Skyfall

I am currently sitting here, looking at the computer screen, and trying to bluff my way through this movie review.  I so desperately want to talk about Skyfall, the 2012 James Bond film that took the franchise to new financial highs and celebrated the 50^th anniversary of Bond in films.  I personally feel that it is a movie that demands to be dealt with respect, and the best that I can do is admit that I viewed it while feeling incredibly ill and dealing with a fever.  During that time most of what happened around me seemed to be quite surreal and distant, so viewing a movie to be analyzed was much harder than I imagined.

Even though it was just a few days ago, there is very little that I can recall about my experience, which may seem like it should be forfeit from review but I still feel compelled to at least talk about what did stick with me.  It was the first James Bond movie that was able to capture the same excitement in me that I experienced when I saw A View to a Kill as a young child.  Back then, I remember being enraptured by the energy of James Bond and caught up in the thrills of international espionage to the point of deciding that I wanted to become a spy when I grew up (while I am sure most kids wanted the same thing, my reasoning was because it would mean I could hide in garbage cans – don’t ask me why I believed that, I just did).

The feel of the James Bond franchise shifts and moves through time, and evolves around the various actors who put on the tuxedo and drink the martini.  When Daniel Craig took the reins in Casino Royale, the tone was set for a more gritty Bond, one that looked at his character in a way it had not been dealt with before.  While I slept through some of Quantum of Solace, Skyfall was a return to brilliance as 007 was pushed to his limits in order to once again save the world.  The energy and pace of Skyfall was so well executed that it never felt like there was much down time, even though the action was not on-going throughout.  I have struggled with being entertained with a number of Bond films from start to finish, but that never happened here as the script, performances (Judi Dench and Daniel Craig are near perfect in their roles), and visuals were always at the top of their game and providing fistfuls of entertainment.

Every great Bond film needs a great Bond nemesis, and playing the part in Skyfall was Javier Bardem as Silva, a particular thorn in the side of MI6.  I have always felt that a good villain in a Bond movie needs to have a distinct physical appearance, and a distinct delivery on their lines.  Bardem has both of those, as he was able to speak with a tone and a cadence that elevated him from the typical to the land of the obsessed antagonist.  His performance was right up there on par with Christopher Walken’s, so perhaps that is a reason why it compared so well to my memories of A View to a Kill.

From the opening action sequence, through the intro and song (Adele’s Skyfall is most likely the best Bond song to date), right through to the finale, it was a film that has set a bench mark for the potential of this franchise.  It won two Oscars, was nominated for another three, and is currently the eighth highest world-wide grossing movie of all time, and when you watch the film it is so easy to understand why it has achieved what it has.  It is a film that sets the scene for the future of the series, as well as tipping its hat to the origins with the inclusion of the Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger, and it raises excitement for what lays in wait for the super spy to tackle.  While I knew for sure that I could not do this movie justice because of the state I viewed it in, I did want to make sure that I at least communicated how much I enjoyed it and just how much fun it was to view.

Rating – 3.5 out of 4 stars