Skyfall continues the Bond curse, but is the best bond in ages

There is a curse among James Bond movies.  One of curses is that every other James Bond movie will be bad, or at least not nearly as good as its predecessor.   In good news that is the curse that this movie continues.  If you only saw Quantum of Solace and thought that was a James Bond movie, then you owe it to yourself to see Skyfall.

Skyfall was written especially for the 50^th anniversary of the character and is the 23^rd entry into the James Bond movie franchise.  It’s directed by Sam Mendes, who previously did American Beauty and Revolutionary Road.  The combination of a better than average story and restrained director pays off in making Skyfall an enjoyable movie, in addition to being one of best Bond movies since Sean Connery.

Who your favorite James Bond is will depend on what era you grew up in.  People who grew up in the 60’s will swear by Connery, while those that did so in the 70’s may think that Roger Moore’s campy approach was the best.  Regardless of who you think was the best Bond, most of the early cannon of the character do not age well and can’t really be considered good movies.

Certainly, they all have enjoyable moments, but they aren’t really good, even considering the James Bond curse.

What’s great about the character and the movies is that they feature real stunts and (with the exception of Die Another Day) no CGI.  We can also hope that the current 3D craze will never, ever cross over into the world of James Bond.

Skyfall shakes up the concept of a James Bond movie to some degree, but keeps most of the key elements firmly in place.  We see the return of a couple familiar characters that haven’t been seen since Daniel Craig started and the death of a character.

The opening chase scene that set s up the story is very well done and the introduction credits are some of the best that have been in the franchise.  Javier Bardem is Silva the bad guy who dances across the boundaries of evil, crazy and genius with Glee.  One of the stand out scenes in the movie is when Silva has Bond tied to a chair and is talking to him.  The taut, sexually repressed dialogue is menacing, funny and establishes Bardem as one of the best villains in Bond’s movies.

I didn’t care too much for the song from Skyfall.  It’s OK, Adelle is an amazing singer, but the song is just ‘meh’.  Whether or not she falls prey to the other James Bond curse remains to be seen.  I would bet that she avoids it though.  For my money the best Bond song is Chris Cornell, You Know My Name.

For the ladies out there, my wife really enjoyed Skyfall too for many of the same reasons that I included here.

Bottom line:  Skyfall is very entertaining and left our theater clapping at the end-and how often does that happen in a movie theater?