Skyfall - a Bond film for the modern era

May contain spoilers!

I love James Bond. Can I be absolutely clear on that right at the start. I absolutely love the suave and sophisticated Sean Connery, the emotion in the last scene of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Roger Moore's one liners, Timothy Dalton's....well, the less said about that the better really. Pierce Brosnan was my childhood Bond, and Goldeneye was a refreshing change of Bond film. But from there it went downhill for me. The budgets of the films were too large and just spent on making things explode. Casino Royale was a fantastic change, just as Goldeneye, but Quantum of Solace was, in my opinion, truly appalling. I thought it was the worst Bond film of the lot and so my hopes were not especially high as I tried to find the right number of seats in a darkened cinema before Skyfall started.

By the looks of the trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kw1UVovByw) I was in for a treat, but still I was skeptical. The first scene however put all my misgivings to bed. For once, MI6 wasn't chasing the bad guys in a car which was the top model of the time. Granted the little yellow Citroen in 'For Your Eyes Only' wasn't exactly cutting edge, but it served a purpose. The car that Eve was driving at the beginning of Skyfall was evidently struggling to keep up with the action of Bond chasing the bad guy, Patrice, over the rooftops of Turkey. And so was I. Imagine my utter surprise when Eve misses the shot, hitting Bond who falls to his presumed death.

Here is the first flaw I found with the film. I might have missed something, but Bond was shot and fell from a considerable height, unconscious, into water. I have no idea how he survived. Obviously you can't kill off the main character in the opening scene, but unless Aragorn's horse, who must have qualities similar to phoenix tears, came to the rescue, I fail to see how he could have survived. Never mind though.

The attack on MI6 also showed a change from previous Bond films. Before now, MI6 have been impenetrable in the Bond world, and to have them attacked by a villain was refreshing. Refreshing appears to be my favourite word in this post.

When Bond was sent to Shanghai I thought the film took a slight downturn. It may have been the comfortable seats, or the fact that I had a long day at uni before, but I found myself needing something to keep me awake before the Komodo Dragon put in an appearance. But by that point I was anticipating the arrival of Raoul Silva. I loved Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, and similarly in Skyfall he did not disappoint with his fantastic acting, delightfully sinister character and improvisation with the role. I thought the sexual undertones of the conversation between him and Bond were fantastic. Also, the character history of Silva was compelling. A former agent who, instead of wanting to dominate the world either through women, the media or nuclear weapons, just wanted to get back at M.

When we first met Q I became convinced that Skyfall was a film made in 2012, rather than trying to rekindle the explosive action of 1999. Instead of being a gadget genius, Q was a programmer. In today's society the people who can do the most damage are those who can control computers, and this was a nice shift in the Bond ideology. I also appreciated the revelation that Silva's plan had been years in the making right down to the launching of a London Underground train at Bond through an explosion in the ceiling, which presumably had been set for a while.

The next lull in the film could not have been more exciting. Bond and M visiting Scotland to lure Silva out was not dull, but it merely set up the climax. The mention of Bond's lineage was also interesting, as no previous Bond film has ever mentioned his parentage. Another factor marking this film aside was that when Silva and his henchmen arrived and we saw them coming across the marshland towards the house I was genuinely worried about how Bond, assisted by two OAPs, would be able to survive. There was no massive fight between the archetypal good guy and bad guy, but the dominance of Silva in the initial battle was also quite refreshing. I thought it was interesting how, in my eyes, Bond only bettered him at the end of the film, and never took him on face-to-face. I must confess, I let out a little cry of despair when the Aston Martin from Goldfinger was destroyed. I loved that car.

M's death (I did warn you about the spoilers) was again a total break from previous Bond films. The last Bond film in which I was surprised about someone dying was On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Women come and go in Bond's life, but for the last few years, Judi Dench's character has been a constant presence. The emotion that Daniel Craig showed when she died was a rare show of any sensitivity from a character who was written by Ian Fleming as a ruthless assassin. In the modern era, who can help but shed a tear when the woman who has been a constant presence in your life, almost a mother to you, dies and there's nothing you could have done about it?

This brought it around nicely for the franchise to be set up where Dr No picks up, chronologically speaking. Ralph Fiennes is one of my favourite actors ever, and I think he'll make a fantastic M. Also, the addition of Eve (Moneypenny) as his secretary was brilliant.

So, all in all, I was rather blown away by Skyfall. It was a welcome break from stuff exploding, Bond taking on ten henchmen and not being scratched by the bullets flying around him. It dragged Bond from the bland, boring and forgettable elements of Quantum of Solace, right into the modern era, with its computers and all which that entails.


Other James Bond Reviews:
Sean Connery (http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/sean-connery-as-james-bond.html)
Roger Moore (http://mattsthoughtsonmovies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/roger-moore-as-james-bond.html)