Nerdy Rotten Scoundrel: Film Review: SKYFALL ★★★★½☆

Friday, October 26, 2012

Film Review: SKYFALL ★★★★½☆

007 may be celebrating his 50th Anniversary on the big screen this year, but there is clearly no sign of age with the release of Skyfall, the fantastic latest entry in the James Bond series and Daniel Craig's third round as Ian Fleming's iconic MI6 secret agent.

After suffering several years of crippling false starts, legal woes and studio shuffling, thankfully the 23rd Bond film found its way and lined up Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) to take the helm and follow up 2008's dark, violent and disappointing Quantum of Solace. Not only does the Oscar-winning director boldly make his own mark on the series, Mendes steps it up by completely delivering one of the best Bond entries on the big screen (regardless of which 007 was your first).

Skyfall opens with a relentless thrill-a-minute opening chase sequence through Istanbul via motorbikes and trains that thrusts the film forward at full throttle. But at a critical moment, 007 is wounded by friendly fire from his field partner Eve (Naomie Harris), presumed killed in action and subsequently takes too kindly to a booze-heavy self-imposed retirement on a tropical island.

Unfortunately for Bond's happily ever after is the whereabouts of the stolen hard drive containing the identities of NATO undercover agents he was assigned to secure during all the pre-opening credits action. The top secret intel has fallen into dangerous enemy hands, and M (Judi Dench) as head of MI6, is held accountable for its loss by the British brass. It's up to Bond to find the drive and reclaim it back from the threat who is not only executing the uncover agents, but also has a personal vendetta against M.

The Bond that returns to action has lost his edge, and is painfully reminded that he is of a dying breed fighting terrorism. This fact is hammered in harder by no one more than Q (Ben Whishaw), 007's new quartermaster. The new Q is not the whimsical elderly gadget wizard of the past, but rather a 21st-century bushy haired young IT snob. Q takes joy in boasting that he can inflict more damage in his pajamas with his laptop before his first morning tea than an aging trigger puller like Bond can do in a year on the field. While the blatant humor that previously accompanied the Q/Bond exchanges is a thing of the past, the clever reinvention here allows for some of the subtle (and rare) chuckles in Skyfall as it acknowledges the history in the previous installments.

It takes nearly an hour for Javier Bardem to appear as the unforgettable new villain, Silva, a former MI6 agent with a serious axe to grind with M who consistently stays one brilliant step ahead of his adversaries. Bardem brings both a grounded evil charisma, and bad ass flamboyance to the latest archenemy which will rank him up their with the best baddies of the series. It's a fine line to walk between the evil mustache-twisting bombastic Roger Moore-era villains and the slick real world modern foes seen in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Bardem leaps way up off the tight rope and lands safely back down when it comes to his vengeful performance here.

To say 'this time its personal' is an understatement It's never been more personal a mission for Bond and M (who finally has a welcome substantial role here). To defeat Silva they both are confronted by demons from their past to extents we have never seen before. We even get a glimpse into the unexplored childhood of Bond that shaped him into the hardened government assassin he has become. The rock solid screenplay allows the film to delve deeper into these back stories and explore untouched aspects of these iconic characters.

It would be wrong to not applaud the gorgeous visuals courtesy of nine-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins. Sequences set in the streets of Istanbul, to the glass-encased neon-drenched skyscrapers of Shanghai, to metropolitan settings in London, to the highlands of Scotland for its back-to-basics gritty finale, the series has never had richer eyes behind the camera or been in better hands.

A staple of every Bond film is of course the fetching new ladies, played here by Bérénice Marlohe (Sévérine) and Naomie Harris (Eve). But as the new Bond girls, they as a team get a bit shortchanged in the overall story. There are also some well placed, if not brilliant (subtle and otherwise) homages to the past, and all that hype and controversy surrounding Bond drinking a nice cold Heineken have been vastly overblown (yes he does, but get over it folks).

Overall it does pull back a bit regarding a barrage of huge action set pieces to instead make time for thrilling suspense, heavy dialogue, and deep character development. But that makes for a better movie and does not mean it holds out entirely on the brawn. Craig brings another gritty A-game performance to the role and delivers with the extra dimensions the script allows him to take.

Skyfall at times takes it to a bare bones level with some selective, but impressive, explosive points to amp it up. But with a top notch villain in Bardem, the welcome additions of Ralph Finnes, Ben Wishaw and Naomie Harris to the cast, and a stripped down accessible James Bond like we've never seen before, the 23rd entry in the series delivers everything you want on many entertaining levels and ranks among the best of the recent class of sophisticated intelligent blockbusters.

In this third act of 007's Daniel Craig-era, Skyfall pays due homage to the films of the past, and finds a solid place to soar forward in a new direction now complete with all the familiar trappings and legendary elements that have made Bond a cinematic icon for the past 50 years.

Happy Golden Anniversary indeed, Mister Bond.