Skyfall (Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomi Harris, Albert Finney) – The cinematography is scintillating and the pace is pulsating. Daniel Craig is dark … again. Judi Dench is droll. Javier Bardem is bold but cartoonish. I was really looking forward to the latest in the Bond dynasty. I walked away disappointed that the genre that was uniquely Bond is now gone and been replaced by the British version of Jason Bourne or Ethan Hunt.
Director Sam Mendes is a skilled filmmaker but has never done a movie like Bond. He fails here. As my wife noted: too few girls, too few gadget and too few giggles. Hit the nail right on the head. What makes the Bond franchise work is that it never took itself overly seriously even while dealing with the potential end of the world. Bond was a style-conscious, cocky, clever, smirky spy with a great car, a sexy bod, an irresistible charm, and a lethal gun. He isn’t Jason Bourne and he sure isn’t Bruce Wayne.
Javier Bardem’s Silva is The Riddler. Sure, his acting is impeccable. But the character is right out of a comic book. I couldn’t find a “Bond girl” anywhere in the film. There is the young, beautiful agent, Eve, who shoots Bond and ends up in a desk job. And the biggest surprise at the end of the movie is absolutely no revelation to anyone who has even seen a Bond film. Q is hip, not geeky so his gadget is “old school.” Worse, when Bond uses it, the movie is barely beginning, not reserved for the critical moment in the film. Albert Finney, as an old friend of the family, is wasted in the worst ending to a Bond film ever.
All this said, the two hours and 23 minutes is not boring. The movie is enjoyable thanks to Bourne, Hunt and Wayne. But if you think you are going to see the winking, womanizing, lethal Bond we have been enjoying for the 50 years since Dr. No, you are sorely mistaken.