A Triumphant Return for 007

Rating: 9/10 (25 May 2013)

As I see it, we were incredibly lucky to receive the twenty-third Bond movie, SKYFALL. There were a lot of problems with MGM, the studio that owned the franchise and brought us each of the twenty-two previous entries, and for a while it looked like the franchise might be dead in the water. As a major fan of the series, this was an incredibly depressing possibility for me. So the eventual announcement that Bond was on his way back to the big screen and he was being directed by an Oscar-caliber filmmaker was an exciting time. The final product was lauded by critics and audiences (with a final score of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes) and I couldn't agree more with all the praise. Personally, I loved it as a triumphant return after a five-year hiatus and a perfect blend of the modern 007 that Daniel Craig has come to embody with loving homages to the classic 007 we've loved. SKYFALL is one of the rare 007 movies where the mission is a more personal venture for our hero. The villain doesn't have grand schemes of world domination or financial gain. Instead, the mana former MI6 agenthas a more personal agenda and targets M (Dame Judi Dench) in a series of terrorist attacks meant to discredit her. But he has no intention of stopping there. Meanwhile, James Bond has been MIA since a mission went awry and is forced to return to service when MI6 is publicly targeted in an explosive attack.
Just about every quibble I have with SKYFALL is minor. This movie is fantastic and there are no major issues that ruin the experience for me in any sense. I do agree that the movie does run a bit too long. Well, that's not necessarily true because I've sat through longer movies without a problem. I guess it's more that you can feel the run-time in SKYFALL at some moments, especially in the final act. The final act, a massive on-going action set-piece and a glimpse into the James Bond's past, drags on a little. It's explosive and exciting at the start, but the energy sort of peters out by the end and leaves the final confrontation with the villain a little anticlimactic. My only other complaint, and it's more out of selfishness than anything else, is I would have loved more time with the villain. Javier Bardem is the film's antagonist, an MI6 agent who goes by the pseudonym Raoul Silva who maintains a grudge after having been abandoned to suffer in the hands of an enemy nation. While just about all of the Bond villains in the past have obviously had some sort of screw loose, Silva comes across as full- blown psychotic. He's calm, calculating, and not averse to sacrificing lives to get his point across and accomplish his goals. Silva has jumped through the ranks to become one of my favorite all-time 007 villains, and I wish we'd gotten some more time with him. He doesn't arrive until around 45 minutes in the film, and I'm cool with that. Let the suspense build and give him a cool reveal late in the gameI'm down for that and Mendes pulled it off perfectly. But then he disappears again after some fantastic action sequences and we don't see him until the end. It feels like a wasted opportunity, but I suppose too much of a good thing would've ruined the effect.
SKYFALL shows some love for the fans who made James Bond so long lasting and popular with plenty of loving references to classic 007. The Aston Martin (from GOLDFINGER) makes a return after a nearly twenty year absence; I believe the last time we saw Bond in an Aston Martin (though not necessarily THE Aston Martin) was the beginning of GOLDENEYE in 1995. We also get our first introduction to Q since the series was rebooted in 2006. Ben Wishaw is a little younger that we're accustomed to in our Quartermaster and it's too soon to tell if he'll successfully fill the shoes of the late Desmond Llewellyn, but he brings confidence and a more modern tech edge to the character. No bizarre gadgets here, just a Walther with palm print identification. The rest of the MI6 staff is filled out in SKYFALL but I won't go into details here to avoid some pretty major spoilers. Newcomers to the series include Naomie Harris as Eve, a relatively new field agent, and Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory, a bureaucrat who is brought in to investigate M when MI6's mission in the opening sequence falls apart.
True fans of the 007 franchise should find plenty to love here. I was excited to find that the story was presented on a much smaller scale (personal revenge as opposed to some grander scheme) but giving us the exotic locales and beautiful women we expect from the series. SKYFALL is a nice blend of the more serious, action-oriented new Bond with a taste of the classic, and the ending left me excited for the inevitable next film in the series.