SKYFALL

Reviewed by Patrick Gibbs

GRADE: A+

Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomi Harris, Ben Whishaw  

Screenplay by Neil Puvis & Robert Wade and John Logan

Directed by Same Mendes

The best things in life are worth waiting for.

The latest Bond film was canceled once, and spent some time in limbo. It's taken a while to come to fruition in an age when sequels are in development before the previous film has wrapped. But all that waiting has paid off.

 Casino Royale breathed new life into the stale in the James Bond franchise. A series that probably should have ended decades ago and spared us Diamonds Are Forever and nearly all of the Roger Moore movies was back with a vengeance, and better than ever. Indeed, Royale may have been Bond at his absolute best.

The rushed and under thought Quantum of Solace, sadly, was not. It wasn’t terrible, but it was not as good as the first two Brosnan films, or even License To Kill. It wasn’t so much a movie as it was a sloppy epilogue, and the presence of director Martin Campbell, who rejuvenated Bond not once, but twice, with Casino Royale and GoldenEye before it, was sorely missed. Bond needed to do something daring again.

            Enter Mr. Daring himself, Academy Award Winning director Sam Mendes, who helms Skyfall with an expertise that once again raises Bond to a whole new level. Mendes, helped along by a script by John Logan, who most recently gave us Hugo, gets great performances, deeper characterizations, and action that ranges from delightfully over the top to startlingly intense.

The film begins with a spectacular teaser sequence, as always. As the trailers have given away, Bond appears to be killed on this mission, but, after lying low for a while, resurfaces when he learns that identities of covert agents around the world have been compromised and a bomb blast destroys MI6.

He returns to what is left of the organization, with no small amount of irritation at his boss M (Judi Dench) for ordering an agent to fire the shot that nearly killed him. In addition, there's no small amount of awkwardness in his relationship with Eve (Naomi Harris), the rookie agent who actually fired the shot. In addition, a British Official named Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) is looking over everyone’s shoulders, waiting for Bond and M to mess up, and Bond is introduced to a new – and very young – Quartermaster, or “Q” (Ben Whishaw, last seen in Cloud Atlas.)

From here we go into the obligatory jaunt around the world in search of a villain, but just when we become convinced we’ve seen this all before, Mendes pulls the rug out from under us and gives us perhaps the most original and different film in the history of the franchise, and certainly the one with the best performances. Daniel Craig adds to impressive list of accomplishments being the first Bond to make me cry, and Judi Dench is finally, at long last, fully utilized as a character. Add to that the thrilling performance by Javier Bardem as a villain that echoes Ricardo Montalban's Khan and Heath Ledger’s Joker, plus the welcome presence of Fiennes (who, ironically, turned down the role of Bond in GoldenEye), and the delightful and underrated Harris, and you have a truly stellar ensemble.

But make no mistake, the stars of this film are Sam Mendes and director of photography Roger Deakins, perhaps the finest hand with a camera working today. This is a visually perfect movie, whether we’re watching backhoes fighting trains or quiet character moments framed and lit to atmospheric perfection.

The only downside to Skyfall is the question of whether the next film can live up to the standard set by it. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Skyfall is rated PG-13 for violence, sex, and mild profanity.