Skyfall ☆☆☆☆☆

For non spoiler reviews I'd advise looking at Empire Magazine or their website as, like with so many films this year, I'm not going to be able to articulate why this was my favourite Bond film without revealing the details.

However as a synopsis the film concerns M and a hard drive containing a full list of spies and their aliases who are currently undercover. Through, what will be argued through the film, M's bad judgement call the drive is lost and Bond presumed dead. This is only the beginning of M's torment.

Cue many cars, guns, explosions, a bond girl or two and a disfigured arch nemesis and you have a bloody good film.

Daniel Craig is my favourite Bond, perhaps because a lack of interest on my parents behalf meant I was not introduced to the films until ITV began their incessant re-runs and so I was not taken with Sean Connery or charmed by Roger Moore. Though I do have a soft spot for Pierce Brosnan. Craig's are the only films I have seen at the cinema, and are the only ones with half-believable gadgets.

Skyfall is certainly the best Bond film for me, buoyed by a British director with a talent for pathos (and now explosions), and so below I will outline exactly what I loved so much.

Please do not read on if you have not yet seen Bond, you will only be cheating yourself.

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To begin with I connected to the plot of this film more so than I have done previously (my comparatives will only be Craig's work).
I have no clue about playing cards or gambling so Casino Royale was a bit lost on me, Quantum of Solace was a revenge movie, whereas Skyfall is going back to basics. Basic tech, origins of the Bond story, and is about the dilemma of being an agent in the field.

Acting/character wise Craig's Bond and Judi Dench's M were magnificent. Their connection, the perhaps inappropriate way that M treats Bond (like a son not anything perverse) is a beautiful thing. The final half of the film with James rescuing M, taking her to his childhood home for protection only for her to die anyway, was so poignant. It's the first instance of James showing love for someone other than himself since his tragic relationship with Eva Green in Casino Royale.

The Bond women followed a similar vein to previous, James sleeps with one and she dies trying to help him while the other gets outrageously flirted with. Luckily for Naomie Harris she turns out to be Moneypenny, and the set up for her role being revealed was pretty darn clever. Now I'm not the brightest bulb in the box when it comes to guessing film twists - I'm one of those who gasped at the end of the Sixth Sense - so I'm sure many people guessed who Harris would be.
I liked this nod to the future - establishing a new Q (played perfectly by Ben Whishaw), Ralph Fiennes' Mallory becoming the new 'M' after proving himself to be more than a stuffed shirt, and Harris as his secretary Moneypenny who we will all look forward to in further films having flirty banter with Mr Bond.

The action was pretty glorious and more than a few pennies were spent on those explosions. The train adventure at the start was almost not quite believable - but then the point of these new Bonds is that it might - with 'might' in huge capital letters - be possible for these stunts to be pulled off. I especially enjoyed Craig's Bond as being unfit for even the most basic tests, showing that his habit of drinking till his liver screams has not left him unaffected. This is the grisly and time-worn Bond that Pierce Brosnan and his scruffy beard could never accomplish.

What is of particular kudos to Sam Mendes is keeping everything simple, and of course nodding to previous Bonds in the choice of car and gadgets. I was so upset to see that gorgeous Aston Martin blow up, such a relic of Bonds gone by - but perhaps that was on purpose to say 'Look, this is new Bond, you've had three films to establish his story and character but now we are moving on to the next fifty years'.

Skyfall turning out to be Bond's childhood home and not some top-secret government conspiracy or previous assignment that went horribly wrong was also genius. Not being a true fan I have not read the books so if this was not the scriptwriters and Mendes' decision then please do tell me, but it was perfect. Skyfall represents something that Bond lost a long time ago, family and stability. As M says, orphans make the best recruits, and using his home to hide M just adds to the protective nature of Bond and M's relationship - no matter what has been done James wanted to protect M, and she lets him do it because she trusts him wholeheartedly.

The destruction of Skyfall and the death of M represents a change for Bond. Any ties he once had are now gone, except for Queen and Country Bond has no loyalties. I have this small fear that future directors and script writers will try and move back toward the cheesy 'I'm EVIL and will destroy the world except wait, Hello Mr Bond' but I think Daniel Craig might have something to say if it does.

Speaking of evil Javier Bardem was a very good villain, as he has proved before in No Country For Old Men. This time he was almost saucy in his demeanour, incredibly flirty with Bond, and you really believed that he felt he was right in his pursuit of M. I actually found myself removing some blame from Silva as it was M leaving him to the Chinese torturers that set the nail in the coffin of his sanity. His deformity was also horrific, having your face partially collapse because of syanide that was supposed to be your ticket out did not do his synapses any favours. I was glad to only see it once but full credit to the special effects and make up people for making it look so real.

I wanted M to be the one to kill Silva, but then it always had to be James. He was M's true and loyal protector, even if he could not save her life.

On a final note, I liked the death by komodo dragons scene, it was primal and scary if the CGI-d lizards did look a little fake, and I especially liked that not once does he ask for a Martini - but you see it being shaken and poured out for him, less cheesy but still true to Bond.