Bond, James Bond, is back and better than ever.
***** out of 5
143 minutes
Rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences
throughout, some sexuality, language and smoking
Columbia Pictures
After four years and a studio bankruptcy later, Bond, James Bond, is finally
back. Celebrating 50 years of a continued franchise is no easy feat. When it’s
a character as treasured worldwide as Bond however, it’s easy to see why. Oh
sure, the series has had its ups and downs since Ian Fleming’s first big screen
adventure,
Dr. No. And Bond himself has been played by multiple people
of course, sometimes even in one film (1967’s
Casino Royale). But
anyone who has ever actually read the Bond novels will comply that as iconic as
Sean Connery may have made 007, Daniel Craig just may be the epitome of Bond –
at least from the original novels.
As of late, the series has gone through a major overhaul and complete
reboot. First, with Eon Productions’ official 2006 version of
Casino Royale
throwing Craig into the tuxedo. In his third outing,
Skyfall, we find
the series undergoing yet another renaissance of sorts. To discuss those
details would involve major spoilers and completely ruin the fun. Just when we
thought we knew the new Bond, there’s still plenty more to be seen – and to
come. The tuxedos, the Bond girls, the Aston Martin, the gadgets, the puns, the
theme, Q – everything finally comes together as expected, bringing with it Bond
in the real world that
Casino Royale and
Quantum of Solace
ushered but still giving us all we expect in a Bond film as well.
Skyfall opens with Bond (Craig) in hot pursuit of a hard drive
containing the list of every NATO agent’s identity. M (Judi Dench) wants the
hard drive returned to the MI6 at any cost. During the chase, Bond winds up
duking it out on top of a moving train. M orders Eve (Naomie Harris) to take
her shot to take down the bad guy, only to wind up shooting Bond who falls to
his seeming death. M can barely muster together a fitting obituary between
being harangued by Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) and the MI6’s security
getting breached and her office bombed.
The MI6 bombing brings Bond out of “retirement” and is deemed fit for duty
by the skin of his teeth. Mallory tells Bond “don’t cock it up,” introduces him
to his new quartermaster, Q (Ben Whishaw), and sends him after Patrice (Ola
Rapace), our earlier train villain, to Shanghai. Bond lets Patrice go through
with an assassination before dropping him off the side of a building, which
leads him to a poker chip for a casino in Macau. Here, Bond meets Sévérine
(Bérénice Marlohe), who is terrified of someone. That someone turns out to be
Silva (Javier Bardem), an ex-MI6 agent thought to be dead but has quite a bone
to pick with M, that is if he doesn’t try
to bone Bond in the process
first.
Just when we thought we knew everything there was to know about our favorite
007 MI6 agent, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade (
The World is Not
Enough,
Die Another Day,
Casino Royale,
Quantum of
Solace), and John Logan (
Hugo,
Rango), have decided to
take a road never traveled by a Bond film before. They add some much
surprisingly poignant backstory for a change and make sure the audience is
emotionally invested before the action really kicks into high gear (after the
film’s opening set piece of course).
Director Sam Mendes (the series’ first Academy Award-winning director) brings
everything together with a sense of style and panache that we deserve after
kicking the series into a new direction with
Casino Royale and the
four year hiatus. Cinematographer Roger Deakins creates scenes of beauty while
Editor Stuart Baird makes sure we always know what’s going on. From a fist
fight atop a moving train to a single-take silhouette fisticuff, the two work
as a team to keep Mendes’ vision in tact while moving at a pace that never
makes the film seem like it’s 143 minutes. Welcome back, Bond,
Skyfall
makes for one of the best Bond films ever, if not
the best.
Photos courtesy Columbia Pictures
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