Skyfall
James Bond is back, finally. For some time during the 1990’s we could rely on a new Bond installment coming out every couple years. We then had to wait a bit before the release of Casino Royale with Daniel Craig as the new Bond. As a reboot of sorts it took a step away from a lot of the fantastical elements that had creeped in over the years and gave us a more ‘realistic’ Bond. Casino Royale was so good that there was a ton of anticipation leading up to Quantum of Solace which was released 2 years later. Sadly that did not turn out well. After Quantum of Solace, work on the next Bond film was delayed due to financial problems at MGM. Now, 4 years later, we have Skyfall.
Daniel Craig returns as Bond, Judi Dench returns as M, and Javier Bardem plays the antagonist. The film is directed by Sam Mendes who has a varied filmography which includes having directed American Beauty, Road to Perdition, and Jarhead. Ralph Fiennes plays the political bureaucrat charged with reigning in MI6 and Naomi Harris plays an agent who is out in the field with Bond.
The film begins with Bond in pursuit of someone who is believed to have stolen the real identities of secret agents deployed around the world. Through no fault of his own, the mission goes south and Bond is presumed dead. He returns to London upon learning that MI6 headquarters has been attacked and sets out to try and figure out what is going on and who is responsible.
The film promised to be more Casino Royale and less Die Another Day and it was largely successful at doing so. The gritty realism is definitely refreshing and exciting. Hopefully the days of x-ray glasses, invisible cars, and space lasers are long gone. Yes, Bond still gets some gadgets, and they are helpful, but they are no magic solution to all of Bond’s problems.
A major strength of Skyfall comes from its simplicity. There are no crazy and complicated plots to try and unwind. Everything is pretty straightforward and easy to follow but it is still very impactful. Skyfall also provides some rare glimpses of Bond’s childhood which add to the meaningful perspective. Daniel Craig plays the aging Bond well but it was a curious direction to take given that Casino Royale portrayed a new and young Bond. Even though Craig has signed on for two more Bond films, I hope he will continue after that.
Casting was mostly good but there were some misses. All the major roles filled by Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, and Ralph Fiennes are perfect. These are the characters that push Skyfall forward as a great Bond film. Naomi Harris came off as unintelligent and incompetent. She might have fit in better in some of the older Bond movies, but with Skyfall’s pursuit of a rough and real world she seems out of place. Q is another role where casting fell short. Though John Cleese was good for the type of Bond films he was in, the franchise has gone in a new direction. So for the return of Q in Skyfall, the relatively unknown (and young) Ben Whishaw was chosen. He is supposed to be a sort of boy genius character but in reality he seems to be the type of hipster you’d see lounging in Starbucks all day.
The Jason Bourne movies seem to keep getting referenced when talking about Skyfall. Everyone wants to talk about how Bond needs to be more like Jason Bourne and how Skyfall is successful at doing that. As I stated earlier, to a large extent this sentiment is true and Skyfall definitely feels more like a Bourne movie. The problem is that the pendulum has swung too far in that direction. Yes, people do want and enjoy gritty realism, but Bond still needs to be Bond. Skyfall had the obligatory tuxedo martini scene but overall seemed to lack a lot of classic ‘Bond-ness’. There’s no real Bond girl in the film who is involved in any major sort of way, important characters are haphazardly killed and forgotten, and when the film ends you realize that the villain was successful at what he set out to do. None of those items are major negatives but they do detract from an otherwise great Bond movie.
I want to reiterate again that this is a very good Bond movie. While it fails to surpass Casino Royale, it is definitely better than Quantum of Solace and definitely worth watching. With MGM’s financial problems sorted out and Daniel Craig still signed on, I hope we won’t have to wait another 4 years for the next Bond film.
