Bardem saved Bond

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2012)

Skyfall is an uncommonly gloomy film with a dense and oppressing atmosphere almost macabre in the sense that the rickety claws of death are palpable throughout the entire plot. Symbols like skulls and tombs, an intro covered in blood, a devastated ghost town left for good, the rainy London swathed in dim shades of gray and blue, an old, abandoned mansion with hidden doors to dark, underground shafts; the cold Highlands of Scotland, a venomous scorpion and last but not least the villain's ugly, broken smile illustrate such an impression. And James Bond? After proving his own obituary wrong, Her Majesty's greatest agent returns from the dead to protect his agency from a powerful cyber terrorist named Silva and he is anything but fit for the job. The shimmering, mischievously smiling Bond as embodied by Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan is a thing of the past. The new Bond in "Skyfall" is less womanizer and more someone who has difficulties in hitting a target because of the injuries he suffered. He is suddenly vulnerable and his sense of humour was never dryer before, he really has to try hard to achieve his goals because he's getting old, the lightness of the previous Bonds is gone (for now). So it's not surprising that typical elements of the franchise like crazy action scenes as seen in "Die Another Day", odd gadgets like exploding cigarettes or completely freakish super villains living in a volcano crater are missing as well, even the occasionally sizzling erotic due to attractive Bond Girls (unfortunately) seems to lack space in the world of "Skyfall". The old trade marks exist only in nostalgic remembrance, as when Bond takes out an old Aston Martin DB5; the entire film appears to be a farewell to good old times when the Vodka martini was still shaken and not stirred. What's left is an exiting story of revenge, told in a straightforward, pure and slow-paced fashion and carried by the tragic figure of Silva who the great Javier Bardem plays with such impressing intensity and morbid elegance that it's a real joy seeing him on the big screen. Silva, who is more dead than alive, seeks nothing but revenge, he is smart and coldblooded; in appearance somewhere between "The Joker" and "Jack Sparrow", and, most of all, he has a history explaining his motivations, adding depth to his character which makes him a perfect antagonist to Bond. Closely connected to Silva's past is M (Judie Dench), Bond's boss, who, for the first time, had a major role in this film. She is a strong, principled women willing to make hard decisions that could cost people's lives; a good counterbalance to the often decorative Bond Girls who don't have much to say of real importance. M, 007 and Silva are the three main figures in a Shakespeare-like tragedy around which a plot revolves being too thin and unoriginal to be really noteworthy, a rather cheep frame of what's supposed to be an otherwise well drawn picture. However, the frame may not be so important after all. It's the dark atmosphere and a nuanced character drawing together with an amazingly thrilling villain that make "Skyfall" stand out from the previous films. James Bond, as we knew him, is dead...only to live on.