A solid Bond entry

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2012)

50 years after the release of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, the world's best known spy returns for his 23rd official screen outing, and the third with Daniel Craig in the role, with Skyfall. The good news is that Skyfall is a strong entry in the Bond canon, exploring character and story material never before considered in a Bond film. The less good news is that Skyfall still manages to fall a little short of greatness, partially due to an inflated running time and saggy midsection.
Skyfall opens, in standard Bond tradition, with a rousing pre-title sequence in which Bond and partner Eve (Naomie Harris) attempt to stop a list containing the identities of the British Secret Service's deep cover agents in terrorist agents from falling into the wrong hands. At the end of an energetic chase through Istanbul, Bond is accidentally shot by Eve and believed dead. He isn't, of course (now, THAT would be a real departure for a Bond film), but decides to engage in an unplanned vacation. However, when MI6 headquarters is bombed, and head M (Judi Dench) receives some ominous electronic threats, Bond returns from self- imposed exile to try to find the parties responsible. However, age and his recent injuries make his fitness for the job questionable, with Garreth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes), questioning whether it is time for Bond to retire for real.
With M's backing, Bond heads to Shanghai to locate the hired killer who stole the list, and the trail leads to Silva (Javier Bardem), a former MI6 agent who was turned over to the Chinese authorities by M in the past due to him operating outside of protocol, and Silva hasn't taken that lightly, leading him to engage in a personal vendetta against M. Bond must try to outwit Silva, who proves a formidable adversary on a variety of fronts, and keep him from fulfilling his mission of revenge against M.
Skyfall is not your typical Bond film in a number of ways. Instead of the usual globe-trotting antics of many Bond entries, much of Skyfall unfolds in London and the countryside of the UK and the immediate neighbors. Sure there are some detours to China and Turkey, but this is the most a Bond film has been set in it's home base than I can ever remember. Skyfall also elects to engage in much more character development of Bond than most of the series. Bond finds himself put through an emotional and physical wringer, dealing with both the onset of age and the wounds generated in the line of duty. Skyfall is the first Bond outing that seems to truly exist in a post-9/11 world, with the nature of espionage and whether the decisions the leaders of those organizations have made are correct in the world as it currently is. Skyfall isn't content to just rehash the standard Bond formula, but engage in a degree of self-deconstruction of that formula as to whether it is still viable.
Back in the lead for his third time, Craig brings a degree of world- weariness to the role of Bond. With a multi-day growth of greying stubble for the first half of the film, and sporting a shoulder wound from a tussle with a enemy operative, Craig truly makes it appear at the outset that Bond is ready to be put out to pasture. Once again, despite a few brief encounters with some secondary characters, Craig's Bond is also less interested in bedding the ladies than he is in taking on the bad guys in his current incarnation. In Craig's hands, Bond is largely a man of vertical, not horizontal, action.
As Silva, Javier Bardem gives Skyfall the most memorable and formidable villain the series has seen in some outings. Sporting a blond wig, a number of effeminate traits (in one scene he is practically seducing Bond) and skill at verbal jousting to rival Hannibal Lecter, Bardem largely commands the screen when he is around. Silva also is a villain who isn't without a degree of method to his madness, as he challenges the modern, corrupt world we live in, introducing the idea that perhaps it is time for individuals to take matters into their own hands.
Judi Dench is handed the largest role the character of M has ever received, and she makes M less of a plot device and more of a central person in Bond's world. Over Craig's entries in the series, M has been given more of a presence than in the earlier films, and her part in Skyfall represents the character at it's pinnacle. M, much like Bond, is studied with a critical eye here, forced to deal with questions of her organizations relevance in the modern world.
Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes, helming his first full on action film, proves strong at staging the usual set pieces of the Bond universe, and he and cinematographer Roger Deakins craft a visually arresting look for Skyfall. At times almost monochromatic in color, Skyfall oozes craftsmanship in many of its moments. The title song, performed by Adele, is also one that hearkens back to the days of Shirley Bassey during the Connery era.
Skyfall does have weaknesses, largely due to an excessive running time. Bond films have never been brief affairs, but Skyfall seems a bit padded at times, especially in it's middle to late 3rd, where the narrative slows a bit too much. And also, despite plumbing some new depths of character, Skyfall still manages to fall a little short of true emotional resonance at times, displaying all the right trappings, but still feeling a little empty.
That being said, Skyfall is certainly a solid entry for James Bond, and one can only hope that whomever takes the creative reins next will build upon the strong foundations of Skyfall and make the next film truly soar.