Skyfall

Skyfall
2012
#29

I was occupied with another movie and its premiere back in November when this originally released and while I was away the weekend it came out, my parents, who I'm not ashamed to admit are my regular movie going partners, saw this without me. I had thought about seeing it while I was away, but the plan that was loosely had with my friends didn't workout thanks to some...logistical issues...with our sleeping arrangements. I wanted to see it, of course, but it was destined to have to wait until the dvd released. Somewhere along the line in the months that followed, I added it to an Amazon order as a pre-order to arrive on the day it was released to the public.

So I've had the dvd since sometime in February. Heck I even opened the thing and have been carrying it between my room and the pc with my stitching just in case I found the time to watch it between being on Facebook and reading emails and chatting on Twitter and watching Star Trek shows on Netflix. Don't have any real reason to have waited so long to watch it, I just never got around to it. *shrugs*

Anyways...

So as a Bond film, this is one of the better ones that have been made. Oddly though, it seems rather, I'm not sure what to call it, light? on the Bond-ness scale. You're used to a Bond film with lots of new gadgets from Q, lots of one liners from Bond (along with that famous shaken, not stirred line), Bond falling into bed with so many women you stop counting, and more then a few twists with the familar "dan na dan naaaa" music over them. Those are minimal in this film, some on purpose - one of the running themes is going back to the old school methods and simple, not always super high tech but still very effective weapons and gadgets, right down to Bond's personal DB5 Aston Martin. Like stepping back in time to the Bond days of Connery.

Here I pause to pay tribute to that beautiful old car automobile. She died an honorable death in the line of duty. So sad. Car go BOOM!

But I guess to say that it is one of the better films quite possibly because there isn't that same, sometimes to the point of silly, techno weaponry and nifty gadgets is more than a bit of a contradiction. No exploding pens here. Nice touch with the Bond's palm print only Walther though. The problem with those gadgets, though that are fun, is that they add a level of camp and impossibility to the Bond films. This time around, we've gone back to the basics. No games and toys to play with. Just ordinary badassery.

The film centers on Bond once again defying death, this time to try and protect our dear M from what turns out to be a former agent that she had no choice but to burn to save lives. The good of the many vs the good of the few or the one and all that. How Vulcan. Also to try and keep said baddie from exposing the rest of the MI6 crew around the world, lest they be tortured and/or killed.

Bardem plays our freakishly blond eyebrowed baddie fairly well, though I get the feeling he could've been even more sinister feeling if he tried a little harder. On that scale, he doesn't hold up against Bond villains of the past. He ain't no Goldfinger.

What makes this film stand out is that it is well, simple. It is Bond doing what he does best - taking out the bad guys. 007 isn't "licensed to kill" just for fun. It's what he excels at. Finding and stopping people.

Along with the scaled back, old school tech, we dive a little deeper in the past of the man that is Bond, and not just with the DB5. We go back to where this man grew up, even meeting the man who taught him how to shoot a gun. We take M out of her office and back out into the field (very literally at one point) and we see that time is creeping up on Bond just a bit. He isn't the young man he was. All those gun shots and jumps from places no normal person would ever make are catching up to him. He isn't down for the count of course - his hobby is resurrection after all. As one character says, "Old dog. New tricks."

This film definitely comes across as what feels like a turning point. 2012 was the 50th anniversary of James Bond. You get the sense that they know these films still have an audience but that they need a bit of a dusting off. The push of bringing Craig into the role is staring to lose it's effect. As I recall, there was even some doubt originally if they were going to bring him back for this film. My guess is that he's got a few more in them, if they decided to continue.

Nice to see they've decided to bring back Miss Moneypenny. And that she gets to have some time as a badass field agent, not just a secretary personal assistant for M. I'm hoping they use her more in future films like they've done here. I think she's too valuable a character to be always confined to some flirty banter from behind a desk.

Here's to more martinis - shaken. Not stirred.