Skyfall (2012)

Sam Mendes has made some remarkable movies, few of them being Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road and the much acclaimed Oscar Winning film American Beauty. So when it was announced that he was at the helm the new Bond project, people decided to not give up hope. Back in 2008, Marc Foster’s Quantum of Solace had scarred them. It's a feeling I can understand, it was a painful experience every Bond fan had to go through. Further back in 2005, when Daniel Craig stepped in to the shoes of Bond, he received mixed reviews. Critics loved him because he was one of the few Bonds who could act. The movie itself took some time to be loved. Why? It didn’t give us the image that Bond was actually Superman. Well, not all the time at least. Coming back to the present, let me put it this way, we have been rewarded for being loyal to the franchise. Skyfall is undoubtedly the best movie in the series.

Is it the best ‘Bond movie’? I would have to say no.

He just realized how awful Quantum was.

First of all, Daniel Craig is a powerhouse of an actor. In his first movie he was busy proving his Bond-ness, in the second one he was defending the title. In his last one, he decided to do what he knows best- acting. He puts his everything into the role and helps Bond reemerge successfully, this time as a human being.

The Antagonist, Mr.Silva is played by Javier Bardem. A great Bond villain played by the Biutiful actor. You don’t know who he is? Well then, this is No Country For Old Men.

You're not scared of this man? You should be.

Skyfall opens with a spectacular 10 minute long chase sequence in Istanbul. Soon after that you have the ritual opening song, this time sung by Adele. Even thinking about it qualifies for goose bumps. Sounds cool right? Perfect start for a Bond movie you might think. Till this point everybody loves the movie. From here onwards the whistles subside, the music gets serious (more of tense bass and less of jazz and brass) and Bond is seen sporting stubble, drinking away in some crowded and godforsaken beachside bar. At this moment people who haven’t paid for the popcorn stop eating it. Something is wrong. Suddenly all those negative reviews pop in your mind. You are on the verge of cancelling the dinner plans. Meanwhile, the movie goes silent. It goes dark. It is now progressing like an evening, slowly and mysteriously. You don’t expect poignant pauses and patient close-ups in a Bond movie! But it is happening. As the first half of the movie unfurls and comes to an end, all the people in the audience sit dumbstruck. Some feel fooled. Some feel rewarded.

The action formula is limited and the other franchises have tried almost everything. MGM’s regular bouts of bankruptcy, has given other studios an opportunity to trespass into their solo hero genre. We have the Mission Impossible franchise, the Transporter franchise, the Taken franchise and of course my favorite, the Bourne franchise (the most ‘moving’ of them all).

Even the goddamn poster is shaky.

Skyfall decides to solve this problem. And the solution is simple. We need to peek into the psychology of the audience. Why do people love to watch Bond movies? It’s the macho quotient. They feel tough. James Bond is invincible. No one can intimidate him (and believe me, villains try hard, they always take him for a walk around their estate, taking it up as their duty to explain to him, in unnecessary detail, their plans to conquer the world. They also inform him about the perils he needs to be aware of in case he decides to escape). He is handsome, he is sexy, he is rich and he is always surrounded by girls, guns and gadgets. But this picture is too rosy. We don’t watch the movies for only that. We watch them to know how he maintains this, how different villains try to take these essentials from him and how he always saves the world by not letting them do so. We got the point long back and it was wearing people out. They had stopped caring for the guy who always wins. There has to be some difference between James Bond and The Powerpuff girls. It was time to let people know what James Bond was all about. It was time to give them a reason to care for his life. It was time to show people that he too had feelings and that he too was nothing but another vulnerable human being with a painful past. Skyfall is a much needed installment. It is a movie the fans deserve. After a point of time, every enigmatic person has to reveal his secrets to become a closer friend. After which, he becomes a normal human being, just as boring. That is why people left the theater before the movie ended. They were not ready for this. Their fantasy had come to an end.

The scientific term for fantasies coming to an end is known as the Jar Jar Effect.

Movies in the late 20^th century and those of the 21^st century have always talked about the apocalypse some way or the other, sometimes unknowingly. And Skyfall is no exception. It talks about human corrosion with time. The imagery and metaphors are strong here and the dialogues, powerful. It is all about something you would not expect to be slid into a Bond movie (and believably so), motherhood. You have to be sufficiently intrigued by now.

Bond is not saving the world here; he is doing something more real and therefore more relatable. All you need to know is that this movie is different from all the Bond movies and about time so. Skyfall is more personal.

IMDB Rating: 8.2/10 (This rating will probably decrease in the following weeks)

My Rating: 4/5