Movies: Skyfall

Score:  **** out of ***** (A-)

Long Story Short:  007 is back after a four-year hiatus, and is receiving great praise from critics as well as success at the box office.  Craig, already great in his first outing as Bond in Casino Royale, mirrors his character's own development of greater confidence by having more fun than in the two previous films.  Yet Bond faces not only a sinister foe in MI6 rogue Silva (villain master Javier Bardem) but also questions of his own role in defending the modern world.  Seen best (in my opinion) as the third act of Craig's Bond trilogy, Skyfall also represents the finest quality of today's action genre.


It's been a great fall movie season so far, with the fantastic Argo and Flight.  Now it's 007's turn, and one of my most anticipated films of the year.  I am a huge James Bond fan, and was thrilled with the series reboot in 2006's Casino Royale (my favorite of the series so far).  Quantum of Solace was also very good - severely underrated, in fact - and then 007 fans were subjected to another long drought between films thanks to MGM going into bankruptcy.  Fortunately, Daniel Craig stayed on as Bond, and I was quite excited by both the trailer for Skyfall and by the inclusion of Javier Bardem as the villain.  Skyfall was directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) and stars Craig in his third 007 adventure, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, and Bardem.

Skyfall drops the audience straight into one of 007's missions, this one in Istanbul.  Bond (Craig) finds a meeting gone awry, and M (Dench) instructs him to abandon a fallen fellow agent there are go after a stolen hard drive.  A great Bond chase ensues, going from car to motorcycle to train.  As Bond grapples with the bad guy, M instructs another MI6 agent to shoot - taking out 007 instead, accidentally.  Bond survives, of course, and takes his time getting back to home base; meanwhile, MI6 is hacked and under attack by cyber terrorists.

Bond's only lead is the man who stole the hard drive - containing the identities of NATO secret agents - and he manages to track him to Shanghai.  There, 007 meets a voluptuous woman who takes him to the boss, who turns out to be a former MI6 agent named Silva (Bardem) gone rogue and insane.  It seems that Bond has the situation under control, but Silva knows exactly what to expect from his former handlers and remains two steps ahead of them.  Bond is forced to dump the agency playbook and make Silva fight on his terms, resulting in not only an explosive finale but one that brings 007's mysterious origins in contact with his new "family".

Acting is hardly the most important aspect of a Bond film, but Skyfall has a strong cast.  Craig retains the same gritty style that he introduced in Casino Royale, but his 007 is now a shade more confident, in particular deploying a sense of humor more often.  Craig's Bond is unique in that the first three films all build off each other (more on that later) rather than stand alone, and so the character has evolved.  I personally still prefer Pierce Brosnan, the 007 I grew up with, but Craig does a superb job with his own interpretation of the iconic spy.  He really hit the ground running (literally and figuratively) in Casino Royale, and has ably guided the character along from there.

Judi Dench has her largest role yet as M (which she started in 1995's Goldeneye), and her character (along with 007) is under pressure from the start as being past her prime.  Unsurprisingly, both Dench and her M prove themselves up to the challenge.  Javier Bardem as Silva is sensational, and an instant classic villain in the 007 pantheon.  If you've seen No Country For Old Men, just imagine a metrosexual Anton Chigurh - equal parts creepy and frightening.  His introductory scene, basically a monologue, is perhaps the most entertaining in the entire film.  Naomie Harris plays an MI6 agent "Bond girl" and, in limited screen time, flirts with Bond effectively.  Ralph Fiennes plays a hard-nosed bureaucrat who breathes down M and Bond's necks, yet remains fiercely loyal to the country.  Last but not least the new Q is introduced (yay!), and the young Ben Whishaw plays him with the same bored, hilarious exasperation as the legendary Desmond Llewelyn.

Skyfall has plenty of action befitting a proper James Bond film, and Mendes eschews the often-confusing shaky cam from Quantum of Solace.  The opening Istanbul chase is a very good one, employing classic 007 tricks yet in the grittier, imperfect mode symbolizing Craig's style (I have to admit, the opening is the best action of the film and the rest is fairly pedestrian, by 007 standards anyway).  Daniel is very convincing as a hand-to-hand fighter (unlike the beefy Roger Moore) and also shows himself as a mortal, taking almost as much punishment as he dishes out.  Of course, just when you think "what's so special about this guy?", he takes down half-a-dozen baddies in two seconds, taking your breath away. There is considerably more psychological and emotional "action" as well in Skyfall, particularly in questioning the effectiveness of MI6 in the modern world, and delving (like Casino and Quantum) into Bond's past and what drives him.  Fear not, Skyfall is not all battle:  Bond trades quips with Harris' agent and Whishaw's Q like the old days, and Dench and Bardem even add some humor, too.  One last thing:  Adele's title song is one of the best Bond themes and I hope that she, in the style of Shirley Bassey, returns to the series.

***

Skyfall, taken by itself, is a very strong action film.  But I have to admit that the first time I saw it (yes, I've seen it twice already), it left me with an empty feeling.  Thanks to an observation from another reviewer, I went into my second viewing with another perspective and it worked much better.  How did this happen?  I went in the first time expecting one of those classic 007 films which have - despite a lot of variations, of course - a certain formula and style.  I could tell Skyfall was moving toward that classic 007 feeling, but it didn't quite get there.  The second time I saw it, I thought of it more as the third film in a trilogy and was much more pleased.  Unlike any Bond films before them, Craig's have all built on each other, and Quantum is even a direct sequel to Casino.  Skyfall has a completely new plot, yes, but it retains the overall theme of developing James Bond into the legend on display in films one through twenty.  And the last scene of Skyfall rather clearly shows that at last, Craig's 007 is truly the Bond of "shaken, not stirred," "the name's Bond, James Bond," etc.  So for full effect, I recommend that you watch Casino Royale (see this regardless!) and Quantum of Solace before Skyfall.  Yeah, yeah, it's just an action film - but it's a great one by itself and even better for those who follow 007.