Stronger After 50 Years

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2012)

The James Bond film franchise has officially been operational for 50 years, and that's quite an amazing accomplishment. The series has sputtered on plenty of occasions, and with so many big blockbusters hitting theaters thanks to a nationwide super hero obsession, reinvention was virtually necessary when Daniel Craig took over as 007 a little over a half-decade ago. Fortunately, Craig's interpretation of Bond has been refreshingly beaten down; this is a guy whose years of espionage, betrayal, and severe ass kickings have gotten to him even if he isn't going to say it out loud. Craig doesn't have to, though, and he's made this role his own while keeping to tradition just enough.
While Casino Royale represented a fresh start, Quantum of Solace stalled Bond's development and gave us a villain whose idea of evil was largely related to messing with the utility bills of millions. I can proudly report that Skyfall, which was helmed by American Beauty director Sam Mendes, rights all of Quantum's wrongs effectively. The movie is exciting, gives long-time Bond fans plenty to work with, and approaches the material with more intelligence than we're used to seeing.Skyfall opens with James Bond's world in disarray. After an admittedly cool chase scene--and I hate chase scenes--Bond finds himself in a compromising situation that involves him using a backhoe to meet an enemy on top of a train. He accidentally gets shot by a fellow MI6 agent and is thought dead by virtually everyone. By the time Bond makes his way back to England, and more specifically inside the apartment of Judi Dench's M, things with his agency are in terrible shape. A hard drive containing the identities of several covert agents is missing and terrorist acts that seem specifically designed to bring MI6 to its knees are becoming fashionable. After completing necessary training following his absence, it's up to Bond to help figure out who wants the agency to fall.
Once Bond finds a way to encounter the villain he seeks, the game is far from over. That has to be a pretty big bummer for a man who was recently shot and had to use komodo dragons to get out of a close shave with a few bad guys in a Chinese casino. It turns out that the villain in question is a man named Silva, and he has the past connections to the MI6 that M had suspected all along. Silva, as played by Javier Bardem, is a man who blends frightening menace with a dash of nonchalance and more than enough insanity. Silva comes across as a man who honestly feels wronged, and Bardem's performance is very good. Between this role and his chilling effort in No Country for Old Men, Bardem has to be one of the better bad guys in Hollywood.
Craig continues to prove himself as the best James Bond to grace the screen since Sean Connery and the most complex Bond ever. Sure, he's plenty full of himself and still exudes badassery and confidence that crosses the border of logical into pure delusion. But in between those lines we see Bond ache both physically and emotionally. We get a better sense of where he came from and we don't always see him act entirely out of selfishness. Craig's increasingly high-dimensional James Bond is a lot more interesting than the caricatures we've often been treated to in the past.
A James Bond movie wouldn't really work without plenty of action, and Skyfall comes loaded with it. The important thing to remember is that the action isn't nonstop or pointless by any means; everything presented here is set up extensively. The verses are quiet and ponderous, but that's because they need to be in order to best frame the explosive choruses. Skyfall is not just good within the context of the 007 canon, it's about as well done as any action movie I've seen in a while.
One recurring theme throughout Skyfall is the juxtaposition between the new and the old, and that's pretty clever for a franchise that has been around since the era Don Draper fictionally occupies. It's constantly brought to our attention that the British government may find the ways of the MI6 to be outdated, and the complete anarchy caused by our anonymous terrorist isn't helping matters. Q is back as a computer expert in his twenties instead of an old butler, and the difference isn't lost on James Bond. Even the style of the film, which hearkens back to older Bond material while pushing forward at the same time, suggests that the old and the new should not be at war but rather should join hands for the better of us all.
Given what Skyfall is going for, it makes plenty of sense for the movie to reach its climax at the place where James Bond's future was ultimately decided. It also makes sense to keep the visually arresting opening sequence complete with a title track and dancin' ladies. Along with all the nostalgia, we also get plenty of new items to work with. Moneypenny is back in the fold as a new actress, Q (as we mentioned earlier) is now half Bond's age, and some interesting changes happen for M along the way. Skyfall expertly weaves around between what we expect to see and what we don't. As a result, I find myself excited about the franchise more than I ever have been as an adult, and I'd really like to see Mendes get to do more of these.
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