Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Berenice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Rory Kinnear, Helen McCrory, Ola Rapace, Ben Whishaw.

There will be detractors of Skyfall, there always is and always will be when it comes to the James Bond film series. There will be those that call them archaic, a remnant of an era that no longer exists. They give it disparaging names and in less than polite circles pat themselves on the back for being able to condemn a film for representing certain social stereotypes and they will point to America at leading the way in how these types of films should be presented. Never mind the film, forget everything you have seen on the screen. It is easier to denounce both film and main actor when there is an axe to grinds somewhere.

James Bond’s enduring legacy has lasted for an astonishing 50 years. From Sean Connery’s first immortal words as he introduced himself at the card table, audiences have flocked to see every one of the films and despite certain dips in the canon’s fortune, namely On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Living Daylights and Quantum of Solace, it retains, at its heart, the essential qualities that make a screen hero so interesting to watch. In Daniel Craig’s first and now this third outing as the British spy, the tension is racked up again, the pithy lines that dominated otherwise excellent performances by Pierce Brosnan are nearly and finally eradicated  and what is left makes American spy thrillers such as the Bourne trilogy somewhat second rate by comparison.

What makes this particular Bond so riveting is, along with dispensing of some of the more predictable one-liners and super villains out to rule the world, is the characterisation of the triangle that lies at the very centre of the film. The action may sell the story, and what action it is, but what keeps the audience gripped in Skyfall is the real relationship between Bond, his boss ‘M’, played as ever by the ever gracious Judi Dench and the very extraordinary Javier Bardem as the sexually ambiguous predator and psychologically damaged Raoul Silva who uses Bond’s vulnerability against him.

The director, Sam Mendes, should be proud of the way that he managed to pull everyone concerned to make Skyfall just as good as Casino Royale and the writers that were commissioned to put the film’s many facets together are just as important as the abundance of acting talent on display.

Judi Dench just radiates acting talent in Skyfall; perhaps her finest one in all her seven appearances as the shadowy ‘M’ and the team is joined by Ralph Fiennes in his first outing in a Bond film. Ralph Fiennes, although not on screen for long, gives the film a sense of gravitas that hasn’t been seen since the early days of the series.

For Daniel Craig, it has to be said, he is on the cusp of being what James Bond encapsulates and what he stands for. Certainly he is already on a par with Sean Connery as the definitive and only Bond.       

With so many nods and gestures to the original books and ideas of what James Bond has achieved, the film really could have descended into one long anniversary cliché but it never materialised, it just got better and better as the film reached its climactic and powerful ending.

Happy Birthday Mr. Bond, your country, as ever needs you.

 Ian D. Hall