Skyfall

The movie opens with Bond in Istanbul and coming upon a number of dead or seriously wounded agents.  A hard drive has been stolen from a laptop.  Bond and his female driver, Eve, get into an epic chase to recover the hard drive.  They fail to get it and that becomes a national security threat that defines the rest of the movie.  Unlike most Bond films, the majority of this one takes place in the UK with a middle part in Shanghai and Macau.  This is interesting since MI6 is supposed to do foreign intelligence while MI5 is domestic intelligence.  I suspect there was a lot of arguing about turf between the agencies was left on the cutting room floor.

 

To a degree, this is an origin story of Bond.  We see his childhood home and learn that he was orphaned (this was revealed in the books but I don't recall if that had been mentioned in the movies).  We get to meet the man who taught him to shoot.  Bond shows little interest in his childhood home, even stating that he hated the place.  Granted, it is on a bleak Scottish moor in the middle of winter, which makes it quite unappealing.  We also get a scene where Bond does the word association that is sometimes humorous and paints him as a grim fellow.  The results of his psych analysis are revealed later, giving a deeper look into the character.  This isn't Sean Connery's Bond.

 

Javier Bardem is a peculiar villain.  I give him credit for his willingness to look silly.  That haircut in No Country for Old Men was a real winner but blond hair is painful on him.  Here, he is equal parts arrogant genius, deranged madman, petulant child, and playful goofball.  Yeah, it is a strange and complex character.  His love-hate obsession with M echoes a former villain; Elektra King in The World is Not Enough (1999).  He gives the obligatory "How come you won't die already" attitude some new life, seeming both amused and annoyed that Bond has yet again foiled attempts to kill him.  Also of interest, though he has amazing intel about the inner workings of MI6, the villain is not part of the Quantum group that was featured prominently in the last two films.  He would have fit just fine within it so I am perplexed that they didn't just say he was to keep that going.  Maybe next time.

 

The Bond girl who gets the most screen time with our hero is... Judi Dench. Unlike most Bond girls, there is nothing between them beyond the employer/employee relationship and some mutual respect that is shown with pithy barbs.  For her part, M proves willing to sacrifice her agents for the sake of the mission.  This is an ongoing theme with Judi Dench's M, dating back to Golden Eye (1995) where she told Bond she was only too willing to send him to his death if the circumstances warranted.  She is cold-blooded by her words but often motherly by her actions.  I think I preferred the more hands-off Bernard Lee in the role.  Give Bond his mission at the beginning and then scold him at the end.  M used to be a support character but with a big name like Judi Dench, M became a major character in the films.  M promises to remain a major character in future outings.

 

The Aston Martin made famous in Goldfinger (1964) returns in this film.  It is nice to see the old car again.  Bond has kept it in a garage all these years just in case he might need another ride.  I have read that car geeks were offended since that model is gutless compared to modern sports cars.

 

One big twist is that Bond has a base that the villain attacks, a complete reversal of the usual where Bond invades the enemy camp and blows it to bits.  Also of interest, this Bond finally gets Q.  This Q is a young fellow who is good with computers rather than gadgets.  Bond also gets Miss Moneypenny.  Both are welcome additions back to the series.  Bill Tanner, who was a regular in the book series, is also present here and in the last movie.  However, he doesn't have a clever name like M, Q, or Moneypenny so vanishes into the background.

 

Something of a departure from the usual Bond film but certainly enjoyable.  Thumbs up from Dave.