The James Bond Rewatch: Current Movie - SPECTRE

[Doc755]

Skyfall is an interesting entry in the Craig era of the franchise. It seeks to both be a separate storyline from its two predecessors while also seemingly closing the reboot arc by having all the major Bond elements in place that were removed from this new era. In lesser hands, it could have been as messy and unfocused as Quantum of Solace, but Sam Mendes is able to re-inject some of the vigor and energy from Casino Royale and Craig seems to be enjoying the role once again after a lackluster performance in QoS. The result is this film which is a thrilling story well served by some of the most gorgeous cinematography in the franchise.

The plot to Skyfall is a little thin and a lot of the mechanics don’t make much sense. Why doesn’t Silva just go to M’s apartment and kill her? How did he know that she would be at that hearing on the day he was captured and need a train crash to make his escape? I’ll say right from the start you can nitpick the plot to death. And granted, some are large plot holes and not mere nitpicks. But where this film succeeds where other flimsy Bond plots have failed is in its direction and character arcs. The relationship between Bond and M is central to the story. There is no real Bond Girl in the usual sense and the list of spy identities is a total McGuffin that disappears halfway through the story.

In a way, this film would have been better served without the reboot and with the history of the character intact. Bond is portrayed as a spy who has been in the game for a bit too long. He’s ready to call it quits but his loyalty to M brings him back into the fold and he goes to great lengths to save her. This would make more sense for the Bond we have watched for decades and not the man who’s only been in the game for several years and whose relationship with his boss is testy yet civil at best. Perhaps a lot happened in the unknown number of years between QoS and this film but if we rely on what we just see on screen then it doesn’t feel as earned. Luckily both Craig and Dench rise to the challenge and her loss is palpable at the end.

Right from the start I breathed a sigh of relief because the editing is back to normal and Mendes’ great eye for visuals ensures we get a lot of long shots with as little cutting as possible. Both this film and the previous one begin with a car chase, but whereas the last one was frantic and confusing, this one felt like a welcome return to normalcy. The film is no longer peppered with perfunctory action scenes that do little to move the plot forward. Mendes‘ sense of style breathes new life into them such as the silhouette battle in the skyscraper in Shanghai. A nice touch in this scene was the whistling wind after the glass was broken. It adds that sense of realism and places you into the scene instead of trying to make sense of a jumbled mess of quick cuts.

As you may remember I said I was not a big fan of the idea of a reboot so I was excited we got the MI6 supporting players that had been missing the last few films. Moneypenny and Q make welcome returns, or should I say introductions, into the fold. I don’t really buy the idea that she gave up the field just to become an assistant. She also shows up in Shanghai for no reason other than to give them a possible romantic interlude but Harris is good in the role and her and Craig have some delightful banter. Whishaw is delightful as the younger Q and I like this dynamic with Bond in the older mentor role. Even Fiennes does well as the new M who can be both imposing yet willing to pick up a gun and join the fray. I felt a strong sense of nostalgia at the end as everyone takes their places to move forward as if nothing has changed.

The film is full of bits to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film franchise so there was quite a bit of nostalgia throughout. I loved that Bond’s Scottish ancestry is now canon for the films. Craig is in no way Scottish but sure. The return of the classic Aston Martin DB5 was perfection right down to the joke about the ejector seat and its use of the machine guns. When it’s unnecessarily destroyed by the villain, you feel the same sense of rage as Bond did. I even liked that the film spends a significant amount of time in London with Bond chasing Silva through the underground tunnels and train stations. It gives Bond a sense of operating in the real world and not just exotic locales many people never get to see.

Speaking of Silva, Bardem does a good enough job making Silva seem on the edge of sanity but I never bought him as an actual character. He moves the plot forward. He’s dangerous and unpredictable but also cunning and methodical. But those qualities never really coalesce into an actual person. It would have helped if he didn’t show up until the film was half over or we saw more of him in action instead of being told what he’s like or what his history is. But when you look back on Skyfall he seems also secondary to everything else memorable about the film. He was a necessity but could have been fleshed out more.

I’m going to give Skyfall 7/10. It’s a good entry that would have been better serviced without the reboot but it stands on its own quite well. The story moves along briskly enough and focuses on the characters so it’s easier to overlook some of its flaws. The only real time I couldn’t was the very end. It just makes no sense to go to Scotland with no backup and no supplies. I get isolating Silva but you could have planned it better. Sadly Mendes returns for the next film which weirdly decides to dive back into the reboot storyline and try to make this one fit into it as well. It’d have been better to drop the mic after this one.

Current Rankings:
1) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
2) From Russia with Love
3) Casino Royale
4) Goldfinger
5) For Your Eyes Only
6) The Living Daylights
7) Skyfall
8) The Spy Who Loved Me
9) GoldenEye
10) Thunderball
11) Dr. No
12) Licence to Kill
13) Octopussy
14) Live and Let Die
15) Tomorrow Never Dies
16) You Only Live Twice
17) Quantum of Solace
18) The World is Not Enough
19) The Man with the Golden Gun
20) A View to a Kill
21) Moonraker
22) Diamonds are Forever
23) Die Another Day