Skyfall (12A)
For a film franchise to
successfully run for 50 years it must seek ways of keeping the films relevant,
while seldom straying from the reasons that have made the franchise so popular.
Bond movies are kept pertinent by
the changing of directors and of actors taking the lead role. This is Daniel Craig’s
third outing as Bond and Mendes’ first as director. What Mendes has brought is
a new angle to the Bond franchise; he has introduced a chink of vulnerability
to Bond, which is played with splendid subtlety by Craig.
An exhilarating opening sequence
establishes Bond’s vulnerability as he struggles with an enemy for a computer
hard drive on top of a train in Istanbul. Bond falls from the train after being
shot accidently on M’s [Judi Dench] orders, as the hard drive being hunted is
deemed more important to M than Bond himself, highlighting Bond’s expendability
to the country he serves.
It is when Bond is missing,
presumed dead, we see him as a man and not an MI6 agent, with alcohol replacing
his work as the purpose for living.
A terrorist attack on headquarters
prompts Bond’s eventual return to MI6. It is not met with warmth, and his
subsequent physical and psychological testing exposes his susceptibility
further. Bond is now not only fighting the enemy he is fighting to maintain his
true purpose for living.
Only once does Mendes let the
vulnerability spill into sentimentally. The inclusion in the climax of a belligerent
old gamekeeper, remembered by Bond from his childhood, fighting against the modern
weaponry of the enemy armed only with a rifle, is overly nostalgic.
What Mendes has achieved with this
movie is significant. He has maintained all the factors that make a great Bond
movie but also updated the franchise for this age, and in doing so, given Bond
more substance.
Running time: 140 minutes.
END
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