Skyfall

WARNING: This review is hidden because it reveals the content of the film.
Click here to show this review. Academy award winning director Sam Mendes helms this latest James Bond flic, Craig's third go around as Ian Flemming's MI6 agent. It is a testament to Mendes' skill behind the camera that this film can be taken as both the seminal and restarting point for the entire Bond franchise. The film says goodbye to familiar characters and hello to some past favorites and relishes the opportunity to poke fun at past entries with cleverly targeted nostalgia. Rarely has a Bond film been so self-aware. Unfortunately all this stylish self-awareness comes at a price for the film seems to have forgotten the tenets of basic Bond 101. Outside of a thrilling, yet somewhat underwhelming opening scene, the film lacks the kind of action and suspense that are necessary trademarks of past entries. As well, I cannot recall an entry in which the Bond girls are as irrelevant and disposable as they are in Skyfall. That's really saying something when you consider just how readily disposable Bond girls usually are. Then we have the villain, convincingly creepy Oscar winner Javier Bardem, sporting blonde hair and a joker-ish grin. The film feels like it's shifting into high gear when Bardem arrives about an hour in, yet it peters out instead. Again, I cannot recall any Bond film in which hero and villain never lay a hand on one another, which is the case here. Even the climactic finale disappoints because the much anticipated battle between the two men never occurs. So for all the critic talk that Skyfall is Bond reinvigorated, those people clearly have forgotten that Bond is about breathless over the top action, sexual innuendo and neat gadgetry. For all Mendes' technical skill, he seems to have drained all fun out of our favorite British spy.