Best Bond Yet

Rating: 8/10 (7 December 2012)

A hard drive containing the names of undercover agents embedded in terrorist organizations is now up for sale and you suffered a near fatal injury trying to stop it. What would it take to send you back into the fray? Money, love, fear?
James Bond (played by Daniel Craig for the third time) and fellow MI6 agent Eve (played by Naomie Harris) have tracked a thief carrying a stolen hard drive with confidential information to a train. After an exhausting chase and an epic amount of destruction, Bond and the thief are locked in a physical struggle. With the thief in her sights, Eve (Harris), on orders from M (played by Judi Dench for the seventh time) takes the shot, misses, and sends 007 plummeting to the water below while the hard drive and the thief are lost. M (Dench) is summoned before a government committee where one member, Gareth Mallory (played by Ralph Fiennes), encourages her to retire. While en route to MI6 headquarters, their servers are breached and, while M watches helplessly in traffic, their offices are destroyed killing several agents. Bond, having taken his fall from the tracks as an opportunity to retire, learns of the attack while watching television in a bar. His return to government service is typically atypical. He breaks into M's home, reports for duty, and asks how he can be of service. Before returning to duty, Bond must submit to both a physical and a psychological exam. Despite failing both, a desperate M puts Bond back in the field, for lack of a better idea.
This being a Bond movie, there is, of course, a great deal more to the story. The moment we are introduced to the true villain, Raoul Silva (played by Javier Bardem) marks the Bond series' return to cinematic greatness. Bardem is truly terrifying and every time you think you've figured out his master plan, he shocks you. The introduction of Ben Whishaw as 007's liaison to Q branch breathes new life into an element of the franchise that I assumed had simply been abandoned with the departure of Pierce Brosnan and the death of the much-beloved Desmond Llewelyn. I understand that many Bond fans saw Quantum of Solace as a failure. Putting aside the fact that I was not one of them, this is easily the best Bond film since Craig assumed the role of lead actor, in my opinion. No fan of the franchise should miss seeing Skyfall in theaters. It is brilliant.