Film Review: Skyfall

Director: Sam Mendes

A big movie in the latest franchise of James Bond with Daniel Craig as the thoroughly British hero, Casino Royale was a runaway success which re-ignited the ailing hero but Quantum of Solace pulled everyone back to Earth with a bang. So the difficult third film in the series was key to keeping the public interested if Bond is to continue to be a must-see spectacle at the cinema. The production of the movie was fraught with difficulties after financial troubles at MGM stopped the movie being made for a time and meant screenwriter Peter Morgan left the project.

Bond (Daniel Craig) is called into defend MI6 after a villain with an intricate knowledge of how they work and uses it to try and get to M (Judi Dench). His mission takes him round the world trying to trace his enemy (Javier Bardem) with the help of new Q (Ben Whishaw).

Daniel Craig returns as James Bond

Javier Bardem is the most impressive character within the film and is slightly under-used especially in the early going, his humour and uncomfortable nature was a highlight. Craig is solid as ever whilst Judi Dench as M takes a front seat much to the detriment of the movie, there is only so many sarcastic and abrupt put downs you can give her in one film. It's clear at certain points that the production team from this movie has learnt a lot from Christopher Nolan's version of Batman. 

Some inventive humour is induced to the movie which lurches wildly from surprisingly funny to incredibly flat and predictable, it's difficult to pitch humour in action movies without it being forced and cliché but Skyfall manages it for the most part. The suspense is well kept throughout the film although the ending does slightly drag on extending the run time of the film to an unnecessary length. But it's no doubt an improvement over Quantum of Solace and that was key here.

2.5/4 solid action movie and an improvement on its predecessor.