Friday, November 30, 2012

Skyfall

Daniel Craig is the best Bond ever, but it's on the basis of Casino Royale, not Skyfall. The latter is a film which works for every second of the time that Javier Bardem is on screen, and ambles around a bit aimlessly whenever he isn't.

There are also problems with what this film wants to be. The 50th anniversary hoopla means that it's trying to do a lot of things at once - part homage to the Bond films that people go on about as if Roger Moore was something to be proud of, part post-Bourne dark action thriller. It's on the latter front that it particularly falls down, coming over all multiple-personality as to whether the things that the security services get up to are bad or not. Bardem is great, but if he'd been allowed to be a villain who often tells the truth (like Bane in The Dark Knight Rises) the film would work a lot better. For all the talk about significant deaths in Skyfall, there's nothing here as powerful or moving  as Clive Owen's last words in the first Bourne film.

Skyfall is beautifully shot, and is much better than the incomprehensible low-stakes mess that was Quantum of Solace. But three films in and I'm still waiting for the Bond series that Casino Royale promised, one that was free of baggage like Moneypenny and Q (both of whom are reintroduced here). Some have suggested that with the 50th anniversary out of the way, the sequel I've been waiting for will be coming next. We'll see.