Skyfall

James Bond will return: traditionally, James Bond films end with that announcement. You have to work at building customer loyalty, after all, if you’re going to try and keep a film franchise going for more than half a century. But this time there’s something strangely comforting about that message. Skyfall shouldn’t be seen as the end. Exactly fifty years ago (the character in Ian Fleming’s novels is less than a decade older) Sean Connery was the first to play 007, in Dr No. The director of the 23^rd film, Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road), has had fun making a sort of tribute to the franchise. The world-famous silver-grey Aston Martin DB5, for example, has been taken out of the garage once more. The storyline revolves to a great extent around the question of whether that kind of spy – seducing women, eliminating villains, driving around in expensive cars – is outmoded or not. Can he do anything about cyber-terrorists? And M’s position, too, is openly questioned. One of Skyfall’s great strengths is the more prominent role it gives Judi Dench. Another is that Bond, after excursions to Turkey and Shanghai (at last) gets to have some adventures in London before heading off to the Scottish Highlands for the spectacular finale.

We already knew that Daniel Craig is the best Bond since Sean Connery, so we were looking forward above all to the baddy. We’re still not sure just where we would rank Raoul Silva in the hierarchy of the most memorable villains, but Javier Bardem certainly makes more of him than a director has a right to expect; his first appearance is one of the film’s highlights. We were a bit less impressed by the action scenes. Mendes does OK, but the wow factor is absent. He alternates the seriousness reintroduced by Casino Royale (2006) with moments that are more akin to the humour and tongue-in-cheek approach of the years before that. Skyfall aims to be at once vintage, serious, funny, and modern. At times that’s too much to ask, but you rarely get bored. Bring on 008.

Skyfall ●●●
UK, 2012, dir.: Sam Mendes, act.: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, 143 min.