This is a reprint of my review which
was first published on this blog in November 2012, with a number of minor revisions. My original review can be found here.
Skyfall (UK/ USA, 2012)
Directed by Sam Mendes
Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes
Like any long-running film franchise or TV series, it is interesting to
note the ways in which the Bond series has acknowledged its longevity.
While the 10th, 20th and 30th anniversaries passed by relatively
quietly, with no films being released to coincide, the 40th anniversary
was marked by Die Another Day, a greatest hits compilation with little
narrative pull which was in hindsight downright embarrassing.
Skyfall
is a more confident and impressive offering all round, marking the 50th
anniversary with a film which looks far back into the series' past
while also making a conscious effort to appear modern and cutting-edge.
The result is technically superb, with Sam Mendes bringing weight to the
characters and the visuals being some of the best in the whole series.
But the film also demonstrates how fundamentally little Bond has
changed, something which is cause for both concern and celebration.
The
Bond series has always been at its best whenever it has had to defend
its existence. The previous attempts at reinvention - Casino Royale, and
Goldeneye before that - were prompted by perceptions that the series
was old-fashioned, caused respectively by the game-changing Bourne
series and the end of the Cold War. But while these films are impressive
technical exercises, which still feel in isolation like a breath of
fresh air, the basic formula has remained more or less the same for 50
years. The series has become so much of a genre in itself that any claim
of reinvention or radical departure should be greeted with extreme
caution.
Bond has always assimilated ideas and stories raised in
other films; it's one of the many ways the series has remained relevant,
or at least appeared to be that way. Skyfall continues to follow the
trail blazed by Bourne by showing the extent of high-tech surveillance,
and how advances in communications have changed the way that decisions
are taken about people's lives. Both the villain and the revamped Q
branch borrow from The Social Network, a film which argued that the
world is now run not by governments but by technical wizards, and by
extension how 'nerds' have grown from being perceived as harmless and
weak into a force to be reckoned with.
Skyfall also contains a
number of prominent visual references to other films, past and present.
The entire sequence in Shanghai owes a massive debt to Blade Runner: the
shot of Bond's gun in moving close-up and the fight against the
Japanese signage are eerily close to Ridley Scott's masterpiece. There
are also touches of Inception present in the lift scene and on the
villain's island, whose ruined buildings could have come straight from
Christopher Nolan's Limbo.
On top of all that, the film contains a
great many nods to its own back catalogue. Much of the plot, while
appearing original, hints back to conversations in Goldeneye. The
allusions to Bond's parents are akin to the scene with 006 among the
fallen idols, and the central duality is structured along the same
lines: like Alec Trevelyan, Silva was betrayed by his homeland, and
represents what Bond could have been had things turned out slightly
differently. The journey "back in time" in the iconic Aston Martin DB5
is a direct nod to the Sean Connery era, Silva has a passing resemblance
to Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me, and there are two passing references
to The Man with the Golden Gun, in Shanghai and with the shooting of
the mirror at Skyfall.
The key point here is that everything we
see, we have seen before, either in the Bond series or in the many other
films on which it draws. What makes Skyfall successful (and memorable)
is the way in which these ideas are presented or repackaged, so that
they appear either original or become distinctive to the character.
Having an abundance of references was largely to be expected, given the
occasion that is being marked, and if nothing else the film scores over
Die Another Day by actually having a coherent and interesting story.
The
central irony about Skyfall is that its story is very much anti-Bond,
but it is being told in a by-the-numbers, classic Bond way. The story is
a not-too-distant cousin to The Ipcress File or Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, insofar as it uses a troubled yet distinctly British
protagonist to focus on the changing mechanics of the secret service,
particularly the ways in which technology is altering or eroding the
role of agents. This is reflected in the numerous scenes of M answering
to politicians, the increasing dominance of Q branch, and the
conversations between M and Mallory.
But whereas Tomas Alfredson
went against the grain with his film, openly eschewing the conventions
of a spy thriller, Mendes tells this story in the manner of the classic
Bonds. We go through the same motions as all the Bond films after
Diamonds are Forever, with Bond being sent on a difficult mission after a
riveting pre-title sequence. He snoops around with an attractive
sidekick-cum-love interest, who despite seeming more forthright and
independent still takes a back seat, in more ways than one. After
several fights with secondary villains, he and the main antagonist meet
and talk about the plot. There then ensues a cat-and-mouse chase over
several locations, eventually resulting in Bond triumphing, sometimes
with a deep personal cost.
If we try to see Skyfall as a genuine
reinvention of the Bond series, we will quickly come unstuck as these
clichés keep coming. No-one has yet had the confidence to fully abandon
Bond's gadgets, vodka martinis or inherent sexual magnetism; even when
Timothy Dalton made him cruel and dangerous, the character was still
placed within conventional surroundings. If, on the other hand, we see
this film as a genre exercise, whose mechanics we know inside out, then
the film takes flight and becomes remarkable. It's like a well-directed
production of The Mousetrap: predictable and often silly, but presented
so confidently that it becomes endearing.
Taken purely as a Bond
film, Skyfall is an incredibly well-made addition to the series. Despite
its prominent references to other films, it is visually distinctive and
spectacular. The film is shot by the fantastic Roger Deakins, who
collaborated with Mendes on Jarhead and Revolutionary Road. He paints
the film in a number of metallic greys and silvers, giving the action a
polished sheen even in its most kinetic moments. Mendes' camerawork
compliments him very well, relying less on Bourne-inflected hand-held
work and more on longer, sweeping shots to establish the scale of the
locations.
Mendes also comes up trumps in making us care about
the characters. It's tempting to just view them as archetypes and
therefore let the film wash over us, but even with all our cynicism we
do invest in Bond and the people around him. Daniel Craig is beginning
to rival Dalton for the title of Best Bond, continuing the intensity he
cultivated in the last two films and really showing the strain of the
character. Javier Bardem may be more pantomime here than he was in No Country for Old Men, but he's still intimidating, and his introductory
shot is one of the best in the series.
Judi Dench remains
compelling as M, and the film takes the time to show how her
relationship with Bond has developed over the series. While Bernard
Lee's M more or less stayed the same from film to film, her M has gone
from calling Bond a "sexist, misogynist dinosaur" to some form of
emotional kinship. Elsewhere Ben Whishaw impresses as Q, clearly drawing
on Brains from Thunderbirds, and Ralph Fiennes is in his element as
Mallory, though at times he tips over into his performance as Victor
Quartermaine in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
Skyfall
is a highly enjoyable and technically impressive way to mark 50 years
of James Bond. It's nothing like as ground-breaking as has been claimed,
with all the clichés of the series being celebrated in amongst all the
subterfuge. But as a genre piece in and of itself, it delivers on almost
every level, thanks to the believable central performances and Mendes'
assured direction. The only question that remains is whether these high
standards can be sustained for Spectre.
For further Bond reading, check out my article on bad Bond films here.
NEXT REVIEW: Star Trek (2009)
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