We’ve been waiting four years for 007 to return to our screen and on October 26th he’ll be back in Skyfall. The brand new trailer for the film, released today, gives us greater insight into what we can expect from the 23rd (official) instalment of the long running franchise and from the looks of it, I think it’s safe to say that Bond is back in form.
The story seems to follow the resurrection of James Bond, who comes back to MI6 after a period of being pronounced dead, in order to right a wrong for M. On his mission, he meets Javier Bardem‘s character Silva (sporting his second, terrible villainous haircut since No Country for Old Men), a man that sparks great terror into his employees. The details of what Silva is up to are kept nicely ambiguous so not to spoil any surprises that Sam Mendes and co. have waiting, but I have already begun my speculation.
The hiring of Mendes was initially quite a surprise for many as he is a filmmaker known for his low key character dramas and not his action films, a formula that hasn’t worked for Bond previously. Quantum of Solace notably took the same route of hiring Marc Foster (a character drama director) and the film fell flat on its face.
Luckily, that same problem doesn’t appear to have occurred with Skyfall and the glimpse we get of the action looks absolutely spectacular. Mendes has dived in head first with it, choosing not to use a second unit for the action sequences and the results look to have paid off.
The trailer strikes the right balance between characters and action and we’ll soon find out if Mendes carries this promise through in the final product. If he does, Skyfall could be up to match that brilliance Martin Campbell found in Casino Royale.
The trailer also gives us our first look at Ben Whishaw’s Q, a notably younger quarter master than we’ve had in the past. The scene we get between Bond and Q also gives a nice knowing nod toward Goldfinger, with Daniel Craig‘s Bond uttering the immortal line “you must be joking.”
Ralph Fiennes’ character is also shown off here. He has been tapped to take over the mantle of Judi Dench who has served 17 years as Bond’s commander in chief. It is great to see him playing a character who isn’t villainous and he’d make a really good regular for the franchise if that’s the plan the filmmakers have for his character.
All in all this is very promising and I seriously cannot wait.
Skyfall hits theatres in the UK on October 26th and rolls out internationally on November 9th. Check out the trailer below.
