The Unshaved Icarus - Bond at his best!

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2020)

"Skyfall" is a 2012 action thriller directed by Sam Mendes starring Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem. The Road To Bond 25 and the saga continues with an entry that's an obvious improvement to its dull predecessor. Whatever "Quantum Of Solace" tried to be in the first place, this feature learned from it's mistakes and steeped up again in terms of quality and intelligent entertainment. Not only does the title song performed by Adele sound magnificent, the whole concept works out pretty well again. Already the breathtaking train sequence is so much better than all the action of the previous film in total and that's only the beginning of what the film continues to offer. While the "fake death" aspect wasn't quite necessary for the film's development and was sorta abandoned in the matter of minutes, it definitely left a mark on the agent with the license to kill. While it has already been one of his most original character traits since they rebooted the franchise, it's even more palpable in this case that he's not immortal and can't take everything. He's not the cold-hearted and emotionless killer with cool one-liners anymore, he's shown more and more that he's vulnerable and on top of it all, a mortal human being. I think that's by far the most interesting character development of the saga. He's literally an unshaved Ikarus who tries to do his jobs that, in most cases, are almost impossible to master and that's what gave the whole story a new kind of thrill to it. In the past, I was always sure that he'd master his mission like it was no big deal, but from there on all of this security is all suddenly put in jeopardy. Furthermore, the film again combines what made the first feature so interesting - a perfect balance between heart racing action and intense thriller. In this case, the story is divided into three acts that basically feel like three different movies in one - and that's all but terrible. With the villain Silva, a mental performance by Javier Bardem, Bond has an antagonist again who really manages to stand his ground against Le Chiffre in terms of roguishness, as he's actually a threat as a former agent who knows the MI6 and all of its secrets oh too well. Also, not only does it finally flesh out Bond's employer M even more and gives her a special spotlight, it also finally introduces a few of the classic allies, such as Q and Eve Moneypenny. On top of it all, Mendes has hands down the best cinematographer on his side, Roger Deakins, and as I expected it from the luminary of cinematography, he captured the intensity of the film with some outstanding frames and an extreme amount of iconic eye candy moments. Additionally, I have to praise the stunt choreographies that literally gave everything to keep us on the edge of our seats. Learning that Craig did most of his stunts on his own deserves my deepest respect. Oh, and that final is also a masterful contribution of drama that once again has shown the emotional range of Daniel Craig. All in all, this film is more than solace for the debacle it's predecessor has been and again offers so much quality, in both action and thriller elements and creates such an ingenious and packing plot that hasn't bored me in the whole run time of almost two and half hours. It's almost perfect, like the first outing, and shows that you don't need mindless explosions to create an action/thriller hybrid. It's gritty, intelligent, ingeniously conceptualised and most importantly, unusually dark, as it shows the mortality and vulnerability of it's hero like never before. This is Bond at his best and although I can't really expect it, I deeply hope that the successor will at least be enjoyable. Til then, I'm gonna admire this piece of art.