Empowered by an Excellent Foil, Daniel Craig Finally Strikes a Chord

Rating: 8/10 (28 January 2013)

A solid return to form for the Bond franchise after a bit of instability in Quantum of Solace. Daniel Craig is still growing into the leading role, but he's begun to mix in little quirks and kinks to his performance that, taken together, make a big difference. The action sets, also, seem to be past their growing pains and strike a nice balance between the stark, modern realism of the two preceding pictures and the characteristic over-the-top absurdity of past chapters. Like its predecessors Skyfall struggles with pacing issues, dilly-dallying for most of the first act, but once Javier Bardem finally surfaces around the sixty-minute mark it gets to the point and presses pedal to metal the rest of the way. It's interesting that, while in previous films the villains have been momentary flashes of color meant to shine a brighter light on the hero, Bardem's role in Skyfall often actually eclipses that of Bond himself. He's a brilliant, charismatic, damaged bit of anarchy that's reminiscent of, if not quite as eccentric as, Heath Ledger's turn as the Joker, and Bardem is magnificently unnerving in the role. With the spirited new foil, the return of a few familiar monikers to the series and a dramatic, meaningful finale that's sure to reverberate through subsequent installments, I think it's safe to say James Bond is finally, firmly back in the saddle.