Bond 24: 10 Skyfall Flaws That Spectre Should Improve Upon

2. Bond's Insistence On Acting Dumb

James Bond's biggest talent stems from his ability to get himself out of crazy situations; he can escape from a hundred armed guards if needs be, or outmanoeuvre a helicopter on foot. But usually he ends up doing these things because he has no choice. Skyfall plays the "Bond is good at getting out of scrapes" card differently, in these sense that the movie has Bond acting really stupidly beforehand. In short, he gets himself into dumb situations for no good reason. Seriously: so much of what happens in Skyfall occurs because Bond doesn't think a situation through. He does something that even a shop clerk wouldn't consider and is forced to rescue himself thereafter. This is fun to watch (the first time), but isn't Bond supposed to be the best possible person in these dangerous situations? Isn't it his "thing" to act the opposite of dumb? Apparently not. Take the finale, for example, in which Bond takes M to his old house (where there are little resources) and waits for the bad guy and his army to arrive. Why on Earth would Bond ever do that? Spectre needs to recalibrate the hero's brainpower if fans are to believe that Bond is MI6's best and most reliable agent: he doesn't always play by the rules, but 007's mentality in Skyfall borders the mentally retarded. For the sake of the franchise, it's easier to pretend that - given its standing as a major plot point - Bond wasn't exactly himself over the course of Skyfall. Hopefully Spectre will allow our hero to rediscover the balanced mentality that he embraced throughout Casino Royale. Now there was a perfectly rendered Bond: brains and brawn in equal measure.