Film Reaction: SKYFALL

Good work on the poster, guys.

It...really doesn't have anything on it, does it?

James Bond.  You can't really start talking about a new Bond movie without addressing basically ALL the old Bond movies, and frankly I'm surprised I haven't spoken on the series here before now, as they're some of my favourite movies.  That said, I don't have the polarized view a lot of fans do towards the various actors who have played Bond himself; to date, I like all of them, and appreciate the ways their films tried to capitalise on the strengths of how each chose to personify Bond.

When it comes to Daniel Craig, I like the rough-and-tumble physicality he brings to the table, not to mention the uncouth,cocky edge he employs for his humour.  His Bond is basically a gorilla in a sharp suit pretending to be a gentleman, and his films have been at their best when they've been putting him in high society locations full of extremely posh people, and letting him bounce off them.  There's also been an increased focus on 'humanising' Bond recently, which mostly means ripping away a lot of the elements fans were used to and rebuilding the character from the ground up.  Casino Royale was a great 'year one' film, where the small scope of the villain's operation and aims mirrored the limited scope of Bond as an agent with a lot to learn about accountability and his role in the grander MI6 scheme.  Unfortunately, Quantum of Solace just didn't know where to take Bond next, and its lack of focus soured virtually everything else in the film (does anyone even remember what the bad guy was up to?).  Now comes Skyfall, coinciding with the film series' 50th anniversary, with a lot to live up to, thanks to both the occasion and the failings of its predecessor.  And hoo boy, it doesn't just live up to expectations, it blows them right outta the water.

WARNING: I'll try to be gentle, but even so, potential spoilers follow.

The Plot:  While pursuing a hired gun over a hard drive containing sensitive information, James Bond (Daniel Craig) takes a bullet meant for the mercenary, shot by his support operative Eve (Naomie Harris), and falls to his apparent death.  3 months later, an electronic break-in at MI6 headquarters, targeted specifically against M (Judi Dench), leaves the organisation's reputation in tatters and agents exposed.  Bond returns from the dead, embittered and physically a mess, but with few other options available, M puts him on the case - assisted by Eve and new mop-headed tech whiz Q (Ben Whishaw) - and a grouchy but determined 007 heads out in pursuit of the man responsible, known only as Silva (Javier Bardem).

There's more to it than that, of course - but that would be telling.

Bond faces his greatest peril yet - attempting off-road

motorcycling without getting mud on his trousers.

The Good:  First of all, the story is fantastic.  I really, REALLY don't want to go into any further detail than I did above, since a lot of it is quite surprising and such things are best discovered the first time around, but take my word for it, it's great.  What's perhaps best is how it balances the personal moments with the actual plot; we learn as much (if not more) about who Bond is and where he came from here as we did in Casino, but here those moments are actually made to be part of the plot and organically fit there, rather than being separate scenes that could arguably have been grafted onto any Bond story.

The direction by Sam Mendes is also great, and pleasingly un-showy.  I was a little worried about Mendes getting the job, as he comes from an almost 'auteur' background that seemed to clash with the more workmanlike natures of typical Bond directors.  That's...a really weird criticism to have, I admit, but my basic worry was that Mendes' own preferences and tropes as a filmmaker would overpower the more traditional look and feel of the Bond movies.  That doesn't happen - instead, he works to the formula, and delivers tension, excitement, clearly-shot setpieces and one particular stand-out sequence, a one-take fistfight in near-pitch-darkness concluding with one guy going out a window.

Mendes probably also deserves credit for his handling of the cast, all of whom deliver some of their best work.  Dench has more to do here than in any of her previous Bonds, as the action essentially makes M the victim - although she never comes off as weak or a damsel in distress in any sense, you can see how the oncoming panic is releasing years worth of pent-up regrets over every bungled decision and failed mission.  Harris feels like she's underplaying a role that could be more scene-stealing, and that's to her considerable credit.  She handles her back-and-forth banter with Bond very, very well, is convincing with a gun, and generally brings a welcome lightness to most of her scenes.  Whishaw takes a role that could have easily stunk up the film - arrogant barely-adult master hacker - and somehow finds a level where he's not just bearable, but actually likable, even if in this film he doesn't get a lot to do.  Also, he sounds like Matt Smith when he talks, and I like the way my mind imagines James Bond calling the Doctor for tech support.  The lovely Bérénice Marlohe, as Sévérine, brings a welcome dose of classic Bond Girl glamour (something we've been missing for a while) in her unfortunately brief screen time; I could listen to her talk about how naked she feels in that smoky accent all week without growing bored. *longing sigh* Ralph Fiennes plays what feels at first to be a superfluous role with the kind of intelligence and gravitas you'd expect of him, and the occasions where his critical demeanour breaks and shows a more compassionate man beneath it are well-handled enough that by the end of the film...uh, nevermind, spoilers again.

"GET OFF MY BLOODY LAND, PEASANT."

As for Craig, this is his most confident and centered portrayal of Bond so far.  He runs the gamut from angry bully-boy to wastrel to despondent until finally arriving at the perfect agent; cool under fire, unflappable but not unkind, always ready with a trick up his sleeve or a quip on his tongue.  Most importantly, he never loses the sense of fun that seems to be key to the character.  James Bond is a man who loves his job (because, really, who wouldn't?) - he could only ever leave it behind if he felt he could get the same joy from something else.  It's his discovering that a normal life has nothing for him that leads him back, and although we do see how much of a strain this work is for him, the untold truth that there's nowhere he'd rather be than in the firing line is always implicit.  After 3 films, we've finally arrived at the 'completed' version of Craig's Bond, and here's hoping the next films give him bigger, crazier plots to foil.

Any man who steals Boris Johnson's toupée clearly

has only evil on his mind.

Where perhaps the film scores its biggest home-run is with Javier Bardem as Silva.  The first two Craig films played somewhat shy on the Bond Villain front; Mads Mikkelsen was incredibly sinister as Le Chiffré in Casino but the character (just like in the novel) was essentially a hustler and depicted as only a small fish in a big aquarium of evil, Mathieu Almaric as Dominic Greene in Quantum wasn't scary or clever and had a plan that made no sense to anyone, and they were connected by some super-secret organisation that wasn't developed well enough to be interesting.  Skyfall thankfully ditches that plot thread and gives us a villain with a simple enough plan - he hates MI6 and M in particular over some past slight and wants to make them/her suffer.  It's actually surprising the Bond films have gone for so long without really doing the whole 'bad guy makes it personal' story before now.  Bardem is a delight in the role - he plays it broad, kooky and unashamedly camp, but never to the point where he loses sight of his menacing aura, and the script seems to embrace the more OTT nature of the character, giving him his own private island and hideous scarring (not shown in any press pics as it's normally kind of invisible) like the Bond Villains of old.  There are interesting parallels between Silva's presentation and The Man With The Golden Gun - not the film, but Ian Fleming's original novel.  Viewed by many as an unfinished piece - Fleming died before he could go through multiple drafts with it - the book was largely ignored when the film bearing its title was made, but the ideas of an unfit Bond sent out against a villain who his bosses suspect he's no match for, and the villain possibly harbouring a homosexual crush on Bond, seem to have been cribbed for this film.  I have a horrible feeling that some people (some very stupid people I hope I never meet) will have issues with that latter point, but frankly I think it's about time we saw evidence of open gayness being a thing that exists in the Bond universe - and Bond's reaction to it is basically perfect.

And one final nod to the cinematography in general.  The film never fails to look amazing, and although that's largely due to some stunning locations - the floating casino in Macau is breathtaking, and certainly Glencoe has never looked so inviting as it does here - the fact that even a regular London underground station can come alive so well is testament to the skill of Roger Deakins, who deserves a lot more than just me saying he's really good (though I'm not really capable of much else by myself).  Still, hats off.

See what I mean?  It's just a valley full of fog and grass, but

it's GORGEOUS fog and GORGEOUS grass.  Yum.

Oh yes, and the DB5.  The DB5 is in this one and it is glorious.

The Bad:  If there was ever any sense of continuity to the Bond movies (and other than Tracy's death from On Her Majesty's Secret Service being referenced in a few later films, there's little evidence of that), Skyfall basically snaps it over its knee with abandon.  We know that Casino was Bond's first mission as a 00 agent, and Quantum followed on from that directly, so those are essentially prequels to Sean Connery's first appearance in Dr. No.  I could just about buy that despite the anachronisms of a film set in the 60s coming after two set in the 2000s...somehow...but Skyfall very clearly does not come before Dr. No.  The DB5 itself is evidence of this, as we see that it is in fact the same car as that from Goldfinger and Thunderball, not just one that's the same model with the same (presumably revolving) licence plate.  Not to mention that the dialogue shared between M and Bond in this one makes it clear that they've been working together for far more than just the two Craig films.  And then the final scenes happen, which while very well done in their own right, make it seem like we're defaulting back to the days of Connery and Moore again and...ARGH!  I doubt this will bug too many people besides me, but I'm just the right kind of nerd to fret over this.

Towards the end of the movie, the cast is quite pared down, as most of the supporting players we meet in the first two acts are given nothing to do and disappear quietly into the void.  I might not have noticed if it weren't for a scene where we see Q arranging a virtual 'trail of breadcrumbs' to supposedly dupe Silva while Bond and M leg it - a trail which amounts to nothing as Silva seems to know exactly where they were going, and Bond was counting on it anyway.  The pointlessness of this just serves to make Q look a bit thick.

Oh, and that bloody theme song is rubbish, again.  Even if you like Adele, for whatever reason, I don't see how you can't be at least a little disappointed with it, as it basically sounds like every other song she's released.  There's no sense of style of sexiness or excitement - nothing one would associate with James Bond or the classic Bond themes of old.  It's just dirge-like wailing that's only notable for working the title of the film into its lyrics.  Props, however, to Daniel Kleinman, who designed a vivid, striking and fitting title sequence to accompany the track, which just about makes up for it.

The Verdict:  As you can see, I can find very little to discredit with Skyfall.  It's easily Daniel Craig's best Bond film, and can proudly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the greats of the past, whatever you may think they are (pretty much everyone has a different favourite Bond film...I have five).  It's a film whose theme - the conflict between old and new ways of thinking - is very telling, especially when it becomes clear the filmmakers show preference to the 'old' side.  In this age of cinema, there's been an unfortunate slide towards super-realism, largely due to the success of the Jason Bourne films and their impersonators, and even the Bond movies weren't immune.  With Skyfall, the producers at EON seem to have realised the folly in that pursuit, and while this film is still much more grim 'n' gritty than its many predecessors, it knows what a Bond film should be and delights in ticking those boxes, even while pushing the boundaries.  Even beyond the rules of its own franchise, this is simply a terrific action film with a cracking script, a great cast that came to play, smart direction and surprisingly effective emotional beats between the other beats (the ones happening to bad guys' skulls).  It gets the full 10 out of 10 not because I'm feeling generous, but because it really is everything I'd hoped for.  Welcome back, 007.

Somehow I missed the chance to put a pic of Bérénice

Marlohe in the body of the review, so here you go.  Yum.