Review: "Skyfall" is familiar but interesting twist on James Bond films

"Skyfall" R
Sam Mendez (American Beauty) directs the action thriller, Skyfall, the 23rd official James Bond film with Daniel Craig returning to the role of 007. The 50 year span of making the films was nearly cancelled when MGM again went under, but was then recovered by Sony and Columbia/Tristar. It had been 4 years since the rather lacking 'Quantum of Solace' which did not actually use a story from Ian Flemming's novels, but borrowed a title. Skyfall is also not from the original material. After 22 of these, they've run out of ideas, partly because the cold war is long over, and the idea of super villains taking over the world is kind of silly. Still, one does not go for realism if they sit through a Bond film. Our dapper British super spy apparently dodges bullets, gravity after a train get ripped apart and even death. The Curious story begins after the teaser effectively kills 007 during a train chase, so that M, again played by Judy Dench, and the M16 people, are without him when a cyber terrorist called H, played b Javier Bardem, targets the secret service complex with a gas explosion. Bond returns from the grave, because he was actually immortal apparently, and helps to find out who this mysterious hacker is. With the help of a new Q, a young hotshot hacker, he narrows the search to a mysterious abandoned island, but there the action really gets weird. H has other plans after he is captured which involve M directly and humiliating his former employers in the service. Bond and M must try and escape to Skyfall, a Scottish moor looking something like the one in Lady in Black, (Pinewood Studios must be hard up for sets), where there is a final battle. This is not a global superpower bid one at all, although the villain has such aspirations. He is more concerned with humiliating the agents than taking over the world, which makes for a grittier and more interesting thoughtful movie, along with the action pieces. One curiosity though is Daniel Craig looks really old this time around, even though he's not much older than 40, and he does some of his fighting and a love scene behind a shadowy glass door, or whenever possible, not in daylight, implying they really used some stunt doubles. (This is odd because the first 15 minutes are in broad daylight and he fights there too, but mostly runs from bullets and drives on things). Not sure why they needed to tone down the love scene or the fighting. It was still on a par with some of the better Connery ones which makes it very good.
Review by Adam Browne