My word is my bond and my word, what a good Bond !

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2012)

If you only read the first line of my review, heres my opinion, its fantastic, well worth your time and money, see it in IMAX though.
I was a little concerned when i first heard Sam Mendes was directing the 50th Bond movie, as a similar unusual choice of director was made with Michael Apted on The World Is Not Enough.
That was Pierce Brosnan's third outing as Bond and the Brosnan Bonds, i feel, deteriorated as they went along, even then Bond was still slavishly following the Goldfinger/Thunderball schematic.
That rigid, moribund take on Bond culminated in Die Another Day, Bond was starting to look silly, he was becoming a parody, invisible cars were not the way forward.
This was the point where it seems to me the producers realised Bond isn't about scale, rather drama and intensity.
Since that realisation, they have re-cast, re-tooled and re-booted, the results have been re-markable.
Daniel Craig has proved that what may seem like a questionable choice at first, can often be shown to be a wise one in the long term. In our modern times where "reality" is the watchword, he has, with a little help from the Bond people, brought us an abrasive edge (not seen since Connery) and emotional facet to the character, that will ensure his longevity well into the 21st century.
Having loved the Bond movies as a kid, reading the books, its a pleasure to report that Commander (RNR) James Bond is reinvigorated and reporting back for duty, ma'am.
Skyfall, without wanting to get too bogged down in tedious semantics, now falls within, i'd say, the three best Bond films to date.
After snatching your breath away, with a hell for leather opening chase across Istanbul and a seemingly inescapable cliffhanger, the film settles down into a story where, Bond is emotionally stripped down, questions his very raison d'être and emerges triumphantly to...well i'm not going to spoil it.
Javier Bardem provides a Bond villain, with one foot in the past (figuratively) and an eye on a vengeful future, he represents the flamboyance of earlier villains and the elusive spectre of the modern terrorist.
Dame Judi Dench is fantastic, she even gets to shoot a gun, what more could you want ?
Before the dust settles, we've visited Shanghai, the Bond family home, popped into the National Gallery to view Turner's "The﻿ fighting Temerarie tugged to her last Berth", fed the Komodo Dragons and quoted some of Tennyson's Ulysses.
Bond is experiencing a renaissance and you will be shaken, stirred and thoroughly entertained.