SKYFALL Old dog, New Tricks !!!
Girls – The female lead is all of 77 years old ! A seasoned vintage indeed !!
Gadgets – A gun and a radio (nothing else not even an exploding pen)!!
Gas guzzlers – A throwback to the old days – a 1960 vintage Aston martin DB5 !!!
Yes, this Bond(Daniel Craig) is different. In the capable hands of Sam Mendes (American Beauty) he has been deconstructed and like he himself says, resurrected. After the 23rd installment spanning 50 years the audience can safely conclude that Britain’s national treasure is in safe hands.
Bond films are a genre unto themselves and any new entrant is always measured up against the previous ones. So not everything is different – Chart topping – title song? Check. Thrilling, thumping, talismanic, telekinetic opening sequence? Check. Exotic locales ? Double Check (Turkey and China) Scenery chewing psychopathic villain? Triple Check (Javier, Javier and Javier Bardem). Infact while casting for the role of the villain, Mendes had lobbied hard for Bardem to accept the part. In preparing for the role, Bardem had the script translated into his native Spanish in order to better-understand his character, which Mendes cited as being a sign of the actor’s commitment to the film.
Starting off with a subtle nod to the Wikileaks furore, cyber-terrorists have stolen a hard drive containing a complete list of NATO operatives embedded in secret operations all over the world. The trail leads Bond from the bazaars of Istanbul to the casinos of Macau, culminating in a fabulous confrontation with a flamboyant (for want of a better adjective) villain on a far out island !!
The brooding Bond is perfectly played by the craggy Craig with a rugged roughness, definitely shaken not stirred !! He almost dies before the opening credits come on, and a number of times thereafter. Embittered, battered, aged, shaken, stirred, shot and surprise, surprise with permanent stubble.
M, too is frostier and fighting harder for her survival than ever. She is under attack from without and under scrutiny from within. All the while the psychopath stays few steps ahead of them. So far, so dark, so bitter but so very, very good. A chest wound, shaky trigger fingers, advancing age may have slowed James down physically but this is a more intelligent Bond and infinitely more relatable.
A third act which emphasises more on character development rather than an action set-piece will no doubt come as a letdown to most movie-goers. And this represents the major flaw in the sense that it gives us an impression of less bang for our bucks.. The final script which was written by Bond screenwriting regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade finds it difficult to give the devil his deserved desserts.
Thanks to lensman Roger Deakins and production designer Dennis Gassner, the locales have never looked better be it a Shanghai skyscraper rippled by neon advertising or a Scottish highland home nestled amongst moors.
Of the cast, as you would have guessed Craig, Bardem and Dench are outstanding. Support cast in the form of Ralph Fiennes, as a Brit bureaucrat, Naomie Harris, as an MI6 agent, Ben Whishaw as Q and Berenice Marlowe as a sexy siren Severine are more than adequate. Only Albert Finney is wasted in a role which doesn’t really make any sense.
Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have produced a triumphant re-boot of the spy series. Oh yes, the world’s favorite franchise is well and truly secure and will definitely win itself a whole new generation/legion of fans with Skyfall.
In conclusion, if a ticket at a multiplex costs Rs. 300, this movie is definitely worth every penny and would have been more had the climax been more conventional.

SAUMIL BHANSHALI