For a while now Screen Junkies has been producing a series of videos called "Honest Trailers" that originally intended to live up to its title and present previews in a way that more accurately represented the actual films. Somewhere along the way, "Honest Trailers" has devolved into a series of nit-picky video essays that seemingly hates every aspect of the movies.
The Screen Junkie's latest declaration of war against fun, "Honest Trailers -Skyfall," takes one of the best Bond movies and attempts to dismantle it, but utterly fails. To show you everything that's wrong with "Honest Trailers," here's a point-by-point rebuttal of their "Skyfall" trailer.
Sam Mendes has no experience directing action.
While it's true that Mendes has never directed anything like "Skyfall," every action director has to start somewhere. Does Screen Junkies take into account that he knocked it out of the park on his first attempt? No.
It's overrated because "Quantum of Solace" sucked.
You can't assume that the nearly universal praise for "Skyfall" comes from an equally widespread need to lift the series reputation after one bad installment.
Bond doesn't hide his name.
This isn't a realistic espionage drama. Did you notice that henchman who got eaten by a komodo dragon? That should have tipped you off.
Why didn't the train in the opening sequence stop?
Because that would make for an interesting chase sequence, right?
Why aren't the passengers scared?
They look scared to me, but more importantly, why do you care?
Bond's beach time was "anticlimactic," and there's CNN in English.
I don't think "anticlimactic" is the word you're looking for, and the CNN bit is an old screenwriting trick where a news broadcast helps get a piece of exposition across that would have otherwise broken up the story in an awkward way. Also, "Skyfall" is a movie.
Word association, office politics, art theory, Judi Dench frowning, and landscape shots are boring.
Really? Because the word association session is a well-written scene that establishes Bond's troubled link to his childhood home, M's meeting with Mallory sets the stage for her public fallout, and Bond's introduction to Q is a fun way of exploring the theme and point of the whole bloody movie. And the landscape shots? You mean Roger Deakins' Oscar-nominated cinematography? Are you sure you actually like movies?
It takes too long for Silva to show up.
Yeah, and when he does, his entrance is more impactful because of the wait.
Silva's plan is unrealistically convoluted.
Okay, we'll let this one slide. (But, you know, it's a movie.)
Silva "makes Bond gay."
I'm pretty sure this is homophobic, and you missed the point.
The gadgets are lame, and the radio is bigger than one Bond had in the 60s.
Sometimes for comedic relief you have to ignore the continuity of a 50-year-old film franchise.
The writers stole agent list plot from "Mission: Impossible."
...and "Mission: Impossible" stole it from countless spy movies, TV shows, and novels before it. Everything is a remix.
The fight scenes are too "artsy" to actually see.
Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins would like to apologize for thinking that movies should be interesting to look at.
The ending is ripped off from "Home Alone."
...or the western trope of a last stand. It's a western, not "Home Alone."
Bond essentially rapes Sévérine.
She doesn't seem to be resisting...like, at all.
The hard drive storyline disappears.
True, but couldn't that have just been a ruse to get MI6 involved from the start?
