The third Daniel Craig Bond movie is here and it is beautiful. Directed by Sam Mendes, who directed American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, James Bond finds himself up again Silva, a super smart computer hacker, who used to be an MI6 agent and is played by Javier Bardem. Bond enlists the help of Q, played by Ben Whishaw, and Eve Moneypenny, played by Naomi Harris, to battle Silva who has a personal vendetta against M, played by Judi Dench. Bond travels from Shanghai to Macau in order to find, capture, and interrogate Silva who managed to get his hands on a list that MI6 has kept of all the known agents hidden within terrorist organizations. Oh, did I also mention that Bond is recovering from a near death experience hampered by an alcohol addiction? Oh I didn’t? Did I also mention that there is a soldier turned bureaucrat who appears to want to make Bond’s life very difficult, Gareth Mallory, played by Ralph Fiennes? Oh I didn’t ?Well he is and he is back and better than ever. This movie had some amazing shots within it, a lot of shadow play, and took place in some amazing places. The cinematography was beautiful and benefited from the haunted Daniel Craig that was running around and fighting within it. In this film, the viewer gets a glimpse at the man behind the gun and the woman directing his shots. Both are haunted by the decisions they made and the events that they were involved in, in the past. I haven’t seen a Bond yet that showed us this vulnerable of a Bond and I loved it. He isn’t superman, he is the layman who knows how to shoot a gun and how to break a neck. I suggest you see this movie even if you haven’t seen other Bond films, because, well, this is an entirely different Bond. It’s a beautiful film, well acted, with just enough action and just enough drama to keep lovers of both satisfied. Go see it! You won’t regret it.
Now onto the nitty-gritty spoiler filled review.
Judi Dench was absolutely great in this movie and a lot of people have given her the title of Bond girl for the amount of screen time she had during the film and her performance. I thought she gave M more character then I had ever seen before, although I wished she gave a bit more. Just a little bit of emotion, a tear or two. I’m not asking for Niagara Falls here, I just felt in some moments she could have been a little less stone faced and a little bit more raw.
Naomi Harris gave some life to Moneypenny who I remembered as being Bond’s secretary and that woman who Bond can never seem to remember but she can never forget him. I liked seeing her in action and even being the one to shoot Bond, GASP, that never happens! It gave some life to her character and I really do hope they bring her back for more.
I liked Javier Bardem, however, I thought his final scene fell flat. He had the opportunity to kill M, and yet stalled, and thus ended up dead. I understand he was torn, there appeared to be some weird mother son relationship between the two of them, but I felt that he only stalled for the script’s sake, not for reality’s sake. This man blew up her office and engineered it so M could witness the entire thing. He wanted her to suffer and yet he stalled pulling the trigger. It was a bit contradictory to me.
I like Ralph Fiennes as the new M. I truly do and I hope they make at least two more Bond movies with this cast of characters because it would be a damn shame if they put all of these great characters and actors into place, only to have Bond replaced by someone else.
One thing I did not enjoy, was the similarity between Javier Bardem’s character and the Joker, from “The Dark Knight”. This raises a good question, can a character represent utter chaos and not be compared to the Joker? I don’t know but especially when Q figured out that his plan was to get caught AND then Javier Bardem is riding in the police car. My brain just couldn’t help but compare the too. Does the film suffer from the comparison? No. It just seemed like it was done already.
Also, Berenice Marlohe’s character isn’t really worth mentioning, hence why she wasn’t mentioned in the summary, but I think it would have been nice to have her character developed a little bit. We see her, Bond sleeps with her, and she’s dead.
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