Skyfall: Shaken And Stirred

We are in the age of Christopher Nolan.  His formula is what will constitute what makes a great action movie and what makes a forgettable one.  A great action movie starts with a badass opening action scene that lasts a good ten minutes before the credits even appear.  Next, we will get backstory and set-up-- all the information released in order to set us up on our exciting albeit convoluted journey.  Next, we introduce a villain so extraordinarily hardcore its hard not to root for him.  Every scene without said villain is just a little bit weaker.  Then, there's the first confrontation of hero and villain... obviously villain wins this one and escapes.  But, this just lights a fire under the ass of our hero only to get them wanting victory even more.  A few more plot reveals, a few more minor characters offed and we're at the titular final battle sequence where, more or less, the hero is supposed to win.  Christopher Nolan has perfected this art like Andy Warhol perfected a can of Campbell's soup.  What makes Skyfall so great is that it channels Nolan's world of action rather than the already established James Bond formula that has become predictable and archaic.

James Bond is getting old.  I don't necessarily mean the film series, though fifty years is quite a long time for a movie franchise to still be making money.  No, I mean Daniel Craig's James Bond is getting old.  He's becoming more and more human.  He's aging and his skills are wearing.  I mean, the guy's been shot at least ten times, come on!  This is where we find our Bond.  After a botched assignment and Bond assumed dead, an unknown terrorist starts targeting MI6 and, more specifically, M (Judi Dench).  So, naturally, Bond snaps into action, bangs a few no-names, kills a few henchmen, and does what Bond does best-- everything.

This is one of the better Bond films in the last decade.  Though, I am still calling Casino Royale Daniel Craig's best entry, Skyfall comes in at a close second.  Now, this might just my own preference, but I enjoy action movies much better when there is a competent villain.  When it's Bond vs. some crazy asshole it's so much better than Bond against corporations (*cough* Quantum *cough*) or randoms.  Not just Bond movies either.  Look at the best action movies ever made.  John McClane isn't a five-movie legend without having squared up against Hans Gruber first.  John Travolta wouldn't have had to take his face off if it wasn't for Nicolas Cage.  And let's not forget about The Joker.  There's a reason no one likes Die Hard 2.  There's a reason Pierce Brosnan never really won the hearts of Bond lovers... he never had anyone cool enough to go up against.

Javier Bardem, having already arguably played one of the top five villains of all time already, had a bit of a challenge on his hands.  How to channel that Anton Chigur intensity into a new villain opposing a British dude we know is never going to die.  Bardem plays villain Silva perfectly.  And because writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have successfully channeled their inner Chris Nolan, there's a lot of The Joker in Silva.  He's an ex-MI6 agent with a personal vendetta against M.  In other words, he's a batshit crazy lunatic terrorist with an Oedipus complex.  He's not concerned with killing Bond or hurting Bond.  The only concern he has is Bond trying to stop him, but he respects James Bond and loves the hunt more than the kill.  He's the type of guy to walk unprotected into a courthouse and start shooting the place up.  He's a brilliant foe for 007 because just like Bond, himself, they both do not fear death.  It's Bardem's Silva that drives the movie making it one of the best 007 films in the last decade.

I wasn't a big fan of Quantum of Solace.  I appreciated that they decided to do a direct-sequel to Casino Royale instead of a separate adventure starring the same dude.  I liked the first forty-five minutes of the movie quite a bit because it was chock full of great action and story.  But, the rest of the movie was a complex puzzle of a plot ending in an incredibly anti-climactic "action-sequence".  I was worried watching the first hour of Skyfall that it would fall into the same trap being that the first fifteen minutes are tense and harrowing, but the next forty-five (all devoid of Bardem, by the way) are slow-moving and plot-driven backstory and set-up leading to what was seeming like nowhere.  But, alas, two writers dug deep down into their soul to the furthest pit of Chris Nolan and pulled out something miraculous: a great movie.  All of the aforementioned so-called boring set-up was actually leading towards fun and exciting payoffs.  Where Quantum of Solace ultimately failed, Skyfall succeeds tenfold.

For hardcore fans of the Bond series, fret not, Bond is still Bond.  He's just not the superhuman, indestructible robot he's been in the past.  He's been humanized even further and it actually works.  What director Sam Mendes chose to do that other Bond directors have failed at is adapting Bond to what's relevant.  Campy villains and futuristic gadgets and invisible cars aren't what's entertaining and engaging to audiences now.  Right now, we're in the Nolan era.  You better adapt or you're gonna get Darwin'd, sucka.  Nevertheless, Mendes had also found clever ways of including Bond staples into this film without it seeming forced.  A martini is shaken and handed to Bond, to which he responds "just the way I like it".  Subtle, yet awesome.  Even the classic Aston Martin has found its way back into the hearts of Bond fans alike.

Of course, 007 will be back and I'm not sure how much longer the writers will be able to sustain the level of Nolan-ism they're at right now, but for now James Bond is just too legit.  Too legit... to die.

B+