Director: Sam Mendes
Year of Release: 2012
Should you watch it? Yes!
Why?
This is very clearly one of the very best Bond films ever, and it is honestly kind of mystifying to me that that is a contentious opinion. Great action. Great villain. Foregoes the weakest element of Bond (the Bond Woman). It has lots of sexual tension between Bond and women and Bond and men. Sam Mendes does not have a good track record of releasing quality films, but he scored big here. I am not sure why everything worked out so well here – but it did.
How is the Bond?
I think in some ways this might be the defining Bond performance for Daniel Craig. In the first movie, he is no less great, but Craig always seemed a bit too old to play a young Bond. He probably did not get enough to do in Solace, and his post-Skyfall work was likely just too similar to what he pulled off here to feel as notable. He is hot, has seemingly infinite access to resources, clothes, hot women, vacation destinations, and alcohol. He has everything anyone could ever want. He is simply the most miserable man in the world.
How is the Bond Woman?
In a stroke of genius, they simply did not have a traditional Bond Woman for Skyfall. Judi Dench had played a very prominent part in her three Daniel Craig Bond films, but there still was always a more traditional Bond Woman in them. M is the embodiment of all that is wrong with The West. There are very few genuinely evil people in the world, but she is one of them! And the chickens came home to roost. James Bond is as reactionary as any mainstream film series, but this film seemed a bit less deluded about it than most of them.
How is the Bond Villain?
Skyfall leans on a number of well-used villain ideas and the charisma of Javier Bardem to create one of the most fun bad guys in James Bond history. Sure, he’s doing a little Joker, but he’s really more of a foil for James in the classical sense. He and James have very similar circumstances but ended up taking different paths. Bardem’s character also really captures the themes of the series. Sure, this he is a living warning of what can happen to James, but it’s even more than that. Bardem represents the toxicity of this world they live in and prop up. It poisons them. And quite literally mutilates them.
Does the film irresponsibly present the West as the hero of the world and thus promote imperialism and colonialism as inherently positive?
Yes.
The Reel World 