Skyfall review: The old ways are sometimes the best

With it’s release being set on the year James Bond first stepped onto our screens, half a century previous, there’s been a lot of hype surrounding Skyfall. With its $150 million budget and the multi-award winning Adele singing the theme song, no stops were made in this instalment.

The theme itself holds reminiscence to the nostalgic classics first heard in Golden Eye and Diamonds Are Forever. The modern ones were rife with heavy guitar chords and hipster Jack White vocals. But it was always a timeless ballad, sang by a diva in the good ol’ days and it seems like they’ve gone back to that tradition to mark the 50th anniversary.

Throughout the whole film, there’s an undeniable thread of old time style. Unlike Craig’s first two films playing the agent, it’s not so concerned about being fresh and slick, it’s more of an all-Bond-encompassed spectacular. Q and other reinvented characters from the older movies make an appearance and little gestures to more clichéd 007 happen frequently. Shaken not stirred, and all that.

Not everything is a nod to the past, however. The cast list is dripping with new talent to the Bond franchise, from the English director Sam Mendes at the helm, to Javier Bardem playing the antagonist, Raoul Silva. His interpretation of the villain sees a creepiness that has not really been seen in a Bond enemy before. There is no thug with gold teeth here, just a broken man with relentless revenge on his mind, and it’s makes for an interesting and darker plot than expected.

Since Casino Royale, the opening titles have become an integral part of the flair of the newer films and although, all three recent movies have had all different title sequence designers, they all can be tied together with their simplistic but polished style, and this is no exception.

Skyfall sees Dame Judi Dench reprise her role as M for the seventh time, but it is only now audiences can really see who she is and interpret her close relationship with Bond. Their on-screen rapport and ability to bounce mockery off one another well makes their connection seem much more genuine.

Despite him inevitably looking a little haggard (not that the movie doesn’t use that to their advantage and play on it), Craig delivers his more serious, brooding “Double O” with absolute ease. Being his third film, he certainly knows what he’s doing and his ability to lend the character a damaged but endearing demeanour despite him essentially being a sulky, womanising assassin, is unflawed.

The fact that this marks the 23rd Bond movie to be made about the original Ian Fleming character, the idea that surely the franchise must be waning can’t help but be thought, but this is a wonder that Skyfall squanders within the first action sequence. James Bond will return, and we hope he bloody well does.