Skyfall: Bond Goes Wrath of Khan

There are the occasional mainstream franchises that I absolutely adore. In most of those cases, I don't adore them by the time studios are finished with them, but there's some amount of love associated with the basic mythology and characters that carries into each new opus. Then, there are far more franchises I am either indifferent to or actively despise. The 007 series has been hanging around cinemas for 50 years now and I must confess I'm rather indifferent to the lot of them. I've seen a handful and yet none of them really left much of an impression. Most of them fell into the average category, with the only exception being Quantum of Solace, an embarrassment to all involved. That being said, Daniel Craig's more serious and realistic James Bond has always had a lot of promise to it and I went into Skyfall with the hope that the payoff I'd been hoping for since Casino Royale finally existed.

Skyfall is one of those movies that would no doubt play best to one who knew absolutely nothing about it, but for the sake of writing a review, I can't leave out all plot details. So here's my abbreviated paragraph giving you a small taste. MI6 is in trouble. A flash drive containing the names of every agent embedded in terrorist organizations around the world is stolen and released. Bombings target M (Judi Dench), the leader of MI6. James Bond (Daniel Craig), now the oldest agent in the organization is faced with the question: in the age of advanced technology, are field agents even necessary anymore when all this destruction can be caused with the use of a computer? Faced with a foe (Javier Bardem) unlike any of the traditional Bond villains with a personal vendetta and no grand conspiracy, and no fear of failure. This is truly a worthy adversary because, to use the old adage, this time, it's personal.

Director Sam Mendes (the only Academy Award winning director to ever helm a Bond feature) stated that The Dark Knight was what gave him the confidence to make Skyfall:

In terms of what [Nolan] achieved, specifically 'The Dark Knight,' the second movie, what it achieved, which is something exceptional. It was a game changer for everybody. And what Nolan proved was that you can make a huge movie that is thrilling and entertaining and has a lot to say about the world we live in, even if, in the case with ‘The Dark Knight,’ it’s not even set in our world. If felt like a movie that was about our world post-9/11 and played on our fears and discussed our fears and why they existed and I thought that was incredibly brave and interesting. 

This is being clung to by many fans, saying this was very much the Nolan treatment on a Bond movie, but I'd actually have to disagree. Skyfall has its fair share of big and epic moments, but I wouldn't call it an epic story. This film decided to up the ante in the smartest way possible - by making you care. It's a personal, thrilling story of revenge based on personal motives and no clear trajectory. The bad guy never has to sit down and explain his plan to take over the world because he's not after the world. He just want to kill the woman who ruined his life. He's not out to watch the world burn. No, this isn't The Dark Knight. This is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. 

KHAAAAAAAAAAAN

In quite a few ways, Skyfall was like Wrath of Khan for me. In both cases, they took a large, outlandish franchise that I'm not particularly a fan of and took things to a more intimate, scary level. This isn't some watered down Marvel film, there are real stakes here. People die, people fail, people have flaws. The bad guy actually has some sympathetic qualities where you end up leaving the theater actually wondering if his motives were even all that despicable. This is, without a doubt, the thinking man's Bond film and it's a wonderful experience because of it. Things get worse than they ever have before and personal relationships become the king, not campy explosions.


Thematically, this is such a clever deconstruction of the series while at the same time reaffirming why these movies matter. That question of whether agents are necessary in the age of computer hacking is a very valid one. Has the world moved on, leaving the kind of barbaric fistfights and action scenes behind? Can James Bond ever really belong to a post-911 world? Skyfall is here to tell you, "Yes, he absolutely can. Here's why." Though not strictly subtle, that's still a hell of a lot more subtext than you'll find in most Bond films. Bond here is stripped down, aging, still loyal to the old world, and ultimately vulnerable. This is the kind of vulnerability Bond is known to throw out the window. Here, he's human.

It helps that such a smart approach is met with phenomenal performances across the board. Javier Bardem's villain was unfortunately spoiled by the trailers, but he's quite an interesting man. As stated above, he's not unsympathetic, just like Khan's revenge plot came from a place that struck a chord of sympathy in viewers. That being said, he's ruthless, brilliant, and emotionally confusing every step of the way. Craig and Dench continue to portray Bond and M with an intense loyalty and bravado that's really realistic and appropriate. We also get the addition of Ralph Fiennes as Mallory, a bureaucrat investigating the security breaches. Do I need to describe that performance? Clearly not. Fiennes is always great. There's also Ben Whishaw as Q and Naomie Harris as Eve. It's a great cast all around, all shot beautifully by director of photography Roger Deakins. Deakins has shot the most beautiful looking blockbuster of recent times.

Perhaps this review is leading you to believe that Skyfall is some new god of cinema, like The Dark Knight was four years ago. I wouldn't go that far. It's not groundbreaking in the way Nolan's sequel was, but it is a fantastic step for this new era of Bond. Skyfall is endlessly engaging, thrilling, and fully entertaining. It has depth and a great personal approach that really can't be replicated again to the same effect in future installments. Sam Mendes may not have topped his ultimate inspiration, but he can always rest knowing he made a 007 sequel that's more competent and intelligent than Nolan's Batman finale. If that's not one hell of a confidence booster, I don't know what is.

9/10