On Nov. 3, 2011, exactly 50 years to the day it was announced Sean Connery would play 007 in the first ever Bond film “Dr. No,” the main cast for the 23rd Bond movie “Skyfall” was announced via press conference at the Corinthia Hotel in London. “Skyfall” currently holds the honor of being the most successful Bond movie in the history of the franchise, as well as boasting the biggest box-house opening weekend in Britain. Hailed by some as the best Bond film ever, “Skyfall” certainly does not disappoint as the latest film in a franchise that spans half a century.
Although “Skyfall” continues to use terrorism as a main theme, the movie deviates away from the plot introduced in the last two movies, “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace”. This time the attacks are much more personal, focused on M instead of world control. After a suitable number of chase scenes, sex scenes, gunfights, and the sort of snappy comebacks so iconic to a Bond movie, the film comes to a cliched, but satisfying conclusion. Running at 143 minutes, “Skyfall” holds the record of the second longest Bond film.
Betrayal, anger, revenge, and copious amounts of sex are nothing new for films these days. So what, if not the plot, makes “Skyfall” such an impressive movie?
The answer lies in the characters, and the amazing way the actors bring them to life. Judi Dench plays a smart, savvy M, hiding her doubts and insecurities behind a mask of reserved coolness. M is undoubtedly out of her element with the turn of events in “Skyfall”, because no one at M16 fully knows how to deal with the threat of cyberterrorism. The scene where a younger man tells an older woman that she is getting too old for the job is a scene that many women sitting in the audience know all too well. But M isn’t going away without finishing her fight, and no matter how the audience feels about James Bond, they will most certainly be rooting for M.
Naomie Harris stars as in the well-known role of Eve Moneypenny, the character’s first canon appearance in 20 years, and she plays the flirtatious but professional secretary wonderfully. It is a comfort to know that no matter what the next Bond film brings, Harris’s Moneypenny will still be there to keep Bond in line.
Bérénice Lim Marlohe shines as Sévérine, a mysterious and glamorous Bond Girl. While at first Sévérine may seem like nothing more than the stereotypical Dragon Lady, Marlohe, like Dench, has a rarely seen fragile and fearful side, which adds the necessary depth to her character.
Ben Whishaw plays Q, the young quartermaster for M16, and brilliant hacker. Unfortunately, when compared with the rest of the cast, Q seems to lack depth and to be made up mostly of witty one-liners. Still, one can hope his character will be given room to grow in the next several movies.
Daniel Craig, per usual, did a fantastic job playing James Bond. Having finally gotten over the death of his girlfriend Vesper, a fellow agent of the British government, Bond is no longer vengeful and angry.
Instead, he is tired and bitter over his job, so much so that he fails a psychological exam. However, he is not so disillusioned that he has forgotten his duty to England. When it comes to the enemies of “Skyfall”, Bond, like M, is also out of his league. But the ever faithful agent of the law, he’ll do his best to get the job done. A bit less sassy, a bit more brute force, Craig’s James Bond is a much darker, more violent Bond than previous portrayals.
But the best character of “Skyfall” is Raoul Silva, a polite, soft-spoken sociopath played by Javier Bardem. Unlike the villains of “Casino Royale” and “Quantam of Solace”, Silva isn’t looking to take over the world, which is what makes him so unnerving. Reminiscent of the Joker’s destructive obsession with Batman in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight,” Silva is has a grudge against M, whom he feels abandoned him in a hostage exchange. A former M16 agent, Silvia has not only an plan to utterly destroy M, but the ability to make that plan happen. And Bardem is even more terrifying than Heath Ledger’s Joker, because Silva is normal looking, even attractive. Despite his mild-mannered, Silva has the mind and the means to kill anyone who gets in his way.
Similar to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, the rebooted Bond movies take what used to be a campy adventure franchise and turn the premise into something suspenseful and gritty. As with the Batman trilogy, the rebooted James Bond has received criticism for being too dark. But as Q says to Bond in a tone of mild amusement, “What did you expect, an exploding pen?” These are not the Bond movie of the ‘50s and ‘60s, when exploding pens were deemed dangerous weapons and all the Bond girls had silly names.
The generation that will be pouring the most money into big name franchises like James Bond or Batman doesn’t want to see silly when it comes to action movies. After all, the world in which Generation Y is growing up is a scary, dark place, and they want to see that scariness reflected in the media they consume.
The early Bond movies dealt with the fear of that time by ignoring it; action was played up for laughs and the man always got the babe. These Bond movies, which are aimed at a completely different audience, deal with the fear of the current time by talking about it and making it a part of the plot.
James Bond doesn’t always get the girl, and maybe things don’t always end with him driving off into the sunset. “Skyfall” ends on a bittersweet note. Yes, the villain was killed, but it came at a quite a high cost and we know that M16 has been drastically changed. “Skyfall” may not be the James Bond that parents and grandparents know, but that does not make it a bad movie. In fact, for a film marking fifty years of one man’s adventures, “Skyfall” is an excellent film and it does not seem fair that we will have to wait four more years to find out what James Bond will do next.
