(UK/USA, 143 min.)
Dir. Sam Mendes, Writ. Neal Purvis & Robert Wade and John Logan
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw.
007 has returned and he puts the comic book franchise to shame. Skyfall, arguably the best major studio
film I’ve seen so far this year, is a great example of how to reboot a
franchise without scrapping all that’s gone before and starting from scratch
(I’m looking at you, Spider-Man!). Skyfall outdoes the high bar set by 2006’s Casino Royale, a ball that was subsequently dropped by its
unsightly follow-up Quantum of Solace,
and brings Bond back to the bare boned hardness of the Ian Fleming novels.
Taking a cue from the Dark Knight
films (or perhaps the stage directions of Black
Swan), Skyfall strips the Bondfranchise down
to its core and makes it dark and visceral. It’s as if Skyfall achieves the
goals to which the dark Timothy Dalton films aspired, but fell short of realizing.
Skyfall begins by
killing off the old James Bond, the silly one who went to space, fought Grace
Jones, and crossed swords with Madonna. Thanks to a high-action opening
sequence, Bond pulls a roster of ludicrous stunts that end with him driving a
backhoe along a train, going after a baddie, and advertising a handsome new
wristwatch. The sequence ends, however, with Bond taking a bullet when his
fellow agent, Eve (Naomie Harris), takes a shot on M’s command and hits the
wrong target. As Bond hits the water and the film fades into its signature
title sequence, Bond is born again. The classically-tinged tune harkens back to
the Shirley Bassey days of the franchise thanks to Adele’s sultry vocals. “Skyfall,”
co-written by Adele and Paul Epworth, sets the stage for a return to form for
cinema’s greatest spy.

Bond comes back from the dead, however, when a serious
threat is made against M’s life. M (Judi Dench) slighted 007 by showing him how
much she thinks he’s expendable, but Bond’s loyalty to queen and country calls
him back to service. The betrayal simply snuffs out more of the jovial silliness that
remained in Daniel Craig’s Bond. It also adds more depth of character to
this installment of the 007 franchise as it puts Bond’s origins story—his
relationship with M—as the film’s central mission. Instead of making Bond’s
assignment a blown-up affair, Skyfall
scales it back and restricts the action to a small personal matter. Moreover,
the more Skyfall reveals the details
of the elaborate plot against M, the more the film creates a backstory that has
been missing for all fifty years of Bond’s life.
It’s refreshing to see a film that does not restart completely
in order to reboot a franchise, nor follow the formula of rinse and repeat. Skyfall acknowledges the legacy of its
predecessors, but it intertwines a theme of new beginnings into Bond’s return
so that Bond is always moving forward as he’s starting over. As both a
continuation and a reboot, Skyfall’s
emphasis on reigniting the franchise might seem redundant after the successful
mission of Casino Royale, but it
solidifies what we thought in 2006: Daniel Craig is taking the 007 back
to his Sean Connery days.
Bond’s rebranding is noted sharply in the tools he uses to
complete his mission. One might expect Skyfall
to be the most tech-savvy 007 film since computers and gizmos have come a long
way since Bond began. Bond could have live-tweeted his mission, or de-friended
M from Facebook when she called a shot on him, but then Skyfall would risk treading into Roger Moore territory. Likewise,
it would seem that Bond is in store for a whack of new toys since Skyfall marks the return of Q, played by
a fun Ben Whishaw (Cloud Atlas), who
provides a worthy follow-up to the late Desmond Llewelyn. (Apparently everyone
wants to forget about John Cleese…) Instead, Skyfall emphasizes that it wants to do things the old-fashioned
way. With a nod and a wink to the old tricks of the spy trade, Q provides Bond
with little more than a Walther PPK and some thing called a radio. Bond even
jumps into the seat on his old Aston Martin. Some things are better done the old
way.

Bond also gets an old-school baddie thanks to Javier
Bardem’s snaky turn as Silva, an effeminate blond rogue agent. Silva first
appears in a menacing long take in which he strides slowly over to Bond while
explaining his plans. Bardem has a knack for playing the scary stealthy foe
thanks to his memorable turn as the cold-blooded killer Anton Chigurh in 2007’s
No Country for Old Men and his
villain is an equally worthy addition to the 007 series. Anton Chigurh seems
like a more conventional Bond outlaw with his fateful coin toss, but Silva himself
has more nuance than most Bond villains do. Instead of having Bond call the
coin, Silva he ends his little speech about techno terrorism by sliding up
close and giving Agent Friendo a touch of onscreen homoeroticism. Apparently
it’s not Bond’s first time, though, as his adventures might not have been restricted
to beauties on the beach.
Skyfall also gives
fans something new with its take on the usual “Bond girls” that come to 007’s
aid. Skyfall features two memorable
women in small roles: Naomie Harris as Eve, who resumes her assistance to Bond
after his return, and Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine, a woman who turned to Silva
as her only escape from the sex trade. (Once again, there’s a bit more
substance to the characters in Skyfall,
even the minor ones.) However, Skyfall
throws convention for a loop by pitting Judi Dench as Bond’s chief
female ally. M is more than a desk fixture this time around. Both the target and a fighting force in the action, she’s the Bond girl
herself.

Craig and Dench have excellent chemistry as Bond and M. They
sell Skyfall’s old-school methodology
just as quickly as Bond guzzles a vodka martini. Craig and Dench give their
best performances since joining the franchise, but Craig is especially good, providing
his most comfortable turn as Bond. His hardened, steely Bond trumps some of his
predecessors since he gives the spy just the right bit of coldness, but keeps
the charm that Sean Connery used to make the hero such a success.

Just like The Dark
Knight Rises takes Batman past the comic book franchise, Skyfall seems to bring Bond beyond the
world of action movies and into the world of the cold-blooded espionage film.
Put another way, Skyfall is more in
the vein of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
than of Austin Powers. Die-hard James
Bond fans won’t be the least bit disappointed with Skyfall as it honours the roots of the franchise, but it gives Bond
a flair and flavour he’s never had before. Skyfall
easily ranks as one of 007’s most successful missions.
Rating: ★★★★½ (out of ★★★★★)
Skyfall is
currently playing in wide release.