Movie Review - 007: SkyFail

The new James Bond movie has recieved a lot of good press, many people have told me it's a great movie and they're not wrong as such. They're just misguided.

Skyfall is a good action movie, it's a decent spy movie. It's even a pretty good homage to Bond films... but it is not a James Bond movie. Now before you rampage and get angry, let me explain myself.

James Bond has been a movie franchise for 50 years now (the first movie Dr No was released in 1962) and has developed a very specific formula and set of tropes over it's storied history. These tropes are what makes a Bond movie, and SkyFall does not do them justice.

When watching the movie, my first disappointment came in the first 2 minutes. There is no down-the-barrel shot to start the movie off. This is a basic tenant of the Bond formula. This is how you start. It takes 20 seconds of screen time and I don't see any reason not to do it. I feel it must be indicative of the creators mindset when making this movie that he felt he could just ditch this iconic image.

Then we move onto the controversial topic of the bond girl. It is true that previous incarnation of 007 have been rather sexist, and while that is a part of this character I can accept that it may need to be changed to conform to modern sensibilities. I have no issue with that. What I take issue with is the way in which SkyFall accomplishes this. It seems to me that in order to stop Bond being a sexist pig, they just removed the bond girl. This is a tragedy. Surely you could write a strong female counterpart to Bond that isn't just there as the target of objectification? To change the air of sexism you need to move Bond's opinions, not remove all the female characters.

This latest James Bond movie also has the lamest Q ever to grace the silver screen. If we're talking about gadgets, then the last Mission Impossible movie was a better bond film than this one. James Bond was always the Super Spy, fitted out with the most advanced equipment that Her Majesties Secret Service could envision. Don't get me wrong, I like the old DB5 coming back for a cameo and the McGuyver scene was cool... but that's not bond. He's all about the cutting edge, and this movie wasn't.

Finally we come to my biggest problem with this movie: Daniel Craig. I have nothing against him as an actor, even as an action star, but as Bond? James Bond is smooth. James Bond is cool. James Bond has style. Daniel Craig.... doesn't. He isn't even clean shaven for half the movie. He labors through some witty dialogue and even his best bond moment (when he's walking away from an explosion and takes a second to adjust the cuffs of his shirt) is so out of place with the rest of his performance that it's jarring. 

To me Skyfall feels like a spy movie that throws out the occational nostalgic tip of the hat to the James Bond franchise... but that doesn't make it a Bond movie.

So my final verdict: Go watch Skyfall, it's a fun movie... just don't expect James Bond.

-Odd
"No mister bond, I expect you to die." -Goldfinger (1964)

Geeks, Games and Greatness - Episode 20

Sorry for the delay in posting this, all. My internet connection at home has been down and I cannot access the podcast host from work. In any case, here is Episode 20 in which we chat about snakes, dogs, desert buses, sparkly vampires, heavy metal, old spears and new higgs.

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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GeekGamesGreatness
Odd's Twitter: @OddModlin
Ian's Twitter: @i4n0fd00m
Email: oddcastblog@gmail.com

MtG FNM Report - RB Vampires

Yet another night of Vampires at Outer Limit's FNM. Here's what I played:

Mainboard	Sideboard
4 Stromkirk Noble	3 Tragic Slip
4 Falkenrath Exterminator	4 Annihilating Fire
4 Stromkirk Captain	4 Brimstone Volley
4 Vampire Nighthawk	4 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Olivia Voldaren
3 Bloodline Keeper
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Murder
2 Sign in Blood
1 Ring of Valkans
7 Swamp
8 Mountain
4 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit

Nothing has really changed in this list. I swapped the Deviant Glees from last time for a ring of Valkans, two Sign in Bloods and an extra swamp and swapped out the smelts in the sideboard for Tragic Slips because Predator Ooze is scary.

Round 1: 0-2 vs UW Control
*sigh* first round loss. My vamps really suffer to control. Against most builds I think I'd be okay, but this one played Misthollow Griffin with Moorland Haunt. I REALLY like this combo. Having a creature that is totally unkillable is a serious issue, and I'm definitely going to build this into my UW list.

Round 2: 2-0 vs UW Lifelink
Dominated in the second round against a lifelink aggro deck playing Chalice of Life, which is a card I really like. I was easily able to keep my opponent down enough that she couldn't flip the chalice.

Round 3: 2-0 vs GW Agro
This wasn't populate, and it wasn't GW Humans... not really sure what he was going for, but the vamps managed to keep the game on my plan so it wasn't an issue.

Round 4: 1-2 vs 4 Colour Control
Man, I hate playing against this deck. I got a god draw in the second game and managed to squash him before his card advantage took over. In the end I think it was Witchbane Orb that lost me the game. All my sideboard burn doesn't help me if I can't kill him with it.

So 2-2 for the night... not a great result, but I did draw two control decks. Unfortunate. I really need to come up with a deck that can answer both agro and control >.< not asking for much am I?

-Odd
"May the worthy spend an eternity in Blessed Sleep. May the wicked find the peace of oblivion." -Pillar of Flame, Flavour Text

MtG FNM Report - Izzet Combo

Yet another FNM report from Outer Limits. Last week I tried an Izzet combo deck... can you guess how that went? Anyway, here's the deck list:

Mainboard	Sideboard
4x Goblin Electromancer	4x Essence Scatter
4x Guttersnipe	4x Negate
4x Lobber Crew	4x Unsummon
3x Tandem Lookout	3x Think Twice
2x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
4x Mizzium Mortars
4x Cyclonic Rift
4x Inaction Injunction
4x Izzet Charm
3x Curiosity
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Steam Vents
2x Izzet

I'm not sure if this really counts as combo but the whole plan is to use Gutter Snipe or Lobber Crew with a Tandem Lookout or Curiosity. This means that I get a metric ton of card advantage and cast spells till my opponent dies.

Sounds good, hey? ..... ya.... ummm.... you'll see what happened.

Round 1: 1-2 vs GW Human Agro
First game went perfectly. I hit my curve and managed to delay him until my card advantage just took me completely out of range. I got a little mana screwed in the second two games, but really I just got out aggro'd.

Round 2: Bye
I got the bye. Irritating, but it's the first time I've ever had the bye at Outer Limits... so I really shouldn't complain.

Round 3: 1-2 vs Mono Green
Managed to pull out the first game on 1 life which was exciting, but lost the second two games to aggro. The combination of Predator Ooze, Rancor and Silverheart leaves my poor little Izzet deck cold.

Round 4: 2-0 vs UW Flash
Hey hey! I won a match! once again against the UW flash deck. Azorius charm does nothing against my creatures unless I attack which gives me enough time to build up.

So overall not a great, one win out of 3 games. I think the problem with this deck is that it really suffers to aggro and has a lot of games where it just ends up doing nothing. So not the best build for an Izzet deck, but I have some thoughts for some other ones and I'll be trying those out in the weeks to come.

Next FNM I will be playing my Vampires again, partially because I need to find some cards for my next Izzet build but mostly because I want to be doing the beat down instead of the other way around for a change :)

-Odd

“He has no patience for minds that do not inspire him or explode by trying.” – Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, Flavour Text