'Skyfall' is unique in its own way - part 1

Rating: 9/10 (4 November 2012)

Back in 2008, shortly after the premiere of 'The Dark Knight', I was both thrilled ánd disappointed. Thrilled, because the movie was playing masterfully with the psyche of moviegoers. Heath Ledger's version of The Joker did do exactly that to me: I was both pleasantly entertained ánd disgusted by The Joker's twisted games. But I was disappointed because I truly believed that this kind of feeling should have been produced by a Bond-villain.
Memorable bad guy It's exactly this element that the last eight Bond films suffered from: A memorable antagonist. True, 'Casino Royale' was an almost perfect Bond film. And Le Chiffre indeed was an Ian Fleming antagonist, being both smart and vulnerable. But within the cinematic life of Bond, we keep referring to the Bond villains that were part of Connery's triumphant reign of Bond films. If it is Dr. No or Ernst Blofeld as head of SPECTRE or Fransisco Scaramanga and Emilio Largo with their twisted attitude towards women, I haven't seen such a villain during most recent Bond films.
With Javier Bardem, who portrays cyber terrorist Raoul Silva, the Bond films finally do exactly that what I was hoping for. Perhaps Bond producers, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson and director Sam Mendes were inspired by British director Christopher Nolan. If there is a weakness of the recent Bond films, then it's maybe this minor glitch certain Bond-pessimists like to bring about. But with a franchise that is celebrating its 50 year golden jubilee, one should be careful pointing out certain cross-fertilization between movies. Because if there is one franchise that influenced 50 years of blockbuster cinema, than it's certainly Bond. Christopher Nolan got his inspiration from Bond and franchises like Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne surprisingly enough use Bond's initials
Fleming aspects Back to 'Skyfall'. Can this latest Bond thriller stand on its own? Can it entertain us in a Bond-ian, escapist way? And can it also make us think about current day politics? Yes, absolutely. And I dare to say that the late Bond creator, Ian Fleming, would be very happy with this one. Although the Bond producers stressed that this movie is by no means directly based on a Fleming novel, they certainly were heavily inspired by Ian Fleming.
'Skyfall' starts of like a typical good Bond-flick. Bond needs to recover a stolen hard drive containing detailed information about secret agents from NATO-countries. But as this mission goes terribly wrong, Bond needs to go into 'rehab', if he wants to return to Her Majesty's Secret Service. And indeed, Bond gets the full Shrublands-treatment at the new MI6 headquarters, an element we could have read in Ian Fleming's novel 'Thunderball' and which was repeated in the non-EON movie 'Never Say Never Again'.
But it is Bond's childhood that is one of the central focus points of this Bond film. For the ordinary cinema audience this might be a risky move. And risky it is to dig into Bond's past, just as it was risky back in 1969 to let Bond marry a girl in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. Still, it works for 'Skyfall' and it makes the movie unique within the film franchise. Unique for us, but for Ian Fleming this was really a part of his novel 'You Only Live Twice'. From that novel we know that Bond is the son of a Scottish father, Andrew Bond, of Glencoe, and a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix, of the Canton de Vaud. And in 'Skyfall' it is Albert Finney's warm portrayal of Kincade that receives Bond at his ancestral home in Scotland.
Espionage in 2012 Besides these obvious links, it is really the overall theme of the movie that works: The rising importance of intelligence services in a post-9/11 modern day society. Judi Dench gets the opportunity in this movie to fully use her character 'M'. During a hearing of the parliamentary committee of intelligence affairs --after Silva's Wikileaks-like scandal exposes MI6-- 'M' explains us why today's secret agents need to fight more difficult forces, forces that do not necessarily belong to a specific country (Perhaps an idea to re-introduce SPECTRE?). Villains that operate in a grey zone, like Raoul Silva is doing, are the real danger for today's society. And trust me, spies are still among us in 2012. Perhaps the Cold War is ended, but recent news about China using cyber spies breaking into US websites from the federal government and the Polonium-scandal in the United Kingdom are just a few examples of why we should take espionage a bit more serious.
Typical Bond Besides the grittier realism that has encompassed Craig's outings as Bond --Craig's films remind me so much more of the early Connery films-- 'Skyfall' is still a worthy escapist, lush, Bond-film. Roger Deakins' breathtaking wide shots of Turkey, Shanghai, Macau, London and especially Scotland makes 'Skyfall' feel like Craig's biggest Bond of all. As mentioned earlier, we see the welcome return of the biggest Bond villain of our lifetime. And 'Skyfall' marks the slow but welcome return of some beloved characters in the Bond universe. Casting the new 'Q' could have resulted in a cheesy Desmond-rip-off. Instead actor Ben Whishaw skilfully revitalizes Q-branch. In an original way, he is bringing back some of the beloved Bond humor and he has some great interaction with agent 007. From a music perspective, Adele enhances the atmosphere with perhaps the best Bond themed song since 'A View To A Kill'. Combined with Kleinman's eerie main titles we're being prepared for a great Bond ride.