Thrills, Spills, Car Chases and twists. Bond Times 10

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 2012)

This film had much to live up the. the hype was similar to that of the awful Quantum Of Solace which frankly made no sense at all. Daniel Craig is back as the bad and gritty Bond sans gadgets. No car cameos for the sole purpose of product placement, like that of the weak as water Z3 of Goldeneye, or the split second Z8 from The World is not Enough, are gone. The action start right from the outset with that much lauded bike chase across the rooftops of Istanbul. We meet the new Q. This installment explains that Q stands for Quartermaster for those of us who haven't read the books. A computer hard drive is stolen with a list of agents on it. It's not a new theme by any means but this movie has rebooted the series for those of us who hated the Quantum of Solace. Bond recovers from serious injuries to return to MI6 to help get the hard drive back. Q gives Bond a Walther PPK with high-tech personal coding and a tracking device but no other goodies. In a way it gives us a Bond from the 60's who got by on guile alone. The score cleverly works in some familiar tunes from Bond movies gone by but the star of the Skyfall has to be the DB5 which is exchanged when 007 feels the M's XJ stands out too much in a crowd.
The scenery is stunning both in Asia and Scotland as well as the usual spots in London.
A slightly deranged ex-agent (Silva) escapes custody to rampage against the machine he claims created him. MI6 is under attack and Bond and M are personally targeted. We find out that Bond comes from a family who once lived a remote existence in a Scottish highlands house called SkyFall. I've revealed there will be a spoiler here so if you don't want to know what happens to M then STOP READING NOW:The crescendo is reached when Bond, M and the faithful Scottish caretaker are hold up in Skyfall which is besieged by Silva and friends. Explosions and gunfire ensues culminating the the fatal shooting of Judy Dench's long running character and MI6 director, M. The film closes with Bond accepting orders from Ralph Feinnes, the limp and rather foppish M replacement.
Skyfall was a visual feast with not a single complaint but I'm not sure a Gen-Y Q and a limp fop M will quite fill the bill for future Bond outings. Daniel Craig has not confirmed that he'll be back.
Stay tuned.....
Nearing the