Top quality Bond

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2013)

The extended pre-credit opening sequence sees Bond attempting to stop an unknown assailant escaping with a computer hard drive that contains details of undercover agents; the chase will take him over the rooftops of Istanbul on a motorbike and conclude with him wrestling with his target on the roof of a train while fellow agent Eve prepares to take a shot she just has to make sure she doesn't hit Bond. Surprisingly when the shot is taken it is Bond who falls, apparently dead, from the train! Shortly after the credits somebody tries to access the hard drive from inside MI-6; then an explosion rocks the building forcing the service to relocate to a secondary site in the tunnels under London. Once it becomes established that Bond is alive he returns and then sets about establishing who organised everything. His mission will take him first to Shanghai and then onto Macau before he eventually learns who he is up against; a former agent known as Silva; a man who feels betrayed by M and is determined to have his revenge.
This is what a modern Bond film is meant to be; there is dramatic action from start to finish, a solid plot, a delightfully over the top villain, a succession of impressive locations and no cliché gadgets. Daniel Craig continues to impress as Bond; doing a fine job portraying an agent who is more burnt out that in any previous film in the series. Judi Dench gets to do more than sit behind a desk and brings some humanity to the role of a woman whose job means that she must sometimes sacrifice those who work for her. Javier Bardem is a great villain; not the usual megalomaniac but somebody just as dangerous in his own psychotic way. The rest of the cast also perform well and I wouldn't be surprised if a few of those we first see in this film become series regulars. It made an interesting change to have things go so spectacularly wrong for Bond to such a degree that in the end it is the bad guy who is coming to him rather than the other way round even if that is part of a plan. Overall I'd say that this is right up there with the best Bond films and fans of the series should really enjoy it.