Skyfall (2012): James Bond Lives!

With superspy 007 apparently dead, an unknown and seemingly omniscient terrorist attacking the headquarters of MI6, and a parliamentary committee seeking to disband the intelligence organization, it may indeed seem like the sky is falling in, especially for the aging and beleaguered M (Judi Dench). But M is no Chicken Little, and – as we had to know all along – James Bond is not really dead, so there remains a chance that enemies can be defeated and order restored to the British intelligence world.  As in all Bond films, the issue is not so much the outcome (generally not really in doubt) but rather who, why, when and especially how we’ll get there.  I’ve grown up (and old) with these movies, and it pleases me that new life has come to what was getting to be a pretty creaky business.

Skyfall is the 23^rd film in the ‘official’ James Bond series movie canon, dating back to 1962’s Dr. No, starring the original Bond, Sean Connery. (For extra credit, name the original Bond Girl character and actress.) Connery played Bond in six of the first seven Bond films (for more extra credit, who played Bond in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service?), and, years later, in an ‘unofficial’ reprise: Never Say Never Again,  in 1983.  (For bonus credit, name the other unofficial Bond film, and who played James Bond in it – hint: 1967)  Roger Moore played 007 in number 8 through number 14, succeeded by Timothy Dalton for a mere two episodes, and Pierce Brosnan held the franchise reins for four more after that, before turning over the reign to Daniel Craig for Casino Royale in 2006. For my money, Craig is the best Bond since Connery. Skyfall is at least as good as Casino Royale, and better in some ways.

There is plenty of action in Skyfall, and director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road To Perdition, Revolutionary Road) handles it with verve and passion. The very first scene includes a classic hand-to-hand battle between Bond and a bad guy atop a speeding train, - a device we’ve all seen hundreds of times – but it’s fast, visceral, packed with tension and effective. At one point, Bond throws himself flat just as the car he’d been standing on flies into a low tunnel, and I, too, ducked in my seat. 

Unlike Craig’s last Bond vehicle, Quantum of Solace (2008), however, this picture is not all action. There is actually a story, and the story has its quieter dramatic moments, which are interesting and revealing. As a result some of the characters , Bond and M in particular, appear more like, well, actual characters, not just cardboard icons.

We still have the exotic travelogue segments, and a scene at a casino, there is a slight return to the sardonic Bondian humor of old, there’s a much magnified role for M (Dench), which is a good thing, there’s a new, much younger Q (the gadget-master) (Ben Whishaw), plus Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, and newcomer Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine, the latest ‘Bond girl’. There’s also a nice turn by the dimpled Naomie Harris as Bond’s attractive fellow field agent Eve, who will be back in future episodes.

And there’s another great James Bond villain: Silva, played with a nice mix of humor and slime by Javier Bardem – his awful pageboy haircut from No Country For Old Men replaced by a bleach blond look that’s almost as creepy. Silva, for reasons only partly explained seems to have unlimited resources to finance his evil doings, and a stable of disposable henchmen to boot, but one mustn’t parse too deeply in this kind of movie.

What appears to be the original Bond Aston Martin DB5 even makes a cameo appearance, increasing the nostalgia quotient – in a good way - of what is already a somewhat nostalgic picture.

For Skyfall is, in addition to the muscular action sequences, about nostalgia, and about moving on. The world has changed a lot since this franchise started fifty years ago. England’s place in the world has changed as well. And so Skyfall, to the extent it is about something, seems to be about Britain’s fall from grace, the changing of the guard, death and rebirth, heroes lost and wisdom gained. But, lest you fear, the producers explicitly promise: Bond Will Return. Craig has been signed on for at least two more episodes, currently named Bond 24 (aiming for a 2014 release) and Bond 25. And the action continues to excite.

In my book, that’s a good thing.

In Theaters