Skyfall questions the need for a 007 almost
from the word go. Knocks him off a train roof – a shot gone astray, and one that goes unrepented – on the
outskirts of Istanbul. Dumps him in London, with his eponymous boss M under
threat, and a world of clunky gadgetry replaced with the simple elegance of
tracking devices and technology. Age and a declining constitution do not help
either. Bond picks up his bearings and chases his quarry – agent gone rogue
Silva (Javier Bardem) – into Shanghai, and then Macau. And finally back to good
old England, where M liberally borrows from Ulyysses and frankly admits that “we
are not the strength that in old days moved earth and heaven…” but promises to
continue to “strive to seek to find and not to yield”… even as the climactic
scenes drift towards the Scottish moors and the hints of a bleak history. Skyfall is
interesting – disconcerting at first, because of its deliberate eschewing of
flamboyance, but in the end fairly successful at keeping the franchise relevant
14.5/20
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