Skyfall Review
After a four year gap, James Bond has returned and he’s looking better than ever. Daniel Craig now fits the role like a glove, and a good thing too as this venture sees things getting a bit more personal than normal. Skyfall pertains to be the film that Quantum of Solace should have been. Casino Royale re-introduced the character with a fist that hammered the reset button. Skyfall puts everything else in place.
It seems that MI6 are under threat from a man called Silva (a wonderfully playful Javier Bardem) and it seems that M (Judi Dench) is the focus of his attacks. A recovering Bond (thanks to a previous bit of misadventure in the opening sequence) has to get his body and ego in check if he is to source the problem.
A standout is the score by Thomas Newman (David Arnold taking time out after 5 attempts). Newman surprises with a score that fuses both electronic and orchestral. The film may be lacking a strong opening number that has its own identity, but Newman manages to work without that introducing both familiar and new concepts to the action. Here is a composer at who has studied what is going on in the script and worked hard to put as much emotional resonance into the keys that are played.
This is a brave film with brave choices – not shying away from Bond’s past, and making further links to the future for both Bond as well as the franchise. The most obvious of these is the introduction of a new Q. Ben Whishaw gets plenty of screen time to firmly solidify the character as it will now stand. The film also pays homage to previous ventures (often quite humorously – even more so than Die Another Day did with all of its shoehorning).
Judi Dench gets her meatiest role this time round (but to be fair she also was never really sidelined in most of her appearances as M), Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney put in great guest spots whilst a belated entrance from Javier Barden almost steals the film. He may look odd, but the actor manages to take his character and develop something very new which is both sinister and highly comical at the same time. He need not worry about being slotted in the same slot of shame as Walken or Pryce.
If there is a complaint to be made about setting much of the film in Britain and featuring a huge ensemble of British actors is the fact that every one of them comes tailored with an annoying (read Bland) upper class accent. Not that we want any Dick Van Dyke singing, but it would be nice if film-makers realised there was a heck of a lot of accents to choose from in the middle. It’s a reminder of the rather stiff scenes in the Brosnan years where M was surrounded by many different faces, but with pretty much the same dull voice. But beyond that – the extra screen time everyone gets this time round does give characters a chance to not just be M’s clipboard.
Even braver than that though is also the dialling of the end of the film down for a truly original climax for a Bond film. But fret not if you get your thrills from big bangs. This just introduces different stakes. But once all is said and done, you are left with an Epilogue that clearly states (even in text) that Bond will be back. Welcome back, Mr Bond.
Steven Hurst