A blistering Bond masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (29 October 2012)

Fade to colour. It is a dark corridor, lit ever so slightly by lights coming through the window. There is only the shadowy outline of a figure at the end of the corridor. Slowly, he starts to pace forward, gun in his hand. He comes right up to the camera, light falling across his blue eyes. Those piercing blue eyes. Cue music. That music.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Bond is back. James Bond.
It's been exactly fifty years since James Bond first hit our screen in Dr No and even now, twenty-three movies later, the character creates the same amount of excitement and curiosity he did at the beginning. I'll freely admit that, while a casual fan of the movies, I was never a die-hard. I've only seen a few of them, and they were good. I'm aware of all the famous characters, the gadgets, the famous stories – I know it all, pretty much, just without seeing the films. But, importantly, I'd seen both of the first Daniel Craig movies. Loved them. A die-hard fan of them. And so watching movie number three was inevitable.
Skyfall is actually a refreshing change of pace from those first two movies. While they both followed the same narrative, this goes back to an old-school standalone Bond storyline. Bond is accidentally shot and presumably killed during an attempt to get back a stolen list of all NATO secret agents, thrusting MI6 into a cyber-terrorist plot. Bond does come back, obviously, to find and stop the man behind it.
I'll cut to the chase: this was unbelievably good. There were reservations about Sam Mendes directing it, because he'd never directed an action movie before, but he goes well above expectation. The action sequences, first up, are excellent. Frenetic, edge-of-your-seat sequences that, in true Mendes style, are shot beautifully.
But what Mendes brings to Skyfall is character development. These aren't just archetypal characters there to fulfil the Bond formula (with one exception that I'll get to). Everyone has a purpose, and we learn about them and invest in them emotionally. Bond's own journey in the movie is excellent, as is that of M (Judi Dench) and, most notably Javier Bardem as Silva. I'll go as far as to say that Bardem could, and rightfully should, be nominated for an Oscar. The guy is immense; it'll be hard for me to compare to other iconic Bond villains having not seen those films, but Silva is the perfect antagonist. He steals every scene he is in, with one-liners as well as simple tuts and sighs. Fantastic.
In truth, they're all great. Craig, Dench, Bardem, Ben Wishaw as Q, Naomie Harris, Ralph Fiennes – Mendes has a cavalcade of top-notch actors and he makes good use of them. The only exception is Berenice Marlohe. As Severine, Marlohe is our Bond girl. And she is so underused and more or less irrelevant that I just didn't understand the need for her. Yes, they needed a Bond girl, so they had to have her. But I wish Mendes could have made better use of her. Ah well, no film can be perfect.
Another aspect of the film that Mendes does so well is playing up the history and the stereotype of Bond without verging into satire. The iconic Bond car and gun are back, and there are numerous one-liners and wink-wink moments which only serve to enhance the story. This isn't the Bond that is nothing but serious and steely. This Bond incarnation from Craig has all the wit and charm people love from his predecessors.
I won't go into spoiler territory, but some very important things happen in this movie. Like in The Dark Knight Rises, you're kept guessing until the very end. After what a lot of people consider a disappointing Quantum Of Solace, this is a blistering return to form. Again, no film can be perfect, but this came so close. Must-watch cinema.