A Review of the Film Skyfall

Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers.

Sigh.  I would pretty much pay to see Daniel Craig playing James Bond reading the dictionary, but that only guarantees a certain level of enjoyment.  Unfortunately, despite a stellar cast, incredibly stunning direction, and a number of excellent ideas, Skyfall is often a muddle of plot holes and disappointing developments, awkwardly supplemented by attempts to cram in elements of "Classic Bond" that were missing from the first two Craig installments in the franchise.

Events get off to a shiny, bursting-with-promise start, with a slick and exhilarating opening chase scene where Bond chases a baddie across rooftops on a motorcycle, then continues the fight atop a moving train - all of which is executed by Craig's performance and Sam Mendes' direction with a seemingly effortless and elegant fluidity. 

We're introduced to Naomie Harris' agent character Eve in an intriguingly charming, yet fraught circumstance.  M makes the first of a series of seemingly colossal errors.  And Bond is cast into the waters, shot and bleeding, destined once again to be reborn.

After the gorgeous, emotive opening credits sequence, set to Adele's sweeping theme song, we'd all be forgiven for expecting an epic on the scale of Casino Royale, or at the very least a quite solid Bond adventure such as Quantum of Solace.

So what goes wrong?  The problems are, first of all, distractingly mixed in with some brilliant sights and terrific potential.  The time we spend with Bond in his days of bleary-eyed recovery are fascinatingly rendered.  His return to London is game and feels exciting.  Almost every action sequence is bitingly audacious in a way one wishes the writing could match.  

However, the constant references to Bond being "old" or out of the loop within the spy biz feel disingenuous and forced.  At 44, Craig is a far cry from a senior citizen, and Bond is so obviously almost superhumanly great at his job that it's a laugh to suggest otherwise.  And yet, not content with simply explaining that M is getting older and feels the threat of enforced retirement looming, Skyfall insists on trying to rope Bond into the same tired metaphor of agedness and exhaustion.  So we're supposed to accept that both M and Bond face extinction as the world moves forward to a new type of espionage.  It does not work.  And it's an odd theme to place into a film clearly intended to freshen up the series.

Yes, Bond's been shot and left for dead, and he's been self-medicating and feeling pretty awful physically, but he's not old, and considering all of the aforementioned impediments, he's barely a modicum off his game.

Then, we have the repeated "Classic Bond!" elements which are thrust at us in ways so transparent that it's like something out of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, as we constantly feel the writers are screeching "wink, wink, wink!" implicating characters such as Moneypenny and Q and the Aston Martin back into the fold.  Thank goodness we have Craig there to center and anchor this film when these moments threaten to sabotage the gritty-cool Bourne-esque feel we'd settled into with Casino and Quantum.  It's hard to think of another actor who could hold such disparate plot threads and themes together convincingly.  

Without meaning any disrespect to those who longed to get some of that cheesy Bond pastiche back into the franchise, I have to say the reintroductions of these characters should have been done in a manner more befitting the bar which was set by the first two Craig films.  Moneypenny and Q should be people with layers, not broadly drawn puppets following the choreography of their predecessors.  Maybe these characters would have room to grow and breathe if the screen time was not somewhat smothered with other plotlines that barely intersect and often beleager suspension of disbelief.

Essentially, I miss the darkness and romanticism of Casino and Quantum.  And I miss the character development and the tighter plotting.

Javier Bardem's villain Silva is so over-the-top hammy that it's annoying and distracting.  There's no way I believe he could pull off half the stunts he's supposedly responsible for; he's such a drooling lunatic that he lacks the intellect and organization needed.  And I totally do not buy that he could defeat both Bond and M even once, never mind repeatedly.

A movie lacking a clear sense of identity, Skyfall is never less sure of itself than when it's desperately trying to be epic.  Despite an utterly beautiful visual sequence of events set in Scotland, the reasons why the characters end up there, while psychologically acceptable (Bond wants to show M his home), are not plausible otherwise (no one else will help Bond protect M [except the admittedly awesome groundskeeper]?!  They get no support from anyone, except a couple of "good lucks" from MI6?!  They intentionally summon Silva?!).  The elements of Bond's backstory are nicely unfurled, but the larger plot of his adventures with M and face-off with Silva fall through.

Worst of all is the fate which befalls poor M.  Why in the world do we spend an entire movie rooting for Bond to rescue his mother figure, just to see her meaninglessly killed off?  What a disappointing way for Judi Dench's sterling take on this character to end.  M should have died proud and on her own terms, not frightened and guilty.  Unless Dench's M's not really dead.  That would be amazing.

To look on the bright side, we have a wonderfully arch performance by Ralph Fiennes as the new boss at MI6.  Berenice Marlohe puts in a sadly fleeting, rather spellbinding turn as Severine, a strange, skittering, broken doll of a woman with a connection to Silva.  Sure, she's probably a bit too similar to the heroines of the last couple of Bond flicks, but little else in the film is as attention-grabbing as Marlohe's vibrantly neurotic victim.

With his delicious swagger and steely exterior barely covering his precarious vulnerability, Daniel Craig is certainly one of the finest James Bonds ever seen on film, and to some of us he is simply the best.  It's a pleasure to watch him own this role throughout this exceptionally well-directed, limply written film which is hopefully the precursor to a return to higher quality in the next installment.

8 pink flowers out of ten.

PS, I adore the above scene, especially since I'm a huge London enthusiast.  The direction in Skyfall truly is impeccable, and Craig's inhabitance of Bond flawless.