Psychological terror matches the terrifying action

Rating: 10/10 (15 February 2013)

I was almost dreading this latest instalment in what must be the world's longest running franchise, thinking the writers couldn't possible sustain yet another Bond episode. Happily, I was wrong. This proves once again that once you get past the legacy of the special effects of the 1990s and the comic book villains of the earlier Bonds, scripting and casting are at the heart of any movie enterprise. Daniel Craig proves once again that the producers were absolutely right to cast him as a youngish (at first) Bond-type (we are never sure if this is a retro-ed Bond a la the recent Star Trek) who by now is accidentally wounded by his own partner and psychically wounded by all the killing and uncertain moral standards of the contemporary world. This, BTW, is explored very well in a subplot involving M (Judi Dench, in another incredible and understated performance) facing a parliamentary hearing into the screw up that led to Bond getting shot as he's trying to recover a hard disk with the names of Western agents infiltrated in terrorist groups. Obviously, Bond survives and goes underground, licking his wounds and wondering if it's all worth it. Apparently it is, when it turns out that this is part of a larger plot to discredit and eventually kill M, by a rogue agent that she allegedly abandoned in the field to be captured and tortured. He too survived, but with a different and very malignant mindset than Bond's, whose personal loyalty to M, though tested by his knowledge that she ordered the agent to take a difficult shot that missed the bad guy and hit him, overcomes his moral disgust with the institution. Dench, Craig and newcomer to the franchise Naomie Harris who plays the field agent with a shaky aim who later decides to ride a desk under the name of Eve Moneypenny (signs of the retro-ed story, as we are clearly in the contemporary world, with modern technology and modern bad guys even though we are viewing a prequel birth of the Bond world). And speaking of technology and bad guys, the movie gains quite a bit by having a new Q, a confused young genius not at all certain about his technology (twice, M and he set off a cyber attack by trying to backtrace a cyber attack, a feint that was designed to provoke the cyber response and open the door to real attack). It also has a scaled back the technology: a gun and a radio (albeit a gun with a grip keyed to Bond's palm print). It makes the menace and especially the confusing reactions to it all the more human and believable, since the threat is not really a superweapon from space or the ocean depths, but an evil person wreaking havoc by exploiting human weaknesses amplified by current technology. And what a menace it turns out to be – Javier Bardem is the best Bond villain in decades. He combines sadism, sadness, crazy-obsessive paranoia, complete indifference to others, yet with a modern vocabulary of caring and insight. It's like talking to your shrink, except he's packing a Glock with which he'll blow your kneecaps off once your 50 minutes are up, or maybe before if you don't have enough insight. Bardem is spooky and unnerving, since he's not really undone, unlike other Bond villains, by his own ego masquerading as crazy genius, and Bond/Craig is far from an invincible superhero as he faces off against an evildoer whose talking isn't merely an excuse to show off how clever he is (how many times have we wondered why No, Dax, Goldfinger, Blofeld and the rest didn't just shut up and simply shoot Bond?). Bardem and Craig really sell the idea that it is not at all foreordained that Bond will win the climactic battle. In brief, a wonderful addition to the franchise, showing that good writing (action and characterisation) is the key to a good movie