Well despite traveling miles upon miles to Chicago to partake in pizza, booze and sweat with a special detoxing afterparty, I finally got my Skyfall review done. I think from now on I'll be making these reviews shorter so to not exhaust myself and the reader.

So hear you go! Tell me of what you thought of the movie and this review in the comments below :)

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Skyfall
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Well we’re back for another exciting emotional action adventure with everyone’s favourite psychedelic aphrodisiac James ‘Danger’ Bond. In Casino Royal we learned that this old race horse still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Mostly by creating an entirely separate spy movie and then just giving the main character a recognizable copy-written name. None the less it takes a huge lead in front its predecessors and is one of my personal favourite Bond movies. Then Quantum of Solace falls back from the lead and trips over its own hooves, not being able to find the balance between campy and realism, though still having its moments. Now with this new entry into the series, Skyfall is feeling the pressure to deliver this delicate balance of gritty realism and spy fantasy to its audience. It’s like mixing a variety of liquors in one night. You’ll either be dancing and humping till seven in the morning or have your head in a toilet expelling what you just endured without the courtesy of blacking out. While Skyfall wasn’t able to win this horse race it still earned another chance for this rebooted series to not take the field trip to the glue factory.

After failing to retrieve a digital file containing the identities of undercover MI6 agents around the world by means of friendly bullets, Bond is presumed dead by the British government (It’s in the trailer so it’s not a spoiler). Only when MI6 is infiltrated and attacked, killing several employees, does Bond resurrect from death and to the field, despite the physical condition from his recent injury. Directed by Sam Mendes, best known for American Beauty and other hard character dramas, it seems odd to put him at the head of a conventionally plot heavy scenario. Being such a dramatic heavy director, Mendes opts to create the majority of its tension from its characters. The plot therefore greatly centralizes around MI6`s head simply named M, who doesn’t seem to be taking home any ‘Mother of the Year’ awards anytime soon. Especially when memorable villain Javier Bardem, playing the ‘who knows what’ role, struts in wanting to play a game of wannabe matricide. It also doesn’t help that the British government is looking to terminate M’s and all other field agents’ positions for being washed up in the movie’s continuous thematic of the old vs. the new. So M is only left with her drones and Bond for support and we all know that he’s as supportive as a one legged wicker chair made of pickup sticks and termites.

Mendes strong direction makes for an enthralling drama and visual spectacle. It’s even surprising how well he translates as an action director, using his skill of visual storytelling (meaning not relying on dialogue, duh) and movement to create some of the most memorable action scenes from any Bond movie. That is at least until they start borrowing ideas from Macaulay Culkin. Not to mention that his visual dexterity creates the second best Bond opening in cinema, the first being David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. This being the 50th year of the James Bond franchise, the filmmakers seemed to be obliged to pay tribute to the previous Bond films. This works well enough and is nice to get back to Bond’s old roots. Though it’s disappointing when you have Sam Mendes and the majority of the dialogue is composed of coy British one-liners that substitute character development for a challenge to see who has the biggest cock in the room. I thought the Bond series finally outgrew this! I mean I can get wittier and more character-driven dialogue out of an episode of Archer. Still Skyfall is a warm welcome to the Bond franchise that may even be considered one of the series best.