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"Skyfall (Bond 23)"

Daniel Craig is back as Bond, James Bond, in the second movie since Daniel Craig took over the reigns as our favourite international man of mystery, that takes Bond back to its roots. Casino Royale almost pressed the 'reset' button by giving a fantastic movie that stuck almost word for word with the original story, despite the modern retelling, but Skyfall celebrates fifty years of James Bond on the silver screen, giving both subtle and blatent references to the classics.

Skyfall starts off with a fast-paced chase where Bond must recover a stolen hard-disk containing a list of under-cover operatives currently in action around the globe. Bond is accompanied by field-operative Eve (Naomie Harris) who is ordered by M (Judie Dench to take the shot which unintentionally puts Bond out of action...

The story progresses with M's past catching up on her at the hands of an ex-double-O agent Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) who plays a very camp, provocative, reptillian character, using his knowledge of MI6 procedures to manipulate them so that each move is done on his terms. It ends with a destructive battle-scene at Bond's childhood home, Skyfall Lodge in Scotland where Bond must put everything on the line to complete his mission and end Silva.

Bond is still Bond with his seductive charm and his ability to make a joke out of a bloody scene. But instead of the fighting with M over whether or not he can do the mission (as inherited from Pierce Brosnan, the writers have put Bond in the direction of someone fighting his own personal battle with his sense of duty and loyalty to the Crown and for England.

As a life-long fan of the James Bond movies, I was impressed with the blasts from the past. We are introduced to the new Q (Ben Wishaw) who very cleverly has the same mannerisms of the late Desmond Llewelyn whilst being very different in his style, "What were you expecting, an exploding pen?" Bond's classicly used car, modified by the original Q, the Aston Martin DB5 makes an appearance, mainly because it is a classic car that MI6 haven't filled with modern technology. In the final scene we are re-introduced to M's original office which has a more traditional feel to the modern MI6 office we're used to with Judi Dench, and we are reintroduced to Moneypenny. Unlike Casino Royale, there are plenty more reminders of the Bond of yesteryear with a version of the original 'twangy' Bond theme playing throughout the movie during the action scenes. I heard my inner-monologue humging along to it as the movie progressed.

Once again, Craig's Bond is hard, cold, full of action and focuses more on getting the job done than the gadgets behind it. As the viewer, I didn't feel that the special effects stole the show, instead that they were used so well that they did not distract from the movie itself. We see motorbikes on rooftops, trains being wrecked, underground explosions, overground explosions, helicopters, grenades, gas-tank bombs, and more. It's the telling of a story that makes the story great rather than it being a story tagged on to visuals.

A large part of the story is the debate about the old ways versus technology. This theme is explored throughout the movie through Q, Silva, M, the Cabinet Office and Bond himself, and there is only one real winner, Bond. I was reminded slightly of Die Hard 4.0's story, but felt Bond did it better.

I really hope I have put across what I enjoyed about the movie, and other than seeing that Cineworld charge £3.90 for a small popcorn* I did find this extremely enjoyable and entertaining indeed. Despite being a Bond fanatic, I know a bad film when I see one (Die Another Day or Never Say Never Again anyone?) and am not afraid to criticise my favourite non-sci-fi hero.

Sad to see they've killed off Judi Dench as M and that the old DB5 which was restored at the Aston Martin works not far from me got blown up