Film Review: Skyfall (2012)

SKYFALL review!

Over the past few years the new Daniel Craig iteration of James Bond has really transformed the 007 franchise. While the position of 007 and the name 'James Bond' has had an illusive history, Skyfall finally gives a the secret agent a past; this new Bond is a character, not just an archetype. Following in the footsteps of Casino Royale, Skyfall delivers the experience of James Bond, a name that now has 50 years of historical context, which gives the name an impressive aura. Also, you might notice that I will refer to Skyfall as the sequel to Casino Royale as I think Quantum of Solace was so bad that it doesn't even deserve to be recognized as part of the new series. I thought Skyfall was easily the most impressive Bond movie I've seen and does a whole lot of things right. While it does have a few plot holes and errors of believability that plague the action-thriller genre, I did enjoy this film more than I thought I would. 

Acting

Daniel Craig plays a great Bond and he finally was given the opportunity to give the character a much larger sense of depth than ever before. Because the film is written to actually develop James Bond, Craig shows a full range of emotion as we discover Bond's family history and childhood trauma. Bond is given the rare opportunity to enjoy death for a few months and we get the rare opportunity to see how Bond balances his desire for risk, adversity, and the bottle. We see and understand how he treats women and how he acts when he isn't wearing a super-spy suit. Craig shows a human, not just an action hero. Additionally, the cast of MI6 was great, with the exception of the green field agent Eve (Naomi Harris), who was just plain underwhelming. Judi Dench plays a great M although she really is getting a wee bit too old for acting. At the end of the film we see her unconscious and on the brink of death and I had to ask…"Is she dead? Or is that just how Judi Dench looks?" Javier Bardem was fantastic as always and I have to say that the new Q, Ben Whishaw, was incredible. He has a very Matthew Smith feel to him, but in a good way and I am excited to see a young actor that shows so much promise.

Plot and Writing

Like I said, this film finally brings some depth to the Bond character that I loved to see. "Skyfall" actually is the name of the family plot where Bond grew up and lost his parents. This is new to the franchise, that a personal detail would take so much real estate in the film as to take the title. The writing really gives both Bond and M a whole lot of fantastic texture and character…but that won't make a film. The overall skeleton of the plot looks great, an amazing premise that should be punctuated by some typical 007 tropes. I am proud that this film took Bond in a new direction but I don't think it went far enough. The story suffered from overblown action scenes that really could have been handled better. This isn't to say that Bond shouldn't have over the top action, it absolutely should, but was just so nonsensical. Almost every time some crazy action scene happened it was forced into a contrived set-up just to generate more excessive action. I like to think that Bond is an efficient coldblooded agent, but I found every action was overly showy. Almost every action sequence left me wondering, "wait, a trained agent would have way more foresight than to get himself into that dumb of a position." For example: 007 must accost and interrogate an assassin. He watches in silence, standing hidden about 15 feet away as the assassin unloads and sets up his entire sniper nest, line up his shot, Bond waits for the assassin to kill his mark and THEN makes his move to TACKLE the assassin. I'm sorry, this is all stupid as hell to me. The man had put away his handgun and had his arms full of unattached sniper parts - he was prone, but nooooooo 007 couldn't just accost him then because that wouldn't be nearly dramatic enough. This was not an isolated incident, this was fairly constant: totally contrived action scenes injected for the sake of unnecessary flair. And I mean seriously, why did Judi Dench need a flashlight at the end there? The house was on FIRE, I'm sure that would provide enough light but it was a contrived element of the writing that was necessary to advance to another point of high action and tension. Sure, this contrived flair might appeal to the 13 year old male demographic, but I prefer a little more tact and competence from my international secret agents. Maybe that's just me.

Music

The music was solid, per usual in Bond films. Because of the rich history of the 007 themes, not much is new in the overall film score - but it doesn't need to be. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. At this point everyone knows the measures of the typical Bond theme and this iteration did a great job tying that into the appropriate scenes with appropriate ambience and action-ambience (I swear there has to be a word for that…actionbience?). Of course, there is also Adele's opening "Skyfall" theme song, which is just plain great. This is the kind of song that I would just straight up put on my iPod to listen to while I'm out; it is memorable, catchy, driving, and exudes talent. It is pretty damn chilling and that makes me pretty damn happy.

Visuals and Cinematography

I must say, here is where I was most surprised. The cinematography was dynamic and fluid and bounced back and forth between kinetic action scenes and brooding static shots. Towards the end of the film, at the Skyfall Manor, there are a number of great shots that were total surprises. This includes a beautiful shot of a vintage curved car side-mirror that reflects soldiers stalking towards the house in assault formation.

The one other brilliant part was the opening credit sequence. Oh my, oh my… I was impressed. I'll admit that there are certain things in movies that really get me jazzed up and a good opening credit sequence is absolutely one of those things. Talk about a well shot, beautifully edited, and tastefully symbolic sequence. Coupled with Adele's song, this was breathtaking. It really sets you in a proper mood for the film and gives small glimpses and visual hints of what is to come. It's really quite clever too! The addition of the Chinese dragons, for example, was a neat way to accurately yet cryptically introduce China as a setting. And it introduces dragons, which, if you've seen the film, is hilarious. 

Overall

I was impressed, I had low expectations after Quantum of Solace reared it's ugly head, but Skyfall delivered in more ways than I hoped. A great addition to the Bond franchise because of the new and more personal direction. There were some great one-liners and 007 tropes and fan-fare. I am a bit peeved by the contrivances but that is just how action films tend to work, unfortunately. Of course, this might just be me projecting my own sense of what I want Bond to be and for most audiences this will likely be overlooked or forgiven. I would absolutely recommend this film.

Favorite Moment?

M's porcelain English Bulldog paperweight surviving an explosion that originated in her office and killed 7 or 8 MI6 employees. I thought this was a nice little touch of humor and British pride that a very British symbol (a bulldog draped in a Union Jack) survived a firebomb and lived another day. It was neat analog to the British spirit and hardiness during WWII and fit nicely into the themes of perseverance and fortitude in the face of adversity that are so prevalent in the portrayal Daniel Craig's James Bond.

8/10

-Jay