Bond Films: Skyfall

Skyfall is (as of this writing) the most recent Bond film, and the third with Daniel Craig. It's the third since the series formally rebooted, starting Bond at more or less the beginning of his career, and with one of the earlier works, Casino Royale. This makes it more interesting that Skyfall deals with age, and obsolescence, with parallel stories involving Bond and M, played by Judi Dench. Skyfall is also familial, playing the villain as a dark parallel of Bond, the flip side of an all-business, manipulative M.

The basic plot of Skyfall is: after apparently during an operation in Istanbul, Bond comes back in to assist with the investigation of a series of hacks and attacks on MI6. Using bullet fragments from his earlier wounds, MI6 identifies his assailant, and Bond tales him to Shanghai, where he gains another clue leading him to Macau. He meets the girl, who takes him to Silva, the antagnoist. After some repartee, and the killing of the girl, Silva is captured and taken to MI6 for interrogation. However, his capture is part of his plan, and he escapes, and Bond must race to save M. They evacuate to Bond's ancestral home in Scotland, using the original Aston Martin first rolled out in Goldfinger, and after a very intense series of shootouts and explosions, Bond defeats his nemesis, only to see - well you'll have to see for yourself.

Skyfall is one of the better Bond films. It's easy to say that about a recent Bond film, since it's of-the-moment, but all the same, I think this will hold up well. It dives a little more into Bond's psyche and the history that shaped it. Javier Bardem, as Silva, brings a borderline queeny, pathological affect to what might otherwise be a run-of-the-mill villain. Skyfall also brings in more of the cyber-intelligence element to what is otherwise a throwback - Bond has little in the way of gadgets, save for a gun he never fires, and a radio the size of a piece of gum. Later, this theme of old-fashioned spywork is reinforced when Bond, armed only with a couple of shotguns and a knife, defends against a platoon of men with helicopter support.