I invited my wife out on another date last weekend and entrusted the mother-in-law with the important task of minding the three kids.  Not too sure who’ll end up looking after who or who will cause most uproar, but I wasn’t going to be there to witness any potential ‘go to bed’ fights.

Most times in recent years, when the mother-in-law has minded the kids, we normally get a phone call either within minutes of leaving the house or just as we sit down for dinner.  And, when we do return home late, at least one kid is still awake.

Selfishly I chose “Skyfall” given my passion for following James Bond on new adventures, hunting down the evil villain trying to take over the World, get a glimpse of the new Bond girl and of course in awe with all the new gadgets.

My wife is thankfully OK with watching these movies, most times at least, but not too keen on the close-up shots of the Bond girls.

We arrived hand-in-hand to the cinema and bought tickets to the late showing of ‘Skyfall”.  Funnily enough, the majority of patrons for that viewing were men my age and up and very few women in the line.

We stopped that the snack counter and bought the mandatory greasy butter-soaked popcorn, 16oz soft-drink much to the frustration of Mayor Bloomberg and a pile of napkins.  Then we made our way to our seats and started munching.

Suddenly the cinema went pitch black and the movie started in full-blown action scenes.

Mr. JB was chasing some guy through Istanbul by feat, car, motorcycle and train.  The action was intense and nerves were already on the edge.  The female side-kick, previously seen in “Pirates of the Caribbean“, were providing cover as well as attempting to keep up with the fast paced train.  A few scenes later, she pulled the trigger on an oversized assult riffle, hitting Mr. JB who then fell of the train, off a bridge into a wild river.

Nobody but Mr. JB could possible survive such a tumble and in true JB style the movie cuts into the soundtrack performed by Adele.

So far it was a promising start to the 23rd JB movie.

As the deep enchanting voice of Adele died out the movie resumed.  The next hour of the movie focused on MI6 being blown up, some interesting hacking techniques, several fight scenes, JB babes and of course the introduction to the villain.

Without revealing too many details or the plot of the movie, I can certainly share that the villain managed to escape from the MI6 fortress.

Now, this is were I felt the movie started to drift and this impacts my overall opinion of the movie.  I’ve tried to summarize these “highlights” below;

• Drunken sex escape; why did we need to see JB hide on seem beach somewhere, as some beach bum drinking his head of while having sex with beautiful women?  Did this change the cause of the story or did it have any impact on any the characters?
• A personal Mendetta; the villain obviously had some sort of mother complex towards M and felt the urge to kill her.  Again, not sure why a full lenght JB movie was needed to show this hatred.  M could’ve been killed in a simple carbomb and replaced with Fiennes.
• The homestead is burning; a few things bothered me with this: a) why should we care where JB is born b) is it relevant that he came from a super wealthy family c) has his dad’s name (AB) any relevance to the story other than also use the same initials as Albert Broccoli d) why blow up this house he no longer owns e) who cares about the old fart living in the family home.  Now, if it turned out that the villain and JB were actually related, meaning they had the same farther and that M was their mother, then that would perhaps warrant some of these links.
• Skyfall; who the hell would name their super sized English country side mansion “Skyfall”?  It doesn’t really sound that inviting!  And, why name a JB movie adter his homestead?
• Death of M; M died uneventfully by a gun shot wound, in the arms of JB in an abandoned church in the middle of absolutely nowhere!  Then she resurrected as a man in the shape of Fiennes.
• Homecoming; how did JB actual manage to get home from whatever beach he was stuck on, given he probably left his passport in Istanbul and he had been reported dead?
• Break with past; there was absolutely NO need to blow up the old Aston Martin!  How did he get his hands on the car in the first place?  I thought it had been returned to Q?

For me it just didn’t feel as a traditional JB movie where he’s fighting a villain trying to take over the World.  I know they want to restart the entire franchise and go back to basic, but the story of “Skyfall” could have been much cooler if they had stayed with the missing hard drive containing the names of undercover agents.

I did like the fact that we met Moneypenny and the padded office door in M’s office.

Overall, it was a great action movie and I’ll probably buy it on iTunes when it’s released.