An admirable attempt to make an aging series modern and relevant again, though not a successful one...

Rating: 6/10 (11 November 2012)

I should preface this review by saying I'm a relative newcomer to the Bond series. My first encounter with Bond was with Pierce Brosnan's final portrayal of the character in Die Another Day, which I saw in cinemas with my parents back in 2003. I've seen most, but never all, of The World Is Not Enough and snippets of the Roger Moore and Sean Connery movies on late-night television.
If I had to pick a movie that defined Bond to me however, it would be Casino Royale. As impressionable as I was back when I saw Die Another Day, I always felt Pierce Brosnan was a little too perfect. Daniel Craig, though, had the right amount of grit and darkness to balance Bond's charisma.
So how does this relate to Skyfall? Well, in the 50 years of the franchise's history, I've only been around for 18 of them and to date I've only seen 4 of the films in their entirety. I'm familiar enough with the series that names like "Dr. No", "Q", "Moneypenny", or, um, "Pussy Galore" and "Octopussy" don't completely fly over my head but not enough to associate them with anything deeper than superficial pop culture recognition.
In other words, that Skyfall marks the 50th anniversary of Ian Fleming's character and is the 23rd installment in the series, simply doesn't strike me as all that, for lack of better word. Curious situation to be in, then, when Skyfall is, quite explicitly, a celebration of Bond's history.
The movie certainly isn't shy about referring back to its history; nod-wink lines like "You know the rules of the game. You've been playing it long enough," or "The old ways are the best" are generously spread throughout the movie. If that doesn't quite spell things out, consider quips like "What did you expect, an exploding pen?" which are too specific for me not to assume it's a reference to, despite not knowing what to or the brief cameo of the Aston Martin DB5. Skyfall is a film heavy with nostalgia, which becomes a problem when the subjects it tackles are contemporary.
Early on in the film, James Bond is accidentally shot in the field and deemed killed. 6 months later, after seeing a news report on a bombing in MI6 headquarters, he returns to England, ready for duty. One wonders what Bond did in that half-year's time (besides shagging attractive locals and drowning himself in booze) and what went on his head, but whatever it was, it left his skills rusty. Bond returns to England as a husk of his old self. He fails his psych evaluation, his physical evaluation, and his marksmanship test yet M lets him back into the field.
M and 007's relationship is what drives the emotional heart of Skyfall and I feel it's where the movie succeeds. Theirs is a relationship that doesn't less about what is spoken, but what isn't. Neither character is about to wear their heart out on their sleeve. Skyfall fortunately, does a good job of capturing this dynamic.
What it has trouble with however is telling a convincing story about Bond's death and rebirth. It's not long after Bond's resurrection that he's back to kicking ass, walking into a lion's den and not only emerging unscathed, but capturing said lion as well. It's quite a transformation, and not a terribly believable one, when throughout most of the movie we are supposed to believe that Bond is a man on the ledge, that he's getting old, that he's no longer the agent that he used to be. That divorce between what other characters say Bond is like and how Bond actually behaves undermines any sense that he is any of those things. For the most part, Bond carries on like he's in his prime – singlehandedly dispatching groups of faceless thugs, plowing through women like it was the last days of Rome, and dishing out one-liners like nobody's business.
Skyfall is a success though when it comes to telling the story of Bond's adversary. The previous two movies, for all their merits, lacked memorable villains. Not the case when you have Javier Bardem on board. Cyberterrorist Silva is simultaneously captivating and disturbing. It's the perfectly coiffed hair dyed bleach blond, the gaudy clothing, the eloquent and accented speech, the little physical and verbal quirks, and a creeping sense that he's not all quite there mentally. Any more eccentric and Silva becomes a caricature but Bardem wisely doesn't overdo and nails his performance. This is a Bond villain that will be remembered for a long time to come.
The action set-pieces are merely okay this time around. The opening chase in Istanbul gets the excitement going but the final shootout in Bond's childhood home is disappointing - all gunplay and explosions but no real sense of danger. If there is an action scene that's sure to be memorable, it would be 007's brawl with French assassin Patrice in a high-rise building in Shanghai, with images of neon-blue jellyfish and other sea creatures flowing past on the building windows.
Bond also gets to visit some pretty cool places when he's not killing people as well. The traditional Shanghai-styled, floating casino Macau, complete with lanterns and wooden boat ferries, is quite a sight to behold.
There's no doubt that Skyfall is the best-looking Bond film in the Daniel Craig series, but sadly it's not the best story. 007's character development doesn't hold up well, there never really feels like there's that much at stake, and it struggles to reconcile its desires to both honor some of its more over-the-top traditions and become gritty, relevant, and realistic in the way that Dark Knight was. Still, Skyfall does boast some impressive action and visuals, has produced the most memorable villain the franchise has seen in a while, and leaves us with some exciting storytelling possibilities in the future.