Bond is back, baby.
Have you been missing the ol’ motifs from earlier Bond films? Oh then honey, Skyfall is the film for you. Not that that’s surprising; there had been hints at the start of 2006’s Casino Royale that this new interpretation of Bond would come with a bit of character origin story. Now with three films in, you’ll see plenty of what Bond fans know and love; the groovy acid-trip opening credits montage, the Shirley Bassey-esque “Skyfall” sung by Bassey heir apparent Adele (who knocks it out of the park, btw), and the iconic in-the-barrel-of-a-gun view of Bond. And hey, is that a DB5 over there? An added bonus is the “50 Years Of Bond” logo at the end credits, a wonderful nod to the history of the series.
But Skyfall doesn’t require those motifs to fit it in with films that have gone before, however much fun they are to see. Gorgeous cinematography and camerawork echo the exotic locale shots of earlier films. The scene where Bond heads into a floating casino is breathtaking with it’s use of lanterns, huge illuminated paper dragons and ripples on the water that are a lovely counterpoint to all that candlelight. There’s also a birds-eye-view of a Firefly-like Shanghai that zooms in to Bond swimming in a pool at the top of a building that is simply perfect. What? I’m an angle nerd, it’s true. Skyfall is a perfect mix of old and new that takes the “Craig Bond” down a path that is comfortably familiar, yet thrillingly new.
