Skyfall   Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney Director: Sam Mendes MGM / Columbia Pictures Certificate: 12A Running time: 143 mins Opens 26 October 2012 (UK), 09 November 2012 (US)

Bond’s loyalty to his boss M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. MI6 agents James Bond and Eve are on a mission in Turkey to recover a stolen hard drive containing details of almost every NATO agent working undercover in terrorist organisations. While pursuing the thief, a mercenary called Patrice, Bond is accidentally shot by Eve and goes missing, presumed dead. Back in England, M comes under pressure to retire during a meeting with the Intelligence and Security Committee Chairman, Gareth Mallory. On her return from the meeting, MI6 is hacked and an explosion occurs within the offices. Bond, having used his supposed death to retire, learns of the attack and returns to London. He must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost...

WARNING: CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS!

For me, Quantum of Solace felt less like a Bond film than Casino Royale did, which is the opposite of the way I had expected and hoped that the franchise would develop following the Daniel Craig reboot. Sitting down to watch Skyfall, I was again disappointed to find that the signature gun-barrel sequence is still not present at the start of the movie (as with Quantum of Solace, it instead prefaces the end credits). Thankfully, that was the last and only time that this new film disappointed me.

“Old dog, new tricks.”

With Skyfall, director Sam Mendes and writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan find themselves in the unenviable position of developing the grim and gritty character that was established in the previous two pictures while also paying homage the last half-century of the Bond franchise, as this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Dr No. In other words, the production team have to balance the new with the old; they must look forward while also looking back.

The new is evident in topical talk of terrorism (though not for the first time in this series), cyber-crime (again, they’ve done that before), a missing hard drive containing sensitive information (very topical) and a government enquiry (ditto). The obligatory action sequences are present and correct, and unlike in Quantum of Solace the visual sense of them is not lost amidst a confusing blur of rapid inter-cutting. On the contrary, I would say that Skyfall is the most comprehensible Bond narrative in years - by which I don’t mean that the plot lacks sophistication but rather that it demonstrates strong storytelling. It shows us characters that we are interested in, be it the flawed heroes threatened with obsolescence (Daniel Craig as 007 and Judi Dench as M), the damaged heroine (Bérénice Marlohe as Sévérine) or the fascinating arch villain (Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva), and we care what happens to them. The movie questions whether there is still a place in the world for people like Bond... and the answer is a resounding yes.

“What were you expecting, an exploding pen?”

From the moment Bond is seen adjusting his cuffs after jumping aboard a moving train carriage during the opening sequence, it is clear that this film has old-school appeal. This is represented most obviously by the Aston Martin DB5, first seen in Goldfinger, one of the earliest and most recognisable of Bond’s gadgets. Its presence in the plot makes perfect sense, being a vintage Q Branch vehicle that lacks modern MI6 tracking devices, while providing perfect nostalgia. Talking of Q Branch, we also have a new Quartermaster (Ben Whishaw), the first time such a character has appeared in the series since the Pierce Brosnan films. This Q is different, being a young computer geek who would not have seemed out of place in Spooks, but he quickly establishes the same kind of sardonic rapport that his predecessors enjoyed with Bond. The restoration of the old guard doesn’t end there, either...

The production team play clever tricks with the conventions of the Bond format. For example, there’s an impressive villain’s base, but it doesn’t appear at the climax of the movie. It is instead merely the launching point for a whole new plot development. The supposed romantic interest is dispensed with at about the same time.

A scarred cyber-criminal with a personal grudge, Raoul Silva bears comparison with Alec Trevelyan / Janus in GoldenEye. Like Trevelyan, he is an anti-Bond. He is 007’s physical equal; he could have been like Bond if fate had taken a slightly different turn. However, this colourful character is far more intriguing than that. Under different circumstances, it is easy to imagine him being a powerful ally along the lines of Kerim Bey, Milos Columbo or René Mathis. He exhibits an eccentricity (well realised by Bardem) that is by turns amusing and frightening.

“Welcome to Scotland!”

In a neat twist on tradition, the destructive final battle takes place not in the villain’s secret hideout, but rather in Bond’s. Reaching deeper into 007’s psyche and farther back into his personal history than ever before, we visit his family’s old Scottish estate, which provides the film with its title. Despite such unusual settings and subject matter, the narrative’s shifts in tempo are achieved more successfully than the transitions from action to gaming table intrigue in Casino Royale.

Other notable guest stars include Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Albert Finney, whose character arcs are far from predictable.

By the end of the story, we find ourselves in a peculiar situation. The new broom has re-established the old guard in a pattern that we haven’t seen since the Timothy Dalton films. It is at once traditional and reassuring, but fresh and exciting, which pretty much sums up Skyfall as a whole: the most Bond-like Daniel Craig Bond film yet... and the best.

10

Richard McGinlay