"Everybody needs a hobby.." "So whats yours?" "Resurrection."
Skyfall had been stuck in the pipeline for 4 years breaking the Bond-film-every-2-years momentum and judging by Daniel Craig's old looks in the trailers, I was afraid, it would be his last Bond outing. Directed by Sam Mendes, Skyfall has a stellar cast, Javier Bardem and Ralph Fiennes join Daniel Craig and Judi Dench in Bond's 23rd adventure on the silver screen.
After a long and artistically crafted entrance, as James Bond falls into the waters, you cant help but admire the tension on the screen, "Take the bloody shot!" and the silence that follows as the title track by Adele grows in the background. The premise is promising. M's (read flawed) judgement call, causes 007 to be KIA while trying to retrieve back a hard disk containing identities of British undercover agents throughout the world, raising doubts over M's ability to run MI6. An attck on the MI6 headquarters in the heart of London forces Bond to return from his death-vacation. But the transition is not smooth, Bond is reeling under physical trauma, MI6 is in hiding, British agents all over the world are being slaughtered and a psychotic terrorist leader is hellbent on destroying M and has more in common with Bond than imagined.
Daniel Craig as the rusted Bond is super. He has a very smooth presence this time, with his one liners and wry smile unless he is jumping off trains or battling bad guys in icy lakes. He is back to his shaken-not-stirred ways, a phrase which I believe has more to do with Bond's persona than his drinks. Judy Dench as M , drives the whole drama, and drives well. Just the presence of Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory in the cast brings a different sort of heaviness to the proceedings, a quality previously exhibited by the likes of DeNiro and Pacino. Ben Whish as Q is a delight, perhaps the youngest actor in the entrie movie! Berenice is just stunning, and well, it ends there because she doesn't have much of a role. Sam Mendes has given a really dark, serious tone to the movie, and there is a tension associated with the characters unlike any of the previous bond movies, with the characters scrambling to get the upper hand.
When Sam Mendes said that he was inspired by Nolan's take on the Batman saga particularly, the Dark Knight, he wasn't joking. Silva in custody at the new MI6 headquarters, only to hack into MI6 security, with a plan to take down M, feels so close to Joker at MCU with a plan to take down Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes. Doesn't sound similar? Wait till you watch the sequence. As Judy Dench recites poetry in the voice over, we have Bond running frantically out of the tube to save M while Silva blasts his way into the meeting hall, a sequence that deserves a mention as one of the best Bond sequences filmed to date. Now that I think of it, a hero not in the best of shapes, forced to return, because his cause needs him or a famous character that reveals its true name at the very end only to be applauded with 'ooh's and 'aah's, would be overstretching the similarities part a bit, but its just a Nolan fan speaking. Skyfall is a totally different film, a totally different genre I might say.
Resurrection. With Skyfall, Craig and the franchise return to the good old-fashioned cocktail of Bond without the Bourne. The boy-toys are back, the 9mm short that reads palm prints, transmitting devices and vintage Bond cars, but the exploding pens will still be missing from the arsenal for quite a while. The Bond girls are back to being 'just' Bond girls again, without wrecking any emotional havoc on our hero. But in Gaming jargon, if I am to pinpoint, the most important piece that was missing in the last two movies, it has to be a real bossfight. Javiar Bardem gives us back a real Bond villian, a smiling, gentle and creepily sophisticated monster, who can take down economies and crush countries while still mouthing dialogs like "Mommy was very bad". The character, his idiosyncracies, the blonde hair, everything fits perfectly, clearing doubts why Bardem would do something as commercial as a Bond movie, it's all about the character. He almost steals the thunder in this one.
Personally, I find Daniel Craig as the best Bond ever, he brings a particular vulnerability to the role and it has more to do with the characterisation than the actor himself. Skyfall moves down the same road on a bit personal note, exploring the relationship between Bond and M and rather beautifully. Skyfall is a bold and intelligent film, without revealing much, the second half is a very different experience, it almost puzzled me. I was like, "this isn't Bond", and its the layered script that works the charm. Its a M/Bond versus Silva battle, no end of the world, no satellites melting glaciers, no Russian submarines, its all personal.Sam Mendes has done an exceptional job, he has tamed the series and returned it back to its owners in a fitting avatar. The film is an action-packed multi-layered revenge saga delving a little bit deeper into the motivations of the central characters, and of course we have a grinning sinister Bardem on the loose. The best way to commemorate 50 years of Bond.
