Bond is back and still going strong after 50 years. I know that may be the wrong way to start out a review-just telling my readers what I thought of the film.I know I should go more in depth with my analysis but I'm going to do that anyway by telling you all the ways I loved Skyfall. After the incredibly weak Quantam Of Solace of which the film had no real writers-Daniel Craig is back as world renowned spy James Bond. This time behind the camera-rather than having the same guy who directed Finding Neverland-we have the same guy who directed American Beauty. You decide which one of those sounds like a better director. Sam Mendes brings Bond back to life and gives him more oomph than ever before. To top it off-Javier Bardem plays as chilling of a bad guy here as he did in No Country For Old Men.
In this entry-Bond is given a dilemma when an evil ex-spy (Bardem) comes back and claims that M (Judi Dench) has betrayed Bond. Now-things get personal as Bond tries to stop him at any cost necessary. Helping him is new Agent Q (Ben Whishaw) as well as Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes.)
What director Mendes does spectacularly is make the action come alive with bond high-tech, updated Bond-isms and old fashioned Bond-isms. We get the best of both worlds as Mendes and writers John Logan, Robert Wade and Neal Purvis gives us both the classic side of Bond and the side we have never seen of him before. Bardem reminds us of some of those great bond villains of days past. He brings a sort of charm to the role but he is also completely despicable and unsympathetic. Sure-he's not trying to take over the world like most of the general favorite Bond villains but is that really necessary for every Bond? Craig-who brought us a more personal bond in arguably the best Bond film ever-2006's Casino Royale scores again here. He is so good at playing Bond as both a suave, cool guy and a completely likable character. I will have to mention that the Bond women are not much a factor here. We get Eve (Naomie Harris)-Bond's assistant as one of them but she is barely in it.We do get the obligatory love scene but nothing more than that with the women
While Skyfall is fantastic-I expected it to be even a bit better. Sure-I have no room to complain because I am still giving it my full endorsement. However-there seemed to be something about it missing. Maybe it was just the Bond women not being there, but I don't think so. I think it was that I was feeling a certain nostalgia for the Bond films of days past and did not want to let that nostalgia go as I watched all the new high-tech elements. Either way-if the Bond series keeps films such as this coming-I have no problem with 007 staying around for another 50 years.
(5 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for intense violent sequences throughout, some sexuality, language and smoking)
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