SkyFall receives rave reviews (no spoilers)

On October 12th, more than a 1000 journalists from all over the world watched the movie SkyFall in London. With the official release of the film still two weeks away, the first reviews have been published already. Most of them contain many spoilers, so if you don't want to read any spoilers, but like to know the general verdict, you can read a summary of a select number of  reviews here. More reviews might be added to this page in the next few days.

The Sun, Daily Mail and Mirror are all very positive, while the Guardian, Telegraph, Digital Spy and Indiewire think the movie is good but don't go as far as calling it the best Bond movie ever.

The Sun calls SkyFall:

the coolest James Bond film yet.

This film is stylish, witty and a class above the competition. It’s also irreverent about its past. Daniel Craig again proves himself to be a great Bond.

The Daily Mail gives SkyFall 5 out of 5 stars:

marvelous action mayhem ... Graham Rye of Double-O-Seven magazine said the film was so good because producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli had assembled what he called a 'dream team'.

The Mirror gives SkyFall 5 out of 5 stars:

Enthralling, explosive and often very funny, Skyfall doesn't just exceed expectations but shatters them.

IGN gives SkyFall 9 out of 10 stars and calls it Amazing:

The 50th anniversary of Bond is being celebrated in many ways this year, but Sam Mendes may have found the perfect way to pay tribute to this enduring icon of popular culture: He’s made the best Bond film yet.

Digital Spy, gives 4 out of 5 stars:

Skyfall's clean, direct narrative, blistering action sequences (a neon-lit Shanghai showdown deserves to be singled out) and strong performances across the board elevate it to the upper end of the Bond movie spectrum.

The Guardian is not 100% convinced and gives the movie 3 out of 5 stars:

Skyfall allows sentimentality to cloud its judgment and loosen its tongue. In so doing, it risks blowing James Bond's cover for good

The Telegraph gives 4 out of 5 stars, and notices that the movie, although featuring the classic Bond elements, also enters a new age.

Skyfall shakes together familiar elements of the Ian Fleming canon – the cars, the guns, the exotic locales with the dames to match – into a blistering comic book escapade that the old Bond, and one suspects Fleming too, would find altogether alien.

Indiewire also applauds the fact that the movie fits modern times, but wants to wait before calling it the best movie since the Sean Connery days.

Mendes gets a lot more right than he gets wrong, and in the process has found a confident new identity for the franchise -- not afraid of its past, but not chasing its competitors or being scared of the future either. It might take another viewing of each to see if it exceeds "Casino Royale" as the best since the Sean Connery days, but at the very least, it makes clear that after the disappointment of "Quantum of Solace" that Bond is back, and he's not going anywhere.

007Magazine (Graham Rye):

True, Skyfall is not perfect - the denouement flirts too openly with sentimentalism for my liking, the knowing tone of the screenplay occasionally veers into smugness and Thomas Newman's frequently hyperactive and seldom coherent musical score will soon have faded (thankfully) from my memory. However, in the final analysis, these are relatively minor quibbles. The truth is, Skyfall is a triumph. It's a film which sustains the re-invention and re-imagining of the series as more character-led and emotionally complex without ever compromising the traditions and values of entertainment, fun and escapism on which the series was built in the first place.

MI6-HQ.com:

Ultimately, Mendes delivers an assured, accomplished Bond film that stands somewhere between delivering what the public expects from a Bond film and creating something original and new. His Bond is certainly more nuanced and intricate and instilled with a sense of Britishness that befits 007's fiftieth year on the screen.

 

Bond is most certainly back. 

TotalFilm gives SkyFall 5 out of 5 stars.

It all adds up to the 007 adventure we’ve been waiting for: a flawlessly assembled thrill ride with a cast to die for and a nakedly emotional undertow. Happy birthday, Mr Bond.

If you want to read the full reviews, click on these links (but I warn you again: many reviews contain major spoilers!)

The Mail
Mirror.co.uk
IGN.com
TheSun.co.uk
Digital Spy
Guardian
Telegraph
Indiewire
Variety
007 Magazine
MI6-hq.com
TotalFilm