In movie terms, James Bond is celebrating his 50th
birthday this year, and in many respects Skyfall feels like it could act as a
fitting swansong for the character. Of course, that won't happen – the Bond
business is a very lucrative one to be in – but the manner in which this film keeps
one foot in the past while telling a contemporary story lends the picture an unusually elegiac
tone. Skyfall is one of the few Bond films that tries to explore the
character's own personal history, and it finds new depths in the relationship between OO7 and his boss M (Judi Dench), which has been the most consistently satisfying
aspect of Daniel Craig's tenure. The film also brings Bond home to fight
terrorism on British soil after decades spent traversing the globe, and it all
leaves you wondering where Bond can go from here.
Despite the number of pleasing elements that feel fresh, Skyfall remains a very old-fashioned James Bond movie at heart, adhering
to the formulaic structure that has sustained the series so remarkably for 50 years. As per tradition, it
opens in medias res with Bond finishing his previous mission in Turkey,
although the mission almost finishes him. In pursuit of a hard drive
containing the names of undercover MI6 agents, Bond and Moneypenny (Naomi
Harris) chase their target through streets, across rooftops and onto a moving
train. The scene ends with Bond being shot and falling to his death, although
we feel safe in assuming that he survived both the bullet and the fall as we haven't even had the
ornate, Adele-accompanied credits sequence yet.
It's a very promising and accomplished opening salvo, in
which director Sam Mendes and the legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins prove
themselves to be more than capable with the kind of outrageous blockbuster
action that pushes them both into new territory. In fact, Deakins is very much
the star of Skyfall, relishing the opportunities the film offers for rich and
varied lighting. Mendes, Deakins and the film itself reach a dazzling peak in
Shanghai, where Bond must chase an assassin to the top of a skyscraper before
fighting him next to a perilous fall. This sequence is framed by vivid neon
lights projected across walls of glass, and when the two men come to blows they
are framed as silhouettes, occasionally illuminated by muzzle flare. It's rare
to see an action sequence in a contemporary blockbuster shot with such
imagination and visual flair, and it's a peak that the rest of the movie
struggles to live up to.
All of this occurs within the film's opening hour, and while
the rest of Skyfall is generally entertaining, too much of it feels like
opportunities missed or simply mishandled. The idea of a James Bond action
sequence set on the London underground sounds far more thrilling than it ultimately
turns out to be, and while Javier Bardem certainly makes an impact as the villainous
Silva, the lack of a proper climactic confrontation between him and Bond (why
waste that ice set-piece on some random henchman?) seems like a misstep. The
film also disappoints in its handling of Bond's two female companions.
Moneypenny's first appearance as a gutsy and likeable field agent is a
surprise, but she instantly becomes a less interesting character when she
inexplicably turns up in Craig's hotel room to shave him flirtatiously, before
deciding to settle for a place behind a desk. Still, at least she fares better
than Bérénice Marlohe's Sévérine; even by the retrograde standards of this series,
few women have been tossed away by the plot as egregiously as she is.
Despite these and other flaws – the plot does feel clumsily cobbled together – Skyfall holds the attention effectively enough to
stand as one of the better Bond films (from a collection that's often a lot
worse than our collective nostalgia allows us to believe), and it certainly possesses
one of the better Bonds. Craig still can't deliver a quip and looks far more
comfortable as a killer than a lover, but he has brought an emotional texture
and vulnerability to the role that makes his Bond feel slightly more real than
those that have gone before. The series itself, however, feels more awkwardly
poised than ever between fantasy and reality, and Bond himself cuts an
increasingly incongruous figure in today's world. So many of the crimes
committed in Skyfall take place through computers and digital networks, and while Q
(Ben Whishaw) observes that sometimes "a trigger has to be pulled,"
the filmmakers seem acutely aware of Bond's dinosaur status. Nevertheless,
Skyfall ends not with Bond hanging up his double-Os but returning to duty
"with pleasure," and the closing credits promise his swift return. It
appears there's life in the old dog yet, but you do wonder just how much.