This is one of the best films the Bond franchise has seen for years. Whilst the film is pretty mixed (it doesn’t start great), by the end the film remembers what made this series so popular in the first place.
Bond films have tried to shake their slightly camp, slightly silly image over the last decade or so, particularly since Daniel Craig took over the role. They’ve dropped the gadgets, the bond clichés, and the gags, all the things that we loved. Since the mid 2000’s Bond films has looked like a polished, sanitised, versions of better action flicks. The first half of Skyfall fits pretty neatly into the new Bond model. He is told that Q branch doesn’t do exploding pens anymore, nobody makes any jokes, and Bond has not very convincing fights and chases in not very convincing locations. I was about to write the film off. Then, out of nowhere, the film starts being bloody marvellous.
Without giving too much away, Bond decides to fight the villain in his old family home in Scotland. Cue the return of THE Bond car, the Aston Martin DB5, complete with ejector seat and hidden machine guns, secret passageways, a wise cracking, shotgun wielding, gamekeeper and, to top it all off, homemade, light bulb based booby traps. It has a sense of OTT fun that the series has been lacking for a while. That's what this film brings back, without going all Roger Moore on us, and that’s why it’s so good.
I should also say that the film looks lovely, particularly the scene in the floating casino, and the acting is pretty cracking throughout. Special mentions go to Javier Bardem (seriously, could this guy be any more creepy?) and Bérénice Marlohe, who is bloody fantastic.
Overall, this film is a slick return to form. Well worth a watch.
Watch if you liked: Any Bond film from the mid-90s on
If you liked this watch: Raiders of the Lost Ark
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