The Age of a Blonde Bond

Rating: 9/10 (17 August 2013)

I remember fondly staring at the picture of Daniel Craig, a day or so after the announcement was made that he was cast as the next Bond. As a 90s kid, I grew up only knowing the suave and charming Pierce Brosnan Bond, and in all fairness Craig carried a different atmosphere to him. He seemed to have an edge; his smile didn't make a girl melt, but made her wonder who he was and what he was doing. He seemed more like a brainless, tough-guy henchman with no brain than a international super spy who took his martinis in a "refined" fashion. I concluded that he could have been a good Jason Bourne, but not a James Bond.
Perhaps I was a little cruel to Daniel Craig. My expectations followed a narrow corridor of Bond-logic that I've grown accustomed to during my childhood. There was Pierce Brosnan; bedding women and groaning like a strong-man competitor pulling a bus fifty meters uphill. Craig would inevitably not be the Pierce Brosnan Bond. He would not be the slightly timid Roger Moore or the (then) male sex symbol Sean Connery. He would most resemble the hot-headed, mean-streaking Timothy Dalton, but that doesn't do justice to the amazing transformation the last three Bond films have given to a once dying franchise carried by Craig.
Craig has brought his own Bond to the mix. A vulnerable Bond; one who has lost his step and has the vices that many men like myself have. He's loved; he's lost. Besides Craig's horrible, somewhat forced chemistry with Naomi Harris in this movie, he has shown sides of Bond that younger fans may have never seen before. It was a thrill to watch the man I once so revered as being a statue in the face of danger to be broken down. Sometimes it is good to go back to the origins of a character and explore them deeper. Skyfall did all of it successfully. No invisible cars, jetpacks, laser battles in space or bolos that can snap a man's neck. Just Bond, in the flesh, with the ever vigilant M and MI6 at his side (sort of). It did stroke the fanboy ego to some extent, and I commend it for that. Nothing wrong with a little Aston Martin coming to the party, especially since Bond seemed to have no particular choice in car the last two movies.
There are the characteristic plot holes, and I was not a huge fan of the mental breakdown of Javier Bardem near the end (it was just confusing and seemed to contradict his former, very manipulative personality even if he was "unstable") so it's not the perfect movie. But for the Bond fan who has been waiting for years to see a worthy addition to the Bondverse, the wait is over.