Skyfall

RATING: A-

It's not hard to see why we went four years in between Quantum of Solace and the third Daniel Craig James Bond film. Seeing as Quantum took what could've been a decent film and screwed it up with horrible direction and camera work, they were probably taking extra time to make sure they got it right next time. 

Interestingly enough, they did that by not continuing the story arc that Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace began; instead, they saved that for Spectre, the most recent release. Skyfall takes a completely different direction, with a whole new narrative, some extra characters, an interesting villain (finally)--which proves to all work out for their benefit.

Skyfall begins with a bang (a bit literally) as Bond chases after a mercenary who has stolen a hard drive containing a list of undercover MI6 agents. Desperation on M's part causes one thing to lead to another, and a shot intended for the minion takes out Bond instead. (This is all in the first 5-10 minutes.) While Bond is presumed dead, MI6 comes under attack from cyberterrorism from a villain named Silva who's after M and the SIS Building in London is blown up. Just below 20 minutes in the film after he's supposedly killed, Bond shows up alive, ready for duty. (Well, sort of.) 

The ensuing conflict with Silva ends up being a lot more interesting and much less convoluted than anything in the previous two films. (Seriously, I'm not sure I can even remember any of the names of the villains from the last two films.) We are ultimately given a pretty riveting action film that actually stands out just a little more than Casino Royale did. It helps that we're given some extra actual characters besides just Bond and M and the random Bond girl; we're introduced to the amusing nerdy Q (an apparent longtime Bond appearer), and Gareth Mallory, a high-ranking official who, though he has limited screen time, actually seems to have more character than the others of his caliber we've seen thus far, and he becomes a lot more important by the end of the film. 

Besides the new narrative and characters, the film is loaded with several exciting action sequences (the opening chase being a definite highlight, as well as the final standoff). The casting is also strong; besides Daniel Craig and Judi Dench, we have Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney; Javier Bardem also does well as the clearly-insane Silva. 

Perhaps the biggest problem with the film (besides a couple of "infiltration" scenes that are rather slow) is the whole "Bond faking his death" thing. For one, we *never* find out how he survived against all odds. And ultimately, it seems rather pointless; it doesn't come back in the film again except for a couple isolated lines, and nothing really would've changed had it not happened. There's no element of surprise either, since everyone knew he would live (both because he's the main character and because the trailers said so). 

Despite that somewhat clunky plot point early on, Skyfall manages to showcase the best of Daniel Craig as James Bond thus far; with him at his most vulnerable, and Sam Mendes (who did a good job directing) puts together a film that actually mostly makes complete sense. Perhaps the best thing about Skyfall is that you don't have to watch either of the two previous films to understand it (though I would still recommend Casino Royale); for now, we can skip the dud that was Quantum of Solace and just enjoy the well-made action/adventure film that is Skyfall on its own merits.