Another masterpiece of 2012

Rating: 10/10 (17 November 2012)

So, we have a James Bond film that stars Judy Dench, Javier Bardem, and Ralph Fiennes, along with a song by Adele. This movie should be a success.
And, good enough, it is.
The movie stars Daniel Craig as James Bond, but, to tell the truth, it doesn't seem to be ABOUT Bond. Yes, of course, he's the reason why we want to see the film, but the plot of the movie hardly revolves around him. Rather, Dench, who plays the Mother character, has a sort of Norman Bates-like fellow trying to kill her, and has herself and Bond in a vengeance plot that affects quite a lot of innocents.
Speaking of the Norman Bates-like character. I love Bardem as an actor, especially the chilling role of Anton Chigurh in "No Country for Old Men". Here, the creepiness levels are through the roof; having an unhealthy obsession with Mother and cyanide eating at his brain, he's quite a twisted, but interesting villain.
The references to older Bond films are genius. Everybody in the theater actually clapped when Bond's old car came out, and everybody laughed when Bond gave a cutting line about the Union Jack bulldog. And of course, Eve Moneypenny was another great throwback to the old days as well.
Let me talk about Bond. Whereas before we had a cheesy, perfect, and charming 007, this time we have a complex Bond who is armed with only a gun (of course, a Walther PPK) and radio. It makes this Bond seem more human (or as human as a top secret agent can be) and he does have a sort of charm and humor about him one typically associates with Sean Connery.
The plot itself is rather clever. While there are a few throwaway moments, like that woman working for Bardem and the new Quartermaster, they are usually enjoyable in their own right. The main plot is strong, seeing some of the inner workings of MI6 and it's connections with the British government.
So, combine this with classic and new Bond themes, a brilliant changing of the guard in MI6, and some big name actors, and we have one of the best Bond films to date, up there with Goldeneye and Goldfinger. It truly balances out the bad films this year, and reenergizes a classic fictional hero.
And frankly, I believe it deserves more than the 8.1 IMDb ranking it has at the time this review is being written.