Thanks to a copyright dispute that extends all the way back to 1961, this--the 24th--Bond film marks the return of the villainous organization known as Spectre for the first time since 1971's Diamonds Are Forever. However, that fact and the name of the lead character are about all those two movies have in common. While that rather joky film set the blueprint for the lighthearted, almost a spoof of themselves, Roger Moore era, this film is the grim culmination of the Daniel Craig brand of Bond.
The film opens with a bang in Mexico City during a massive parade on the Day of the Dead. Director Sam Mendes, the first person to direct back-to-back Bonds since John Glen directed both Timothy Dalton's James Bond films, The Living Daylights (1987) and License to Kill (1989), sets this scene brilliantly. It begins with one long take as the camera follows a man in a skull mask and a gorgeous woman as they walk down the street, into a hotel room, where the man removes his mask to reveal Craig's craggy face, who then, still in the same take, exits the hotel room via the window and makes his way across several roofs. What follows are explosions, a chase, and a wild helicopter ride. It's a hell of a way to open the movie and nothing that follows ever really tops it.
At 2 and a half hours, this is the longest Bond film ever made and not all of it is necessary. Unusually for a Bond film, the plot is rather topical. A new bureaucracy has developed in the world of British Intelligence. MI5 and MI6 are being combined and the double-O section might be mothballed. Instead, the new methodology is the electronic surveillance by the government of all of its citizens and since there's a new initiative for the world's major intelligence agencies to pool their resources, this would allow any government the power of spying on basically everyone in the world.
While the struggle between the old way and the new way of doing things is being fought over, Bond is out in the field without orders, tracking down a shadowy organization named Spectre. He's sent on this mission by a message from beyond the grave from Judi Dench's M, who willed him a final taped message. His one-man mission leads him all over the world and along the way he and we learn that all of the events of Daniel Craig's earlier Bond films have all been connected and conducted by the leader of Spectre, Ernst Stavros Blofeld. And the film doesn't stop there, it also, for the first time in any rendition of Bond, proposes a rather preposterous, far earlier connection, between Bond and Blofeld.
Although I've never been a fan of the Roger Moore style Bond films, with their jokes and lack of suspense or tension, I've felt since Casino Royale that the Daniel Craig era Bonds have moved too far in the opposite direction. Clearly they were influenced by the Jason Bourne films, but somewhere along the way they lost the things that made Bond, Bond. Craig's Bond is less sophisticated. He's more of a blunt weapon. I've heard people foolishly say that he's more like the Bond of the books, but he's really not. The James Bond of the books is a lover of fine things, who knows which wine to order, and who isn't without a sense of humor. Simply making James Bond more serious doesn't make him more like the literary version. None of this means that I don't enjoy Craig's Bond films, it's just that since he took over I've missed seeing a James Bond who enjoys being James Bond.
Skyfall saw the reintroduction of several elements of the Bond formula and that trend continues here. The last film introduced a new Q, new Moneypenny, and a new M. This time around Bond faces off with not only Spectre and Blofeld, but also against a physically imposing henchman. He also ends up inside a villain's lair, which naturally gets blown up at one point. However, unlike most Bond films where the lair explodes, here there's another 30 minutes' worth of story left to tell afterwards.
As usual in a Daniel Craig Bond film, the best moments are the action scenes. Craig, who is probably the most fit of any of the Bond actors, handles these scenes superbly. And Sam Mendes directs them equally well. Whether Bond is fighting onboard a train, racing through the streets of Rome in an Aston Martin, or using an airplane to stop a convoy of SUVs, we are left on the edge of our seats. In my review of Skyfall, I wrote that I didn't think Mendes brought much to the table, but he was either given more of a free hand this time, or he's grown more confident directing the action, because this is one of the most beautifully shot Bond films ever.
Recently Craig made headlines when he said that he would rather "slash his wrists" than make another Bond film. He's since recanted and said he may do one more, which I interpret as meaning, if they offer him enough money, he'll suit up once again. If he doesn't come back though, this would be the perfect movie for him to end on. It ties all of his movies together and seems like the perfect bookend for his stint in the tuxedo. When they do replace him, I hope they bring back, not the jokes, but the sense of fun. James Bond is the coolest guy on the whole planet. He should get to enjoy that and so should we.
