I don’t disagree with this sentiment, but at the same time, with the way that they built Silva up over the course of the first half of the film, that is the more interesting thing that the film should be focusing on rather than watching Bond rehab himself and chase down Patrice. Silva talks to Bond about how much damage he can do from his island, so why not see some of that? He steals the NOC List from MI6, but after that, all we see is a brief YouTube video of the agents identities being blown. This is actually the first evidence of a major problem that would really hamper the back end of the Craig era, where everything is so focused on the character level with Bond and M and the like that the stakes of what is happening are never truly developed. Much like my major issue with Spectre and No Time to Die, the threat of what is actually at stake in Skyfall is left to the viewer to really create for themselves in their own mind. Yes, the story is about the Bond/M/Silva dynamic and relationship, but at the same time, the only reason that they are chasing him in the first place is what is happening to these agents in the field. If Silva is so intent on his vendetta with M, why not put some of that expertise for chaos on display and have him create more (on screen) havoc for MI6 than a simple YouTube video and the opening explosion, which more provocation on his part towards M and MI6 would have done. If Silva’s plan was to get caught, he doesn’t do a great job of leading Bond to him, as catching Patrice in that exact moment at the assassination is what ultimately gave him that chance, a chance he wouldn’t have gotten had Patrice had taken Bond out in the PTS or had Bond stayed “dead”.
And showing what the stakes are is fairly simple to do, yet the later Craig films don’t really seem to grasp this. We get that one scene of Bond and Camille walking back from the sinkhole and see the devastation that Greene’s drought is having on Bolivia. It’s the old adage of “show, don’t tell”. Quantum of Solace show us the threat. Spectre, No Time to Die and, to a lesser extent, Skyfall, do more telling than anything. We’re told that Silva is this evil mastermind, we’re old that Nine Eye needs to come online to combat these terror plots that are unfolding on TV screens across the globe, we’re told that Heracles can do, well, something, but simple scenes that could be introduced to these films to take the responsibility for creating the higher stakes for these films off of the shoulders of the audience would go, at least for Skyfall (there’s too much wrong with the other two films for this fix to solve all of their problems), a long way towards crafting a more dynamic experience.
And as far as the Severine moment in the film with Silva, it does show him to be ruthless, but at the same time, it in and of itself is nothing that truly separates Silva from any of the other Bond villains. I mean, Drax sent his dogs after one of his employees and took her out in a much more vicious fashion than what Silva does here. But after the build up of him being this horrifying (“How much do you know about fear?” “Not like this. Not like him”) entity, once he appears on screen, he really reverts back to something much more in line with what we expect from a Bond villain, despite an excellent performance from Bardem, who I think absolutely elevates the character from what is presented on the page.
), it still feels like it falls short of the expectations it sets for itself in the first couple of sections of the movie.