Daniel Craig returns as Her Majesty’s Action Hero, James Bond in Skyfall, an updating of the Bond franchise. The core of the franchise is still the Bond character – impossibly suave, sexy and insurmountable. Daniel Craig pulls it off as only Sean Connery could. Craig’s 007 is more shopworn this time, with a drinking problem and a battled scarred (albeit Adonis-like) body. But Craig’s Bond can still jump inside a moving train and then reach inside his jacket sleeve to adjust his cuff.
This episode’s Bond supervillain is played by an especially menacing Javier Bardem plus peroxide. When filmmakers change Bardem’s hairstyle, something just happens to make him extra creepy.
It’s tough to impress an audience these days with cool gizmos, when we have guys sitting in Nevada watching SUVs in Afghanistan on satellite transmission and then blowing them up by remote control. So in Skyfall, Bond goes retro and brings back the Aston Martin with the ejector seat and the machine gun headlights.
Skyfall also sets up the changing of the guard for franchise, retiring Judi Dench and adding Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw and Naomie Harris. Naomie Harris is an especially welcome addition – beautiful, engaging and able to pull off an action scene.
But the real reason to watch Skyfall is for the action. It’s tough to top the first sequence, which features a motorcycle chase on the rooftops of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar turning into a fight on top of a moving train. Skyfall is one of the better pure action flicks this year.
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