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Celebrating the franchises 50th anniversary of 007, James Bond is back for his 23rd adventure on the big screen, Skyfall. Once again starring Daniel Craig in the titular role, 007 must help M retrieve a list of names featuring all MI-6 agents that has been stolen. With an all-star cast in place including Judi Dench as M, Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem, the 23rd Bond outing is one that is definitely better then its predecessor, Quantum of Solace.
Where Quantum of Solace was lacking, Syfall made sure to pick things up. Bringing in veteran director Sam Mendes to handle a much more polished script, the audience was treated to a banged up Bond. After being left for dead, Bond has to re-group and pull himself together in order to save lives within the MI-6 rankings. His psyche is down, his morale is down, but 007 will get the job done even if it costs him his life. Craig was made to look rougher, bags under his eyes, scars that were visible when he wasn’t wearing a shirt and a greying beard for the first 40 or so minutes of the film.
Skyfall was smart in the approach it took regarding both story and action. Being a Bond film it was inevitable that he would partake in ridiculously scaled action scenes, get the girl and still enjoy a nice drink all in a days work. Yet, somehow with both Casino Royale and Skyfall, they were able to slow it down at times and allow for a more intimate James Bond. The scene he shared with Naomie Harris early on was well done, bringing in sexual tension, a sense of humour and a good scene that showed how even battle hardened 007 can even be a human.
Everything just seemed to flow naturally with Skyfall, much than it did with Quantum of Solace. Being that the franchise is celebrating 50 years, it was good to have a solid James Bond film and not the sloppy mess of a series they were heading towards after Quantum of Solace. Having regrouped, bringing in new characters such as Ben Whishaw as Q and Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory, we have an already established core group of players for 007 24. To be completely fair, I’m not sure if this will prove to be a helping hand for the series or not, because the interesting thing about the Craig era is that anything could be expected. Now we’ll have the obvious humorous quips with Q, the briefing and cheesy scenes with Mallory and the standard one off villain and leading lady. It’s back to the same old formulaic films that were being churned out in the 70’s and 80’s that at some points grew tedious and repetitive.
I’m a 007 fan as much as the next person, and fully appreciate the physical effort it takes to release a film of this stature every two years, but the two year ideal is not a necessity. Two years seems a little rushed, to write, direct, cast, film and edit films that are supposed to get bigger and bigger as they grow. As the 007 name grows and continues to be a world wide phenomenon, it becomes a bigger need to impress the critics and the fans. Let’s hope that Quantum of Solace was simply a fluke, because Casino Royale and Skyfall were both entertaining films.
Definitely worth a viewing, Skyfall is an entertaining film. Craig is impressive as Bond, Judi Dench is awesome once again and Ben Whishaw just might make an entertaining Q down the road. 2012 has been a year of big films, The Hunger Games, The Avengers, The Amazing Spiderman and The Dark Knight Rises, but once again 007 steals the show.
8/10
