December 29, 2012
Skyfall – UK, 2012
For fun, let’s run through the features that audiences have come
to expect in a Bond film. First, a slightly mad villain with a doozy of an evil
plan. Check. The standard Bond girls – beautiful, sexy, smart (at least later
Bond girls), perhaps even good with guns. Double check. Sensational action
scenes. Multiple checks with special kudos going to an amazing fight on top of
a moving train and the unexpected sight of a subway train barreling down into
an underground tunnel. Scene in which Bond is captured but not killed. A
regrettable check. Disagreements between Bond and his supervisors. Check. And
last but not least, gadgets. Only a partial check. More on that later.
Given all of the similarities listed above, it might seem at
first glance as if the latest James Bond film were nothing new, just a mere
carbon copy of previous films with little new to offer the spy genre. In fact,
nothing could be further from the truth, for with Skyfall, the Bond series finally steps out of the shadow of the
pre-Daniel Craig films and announces its intention to go in a new uncharted
direction. And if Skyfall is any
indication of later films, the Bond series has a very promising future.
In fact, I would go so far as to say that Skyfall places Bond in an entirely new
universe, one that he can hardly relate to. It is a universe that I sarcastically
call the CSI/24 universe produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. In such a universe,
there’s always an older character surrounded by people who appear far too young
to be experts in their field. Principal among this new cast of characters is
the character of Quartermaster, or, as he is more affectionately known, Q. Q is of course not a person but a job
title, so it stands to reason that the person in the job would change over the
years, but there’s not doubt that he’s gotten progressively younger recently.
Here, he’s played by Ben Whishaw, who is just 32, yet looks a bit younger. Q, perhaps
more than any other character, announces Bond’s brave new world by staring
straight at the camera and declaring that they don’t do exploding pens anymore.
The film starts out in much the same way as previous films, with
a thrilling chase, and as people familiar with the film’s trailer no doubt
already know, the scene ends with Bond (Daniel Craig) having been accidentally
shot by a fellow agent on the orders of his superior, M, again played by Dame
Judy Dench. The villain Bond had been trying to catch escapes with a copy of MI6’s
most sensitive information, including the identities of every 00. After
brooding for three months, Bond returns from the grave after a shadow group
with a personal vendetta with M blows up part of MI6 headquarters. However,
Bond is not quite the same man skill-wise. In just three films, this Bond has
aged in a way that no previous Bond has. His knees are not as good as they once
were, and his hair has a tint of gray in it. From this, we are meant to see
Bond as a more mortal figure, as someone for whom death and injury are real
possibilities.
The film is directed by Sam Mendes, a director more known
for making dramatic, character-driven films than action films. His presence as
a director is felt throughout the film, and key characters seem much more
fleshed out than in previous films. In addition to the film’s acknowledgement
of Father Time, Dench’s M is given a depth that she did not have in previous
films. She is a character making tough decisions, and not all of them are the
correct ones. Even the film’s chief villain, Silva (played by Javier Barden)
comes across as a well-rounded character. I feel like I could describe this
character in a way that I never could Ernst Blofeld.
Sadly, one can also detect the influence of the superhero
genre on the Bond universe. While it’s likely the script for Skyfall was written some time ago, its
similarities to The Avengers are
unmistakable, and in hindsight, they work better in The Avengers. This is not a knock against the film’s screenwriters,
Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan. However, it would take a lot of luck
and happenstance for a plan of this scale to come to fruition as neatly as it
does. However, this is not the film’s only resemblance to recent superhero films.
More problematic is the decision to make Bond an orphan, a la Bruce Wayne. Bond
is even given his own run down version of Wayne Manor equipped with its own
version of Alfred, a rough full-bearded man named Kincade (Albert Finney) who from
the looks of the place doesn’t appear to have been doing his job very well. It’s
an unfortunate decision, but at least it figures into the plot in a
surprisingly pertinent way.
Skyfall is not my
favorite Bond film, but it ranks up there with the best of them. It is a smart
film that does not telegraph its movements, and it contains a few surprises
that will make even the hardest of Bond purists smile. In one of the film’s
most important moments, M explains the need for the 00s in this highly
computerized world. It is one of the film’s best moments, and it provides a
justification for setting the reboot of the Bond franchise in the present day
instead of in the days of the Cold War. In short, the world has changed, and
with change has come a darker world, one in which our enemies move about in the
shadows. To get them, we need people who can also move around in the shadows,
who can be the world’s eyes and ears to a world that thieves are desperate to
remain unseen. Bond can do this, but not the Bond that cracked jokes and went
around in invisible cars. These times call for a serious, more dangerous Bond,
and that Bond is not the Bond that Sean Connery played. In other words, Craig’s
Bond is a Bond for this generation, and there’s really no going back. (in
theatres)
3 and a half stars
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