He's not the James Bond yet, he's just a thug, a blunt instrument. It was always meant to be kind of brash, immature and aggressive because that's exactly what Bond is at the start of the film, brash, juvenile and brutal. Is it super Bondian? Not really, it has some traits in there but more importantly, the central leitmotif in the song evolves into the Bond theme during the ensuing score (because composer David Arnold also had a hand in the song - a fairly rare thing in the franchise).

I'm not a big Cornell/Soundgarden fan to begin with, but I really rather enjoyed the song. 'Skyfall' won the Grammy, the Golden Globe, and the Academy Award, and coming into this discussion thread you'd be led to believe that it was some sort of fluke. To me, you really can't compare Chris Cornell to Adele's performance. Not only is it in the right style (epic, operatic, etc), but it sounds both modern and works as a throwback all at the same time. In the modern era of Daniel Craig, whatever you may think of the quality of the last film itself, I think it's fairly unquestionable that the Skyfall theme and opening are #1. I wonder how many of you guys just like Chris Cornell or Soundgarden in general? Because if you are fans, then that's clearly why you like this song, and it is a pretty good song for what it is, but it surely doesn't stand up to some of the many classics from Bond's history. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills here, because I think this is definitely one of the more forgettable theme songs from this entire franchise.

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