Skyfall (2012) review

 

On October 5^th, 1962, Sean Connery lit up a cigarette and uttered three words, 'Bond, James Bond' in 'Dr. No', the first official James Bond film from EON Productions based off of the novel of the same name by author Ian Fleming. Since then, EON has released 21 other Bond films with six actors playing the role of Fleming's suave MI6 agent over the years. As this franchise celebrates its 50^th anniversary, current Bond Daniel Craig suits up for the third time for Bond 23 AKA 'Skyfall'. Behind the camera this time is Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning director behind 'American Beauty', and as one might expect from an Oscar-winning director, 'Skyfall' certainly stands toe to toe with some of the best Bond films ever made as it takes the character of Bond to places where he has never been before. It also helps that this film has one of the best villains in the history of the franchise. Bottom line; this is one excellent Bond film.

The film opens up as Bond (Craig) and fellow agent Eve (Naomie Harris) are on a mission in Turkey to recover a stolen hard drive that contains the names of all undercover NATO agents. The mission goes haywire and Bond is accidentally shot by Eve and presumed dead. As M (Judi Dench), the head of MI6, comes under pressure by her superiors to retire following the incident, the whole organization is attacked as the names of the undercover agents go public. Learning of this, Bond returns from his supposed death and M sends him out into the field to investigate. Bond soon comes into conflict with the man responsible for the attack, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), a former MI6 agent turned cyberterrorist looking to enact revenge on those who betrayed him, namely M, and Bond is faced one of his toughest missions yet.

Probably the best aspect of the film is how it handles the whole situation of Bond having to come back from 'death' and get back into shape so that he can take on this new villain. The film doesn't ignore the fact that we are now in a time where technology has become so advanced that it raises the question of whether someone like Bond is even needed anymore. This is further illustrated by the reintroduction of Q (now played by Ben Whishaw), who tells Bond that he 'could do more on his laptop sitting in his pajamas before his first cup of Earl Grey' than Bond could ever do in a year in the field. The film even goes one step further by delving into Bond's back story a bit near the end, unlike previous films in the series where it was only briefly mentioned. This all fits perfectly with the more emotionally-driven Bond that Craig portrays and it is handled very well.

Then you have Javier Bardem as Silva who, right from his first appearance on screen (where he strides towards Bond in a single, solitary long take), establishes himself as one of the best Bond villains ever. Not only does Bardem do a fantastic job in the role, but the whole back story of Silva's previous affiliation with MI6 makes him more than just your basic villain who is just there to take over the world. In fact, this entire film has probably the best cast to ever grace a Bond film. Craig and Dench are once again excellent as Bond and M respectively, and the writers continue to establish a solid relationship between the two as Dench is given her most substantial role yet as M yet. The other members of the cast do fantastic jobs as well. Harris has great chemistry with Craig and Whishaw is a very worthy successor to Desmond Llewelyn.

There is just so much about this film that is worth talking about that I can't even talk about most of it just to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. Needless to say, this is a film I highly recommend. In terms of how James Bond films go, this is easily one of the best in the series, if not the best. It serves as a passionate love letter to this long-running franchise while also keeping it fresh and modern for today's age of spy films. Daniel Craig once again proves that he is one of the best to have ever played the role of James Bond and Javier Bardem's Silva is one of the best villains in the history of the series. It's a Bond film that blows its predecessors out of the water and in the year that EON celebrates the 50^th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, Sam Mendes directs what may just be the best Bond film yet.

Rating: 5/5!