Not your average James Bond movie

Rating: 6/10 (17 November 2012)

A gay villain. Almost no gadgets. A low babe-factor. 007 shedding tears. No, this is not your average James Bond movie. It's as if director Sam Mendes said: I'll do a Bond movie, but I'll do it my way.
Mendes seems to make clear that the old Bond is no longer relevant. The childish gadgets from Q, the mindless cavorting with beautiful babes, the over-the-top story lines about madmen wanting to rule the world: it's over and done with. Modern intelligence is no longer about spies drinking their Martini's shaken, not stirred. It's about computers, about hacking, about whiz kids trying to outsmart each other with their programming capabilities.
The references to this line of thought are numerous. The villain is a hacker, embarrassing MI6 by breaking into their computer system. M has to defend herself several times about the way MI6 is still doing things the old-fashioned way. Even parliament wants to know what's going wrong. It's all made clear by Q, himself a computer whizkid, telling Bond: 'I can do more damage on my laptop sitting in my pajamas before my first cup of Earl Grey than you can do in a year in the field.'
Of course, it's impossible to make a James Bond movie about only computers, hacking and digital intelligence. 'Every now and then, a trigger has to be pulled', concedes Q. So, there are still lots of action scenes, shootouts and chases in the film. Even Sam Mendes can't ignore the Bond tradition and the commercial interests.
And most action scenes are a joy to watch. The first minutes, before the credits, are an adrenalin-soaked succession of stunts, chases and spectacular actions. Who can deny that it's great fun to see motorcycle riders chasing each other on the rooftops of Istanbul's old bazaar? Or to see a moving train carriage being torn apart? Or to see a couple of VW's being crushed by a bulldozer? I can even forgive the makers for including the tired old scenes of cars racing through a crowded market and reducing fruit stalls to splinters and pulp.
The new era of intelligence is also symbolized by setting some action in the most dynamic city in the world: Shanghai. These scenes are the best in the movie. The scene of Bond shadowing a hit-man on a skyscraper with the neon of the surrounding city reflected in the glass of the building, is cinematographic perfection. Here, cinematographer Roger Deakins shows that Skyfall is no run-of-the-mill Bond film. The ambition was not just to make the 23rd Bond movie, but to make a really good movie in itself.
Some say Skyfall is the best Bond ever. And according to the IMDb-rating, it is. It's the only one in the top-250. It seems Mendes's message to renew the Bond-theme is commercially successful. Personally, I think the best Bond is still to be made. Skyfall does try to get rid of the more ridiculous and over-the-top aspects of most Bond movies, but there is still an excessive amount of violence (it would be interesting to do the body count), there are still crowd pleasers like a crashing Underground train and a helicopter going down. I'm waiting for the Bond movie that relies mainly on sharp dialogue, good atmosphere, tongue-in-cheek humour and a credible storyline.