Looking Back on 007: The Craig Years - Skyfall (2012)

After Quantum of Solace was met with lackluster critic and audience response it would be another four years before Craig and company would have a chance to redeem themselves. This proved to be the right choice when Skyfall came out and was met with huge success. The film went back to basics and told a Bond story the way it was always meant to be. The shortcomings of Quantum were not ignored and they made all the right moves to make sure it didn't happen again. The biggest of those was bringing in masterful director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) who used his talents to bring Bond into the modern age without sacrificing the things we all love about the series.  Four years was apparently the perfect amount of time for audiences to forget the stink that the previous film had left behind as Skyfall grossed over $300 million in the U.S. alone.

Skyfall (2012)

Directed By: Sam Mendes

As mentioned before, this film goes back to the basics opening up on Bond in the middle of his last mission. In a daring chase that takes them from the roof of the Grand Bazaar to a fist fight on top of a train we watch our hero "die" in the first ten minutes of the movie. From there we immediately cut to the opening credits and Adele's amazing opening theme and from this moment forward, you know this is a true 007 film. In just fifteen minutes Sam Mendes managed to make his film feel more "Bond" than anything included in Quantum of Solace. What's even more crazy is that there is another two hours of film to follow this amazing opening sequence. 

After Bond is declared KIA a list including the identities of all the active MI6 agents falls into the hands of a cyber terrorist (Javier Bardem). The threats become real when he stages an attack on the MI6 headquarters, alerting our "deceased" hero and thus bringing him out of retirement. Now he must track down and stop the unknown threat before he releases the names of their agents. Things become even more complicated when it becomes clear that whoever it is that is attacking them has a past with the MI6 and more specifically, a history with M (Judi Dench). 

Bringing in Sam Mendes was the saving grace of this franchise, adding a talent as massive as him behind the camera is something we haven't seen done enough in this ongoing series. His knowledge and skill as an Academy award winning director elevates this film higher than most any other 007 film to come before it. He managed to make Bond a serious action star without sacrificing and losing all the great espionage elements that made him so popular to begin with. He took away the stigma that Bond is a campy, golden era spy who in no way translates into reality. With Skyfall he makes the argument that Bond is not only a badass superhero, but that he is a true necessity in our reality. 

The 23rd installment in the franchise brings back Daniel Craig as Bond and he is as good as he has ever been in the series. This was the first movie where I finally felt like he was truly James Bond, he has the charisma, he has the style, and above all else he has the ego. Judi Dench also returns as M for the seventh time in her career in probably her biggest role yet with the central story revolving around her past. It's the newcomers to the franchise however that really lift this film up, adding great talent with people like Ralph Fiennes and Naomie Harris. As is the case with most of the best Bond films however, the villain is what makes the film and Skyfall features one of the best of all-time. Javier Bardem plays our maniacal villain who has a plan to get revenge on the organization who betrayed him over a decade ago. Much like in No Country for Old Men he turns in a truly terrifying performance and totally owns his role. 

This movie continues what the other two films had started, bringing Bond into the modern age. It has been no secret that the franchise needed some retooling to be taken as a serious action franchise nowadays. Cheesy gadgets, a cool car, and sexy women aren't enough to hold your film together anymore. What this film does better than the two to come before it is that it manages to keep the silly side of the franchise by making it work within this new world. Mendes finally brought back Q (Ben Whishaw) and in an amazing way. He is going to be feeding Bond cool gadgets again but this time around it will all be plausible. Q has no problem poking fun at the "exploding pen" tricks that this franchise was built on while still dealing out the new age of espionage technology.

When this movie was released back in 2012 it was met with mostly great critic response. Roger Ebert was a fan saying "This is a full-blooded, joyous, intelligent celebration of a beloved cultural icon, with Daniel Craig taking full possession of a role he previously played unconvincingly." Richard Roeper wrote "This is perhaps the most visually stunning Bond movie ever made." One of my personal favorite critics Scott Weinberg was also a fan calling the film "An espionage thriller mixed with a revenge story wrapped in a character study about the world's favorite secret agent." The film is also currently sporting a 93% on the Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.8/10 IMDB score and grossed over $300 million dollars domestically, making this film a massive hit. 

Skyfall is the reason we are all as excited as we are for Spectre this weekend. Sam Mendes has returned to direct and they added even more talent with the likes of Christoph Waltz and Dave Bautista. Mended brought the franchise back to what we love following the classic Bond film structure to create a movie that is both a love letter to the past and a preview of what the future holds for cinema's longest running action franchise. If you have plans to see the new film this weekend I can't recommend going back to revisit this one more, it is an incredible Bond movie and one of my favorite action films of the past five years. 

As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches Movies. You can find me anytime on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!