by the dozen in prolonged action scenes that seemed to get less exciting as they got bigger. The preceding GE scene where he wipes out scores of Russian soldiers -- who after all aren't really bad here, just doing their jobs -- doesn't help, but by the end of the tank scene -- where various civilian and police vehicles are smashed with probable fatalities -- I wasn't sure any more who the good guy was supposed to be. By the time Brosnan gets around to straightening his tie, it makes him seem more "Eddie Haskell" than James Bond. The whole point of the tie gag is "No sweat, I'm in control." Of course you are in an impregnable tank! Big man...

5:38 AM
Tanner said...

Yeah, I've always had a problem with Bond mowing down innocent Russian soldiers in GoldenEye too! But I've never met anyone ELSE who had that problem before. I don't like that scene. Call me a hypocrite, however, because I DO like the tank chase quite a lot. Perhaps innocent motorists and cops are killed, but since they don't go out of their way (like Michael Bay) to SHOW that happening, I'm going to assume that in the spirit of a Bond movie they don't. That chase is fun in a very Roger Moore way, and a good concession to the portion of the audience who wanted a return to that style after the seriousness of LTK. In fact, it was a great compromise. Most people thought that Brosnan would be a full-on return to Moore, but the movies struck a pretty good balance at first between serious and silly. They did what they had to do keep the series alive and popular at that particular time. (In the overall scope of the series at large, however, it's my least favorite era, despite loving Brosnan himself.)

I don't have any issues with feeling that Bond isn't in jeopardy. Sometimes bull in a China shop is just right for 007. I will, however, have issues if we feel that Craig is not in jeopardy jumping onto breaking trains in Skyfall! From the tone of his movies, I do expect jeopardy.

3:57 PM

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