Bond back to greatness

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2016)

Until a couple months ago, "Skyfall" was the newest entry to the famous 007 franchise. Then "Spectre" came, also begins with an "S", also 7 letters. Obviously, Academy-Award winning director ("American Beauty") Sam Mendes and the people in charge of this film tried all they could to replicate the success of "Skyfall", yet they came somewhat short. I am not saying "Spectre" is a bad film, not at all, it is a good film like "Quantum of Solace", but both are clearly inferior to "Skyfall". I always think that one crucial indicator about how good a Bond film is is the memorability of the places. And there are many great places in here. The finale at Skyfall is pretty badass, but the real ending at the small church is just as good and even more significant. Then there is the place with the Komodo dragons, the replacement location for MI:6, the locations where Bond fights Patrice (on top of the train and in front of the luminous jellyfish) or even in the very cold water, almost at the end, a nice reference back to the intro sequence very early. All of these are great shots and one reason why this film is seen the way it is.
Then there is the characters. The introduction of Moneypenny, the introduction of Fiennes' character and what he turns out in the end, the scenes with Dench's character (oldest Bond girl in history and one of the most memorable) etc. The character development is something that was totally missing in the newest Bond film in my opinion, even when it comes to Bond himself, who has to find his strength again. And then there is Silva, of course. Javier Bardem does not appear until halfway into the film. His actions are there for the entire first half, but we do not see him until 70 minutes in. And the only bad thing really is that he did not appear earlier. He lifts this film again to an entirely new level in my opinion. Bond villains are always a bit gimmicky and he is at least as much fun to watch as Le Chiffre in the equally great "Casino Royale". The trick is to make them gimmicky, but still make them seem realistic and that is something that worked really nicely here. I wish I could say the same about Waltz in the newest film. Oh well, back to Silva: He has so many memorable scenes and actions in here I cannot name them all. The trademark blonde hair with the Hispanic background, the homosexuality, the fake teeth and I could go on and on. He really deserved the Oscar nomination. Really sucks to see he did not get it. He was probably very close. I also quite liked the way the character was introduced when we finally got to see him. The static camera and Silva approaching us and Bond, this was very tense and very smart. One of the finest shots from the film. Oh yeah and as you may have expected around the 90-minute mark, MI:6 really has a problem with keeping their prisoners. So many manage to flee in these films. They need to work on that.
Some other people working on this film, however, were more successful than Bardem and I quite like that. They won a tied vote with "Zero Dark Thirty" in Sound Editing (well-deserved as "Skyfall" is also great from a technical perspective) and Adele won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her excellent theme song. This was already the second time I watched "Skyfall". First time I saw it in theaters right when it came out back in 2012. This is certainly a film that makes an even bigger impact when you see it on a really big screen, but it's just such a wonderful example of quality filmmaking that it is also worth seeing on a small one. Now, critics will say as usual that this is not the old Bond in the traditional style and sense of the films and they may be right. But I personally love the new approach to Bond just as much. There are also many clever references back to the old days, for example the one about exploding pens etc. So this film also brings a lot of humour, mostly via smart and witty funny comments, such as Dench's character saying she will not turn her back on the woman who questions her or Bond's comment near the end that he had to take a short swim. A truly delightful movie. It runs for almost 2.5 hours (considerably longer than the previous entry) and does not drag at all. It's tense, it's entertaining, it's well-written and well-acted. Everything you could ask for in a film and I highly recommend the watch.