Skyfall Blu-ray delivers truly amazing video and audio in this exceptional Blu-ray release
James Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
For a while, it looked like Skyfall might not happen, as MGM's financial woes caused the film
to be tabled, and some of the major players moved on to other projects. But no one has ever been
able to keep James Bond down for long. Besides, resurrection and rebirth are among Skyfall's
major themes. Thus it was that production resumed in January 2011 for a fall 2012 release. Pent-up demand may have accounted for some of the
huge box office success, but there was another,
more basic reason. The movie was good.
Without reopening the debate over 2008's Quantum of
Solace (which I happen to like very
much), that film always felt less like a standalone Bond and more like a coda to 2006's sit-up-and-take-notice Casino Royale, which
both introduced a new Bond and successfully rebooted the
franchise for the 21st Century. Not only did Quantum pick up the story immediately after the
closing moments of Casino Royale, but, at a trim 106 minutes, it was notably shorter than either
Casino Royale or any of the four preceding Bonds starring Pierce Brosnan. Even fans of
Quantum were eager to see a Bond film that spread its wings and soared the way Casino Royale
had.
Skyfall delivered, and then some. Not only did it appear to kill off Bond in the spectacular pre-credit opening sequence—a maneuver that
fooled no one, but that did have the bracing effect of
reversing the usual formula, in which Bond typically succeeds in his pre-credit mission—but it
also put Bond in the unaccustomed position of having to win back his MI6 spurs. And Skyfall
gave us the single best Bond villain we've seen since . . . well, whoever happens to be your
favorite Bond villain, in the person of Silva, the cyber-terrorist (among other things), gracefully
incarnated by Javier Bardem, that specialist of evil, who has repeatedly said in interviews that as
a boy he always identified with the villains in Bond films. It shows.
The MacGuffin that starts Skyfall rolling is a hard drive containing an encrypted list of all covert
agents embedded with terrorist organizations. Someone has stolen it, and Bond (Daniel Craig, on
his third outing) is leading a team in Istanbul to recover it. His chief support is a new field agent
named Eve (Naomie Harris), who, on direct orders from M (Judi Dench), risks a shot at the
operative who stole the list, a sleek assassin known as Patrice (Ola Rapace), and hits Bond
instead. Bond plunges into a raging river and is presumed dead. Patrice escapes with the list.
Cue an inspired credit sequence by Daniel Kleinman, whose idea was to imagine Bond's life
flashing before his eyes, accompanied by the sound of Adele singing her Oscar-nominated-winning title
song.
Three months later, the encrypted list has yet to be recovered, and both M and MI6 are under scrutiny from a government bureaucrat named Gareth
Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) and, eventually, an official inquiry in Parliament led by MP Claire Dowar (Helen McCrory). As the fallout from the loss of the list
turns deadly, Bond sees news reports on the island where he has been secretly recovering from his wounds, and he resurfaces.
But Bond finds that both he and MI6 have changed. The organization he once knew has retreated
into an underground bunker last used by Winston Churchill in World War II. The new Q (The
Hour's Ben Whishaw) is a skinny computer geek who, as Bond puts it, "still has spots". And
Bond is no longer treated with reverence since his Lazarus-like return from the dead. Instead, M
and Mallory force him to requalify in the most basic skills, including marksmanship, physical
stamina and psychological stability. They're not wrong, either. Bond barely passes (if that).
Clues from the Istanbul encounter allow Bond to track Patrice to Shanghai. The trail then leads to
a casino in Macau and an exotically beautiful woman, Sévérine (Bérénice Lim Marlohe). Only
then does the real adversary, Silva (Bardem), reveal himself and begin to unfold his true purpose,
for which the encrypted list of covert agents was merely a tool. Since there are still those who
haven't seen Skyfall, I will limit myself to saying that Silva once worked for M, bears a grudge,
and wants her to suffer.
Bond, who has always had a special relationship with M (though not necessarily of the friendly
variety), goes all out in her defense, battling Silva on the ruined island where he makes his
headquarters, pursuing him through the London Underground after a daring escape from what
should be an impregnable prison cell, shooting it out with him in the sacred bastions of Whitehall
and, ultimately, luring Silva to a remote location in Scotland for a final reckoning. The last junket
involves a very special "resurrection", that of the famous Aston Martin DB5 first seen in
Goldfinger, which Bond retrieves from storage precisely because it's old and therefore has no
GPS tracker attached to it. (Of course, the real reason is for Bond fans to cheer its appearance,
which they do.)
Bardem, who won an Oscar for his intimidating portrayal of the killer, Anton Chigurh, in No
Country for Old Men, here creates a very different kind of villain: charming, flamboyant, a
sociopath who takes a gleeful joy in his "work", whereas Chigurh never cracked a smile. If
Chigurh was terrifying because he was inexorable, Silva frightens because he's entirely
unpredictable. It's not that he's random exactly, because he always has a plan. But only Silva
knows what it is.
Some viewers have groaned at the realization that yet another Bond story turns on the discovery
of a turncoat, present or former, or a double agent. They yearn for the days of a true Big Bad as a
Bond villain, an Auric Goldfinger or a Blofeld. It is only fair to remind viewers that Casino
Royale featured Le Chiffre, a financier to terrorist organizations, and Quantum of Solace was
entirely about the mysterious organization known as QUANTUM, which recalled SPECTRE in
its scope and ambition. As for the rest, espionage, since at least the Cold War, has always been
about "turning" members of the other team, while guarding against those on your side being
turned. In his very first Bond novel, Ian Fleming included a double agent that Bond did not
discover until the final pages. Other, more prosaic writers of spy fiction have built entire works
around moles and double agents, e.g., John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Silva, at least,
was sufficiently enterprising to go out and build a massive criminal empire over a span of fifteen
years before returning to take his revenge on M. He became what Bond might have, if, as
Mallory suggests at one point, he'd chosen to stay dead.
Although I didn't keep count, I am sure that, of the many names behind the camera mentioned by
director Sam Mendes in his commentary, none occurs more often than that of cinematographer
Roger Deakins, whose spectacular digital photography on Skyfall allowed the film to be reframed
for IMAX showing without being subjected to the IMAX DMR up-conversion process. While a
debate has raged on internet forums over the preferred presentation of the film for home
consumption, it is presented on Fox/MGM's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray at its standard 35mm
ratio of 2.40:1. Perhaps an IMAX-formated version will follow as a bonus in one of the later,
inevitable Blu-ray reissues.
Skyfall's image on Blu-ray is spectacular: clear, sharp, detailed and noiseless, with just a flicker
of aliasing during the establishing shots of Shanghai (blink, and you may miss it). Deakins is a
notorious perfectionist, and he was also one of the first cinematographers to switch to digital
intermediates (with the Coen Bros.' O
Brother, Where Art Thou?). If he can't get the lighting and
color densities just so on the day, he gets what he wants on the DI. Skyfall is a symphony of
different tones and palettes, from the chilly blues and milky whites of London to the emotional
browns, greens, reds and (eventually) oranges of the Scottish sequences to the exotic primaries
and fluorescents of Shanghai and Macau. And let's not forget the broken-down wreck of an
island where Silva keeps his headquarters. Deakins' lighting of the rubble there recalls what he
did with the snow in Fargo. A great cinematographer can make
anything look interesting.
It's only to be expected that Fox/MGM would do a first-rate job on one of the jewels in the
corporate crown. The fact that Skyfall was originated digitally no doubt eased the transition to
Blu-ray. Overcompression would have been the only risk, given the film's running time, but
fortunately no artifacts are visible.
Skyfall's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is more than equal to the obligatory big moments of a Bond
film: the explosions, car chases and shootouts, not to mention the opening train chase involving a
crane and various VW Beetles and a scene in the London Tube that recalls Die Hard 3. The sonic
intensity of these sequences should satisfy any home theater action junkie, with their crisply
defined surround effects, immersive surround field and deep bass extension.
But Skyfall's sound mixers have also achieved marvelous effects in quieter moments, including
the near-silence that follows Eve's fateful shot in the opening sequence, which has the odd
impact of seeming almost as loud as the din that preceded it. In his commentary, Mendes notes
some of his favorite subtler moments: the way the rain outside M's office windows fades into the
rush of the waterfall over which Bond descends after he falls from the train, then into Adele's
title song, or a peculiar set of sounds (which Mendes says still give him the creeps) when Silva
reveals to M and Bond a physical "peculiarity" (those who have seen the film will know what
I'm referring to).
One could simply listen to Skyfall with the picture switched off, and the experience would still be
thrilling. The environments are always well-defined, the action always fully expressed, and yet
somehow Mendes and his sound team never lose track of the essential drama in which Bond, M,
Silva and the rest are caught up. Their dialogue gets the same respectful treatment as the sound
effects. So does the score by composer Thomas Newman, entering the Bond franchise for the
first time at Mendes' specific request and proving surprisingly adept as an action film composer.
Radically altering his style from such previous Mendes creations as American Beauty or Road to
Perdition, Newman has adapted well to the needs of Bond, while retaining a distinctive voice.
His music is one of the many elements that makes Bond at 50 feel forever young.
Commentary with Director Sam Mendes: Mendes provides a true "scene-specific"
commentary, and it's obvious he's still very close to the process of making the film, as he
recalls details of revising the script, shooting individual scenes (and revising key
moments to incorporate suggestions from actors, especially Bardem), working with editor
Stuart Baird and the contributions of various effects houses and other departments. Along
the way, he provides valuable insights into his directing strategies, particularly in staging
difficult moments like the film's emotional climax.
Commentary with Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson and
Production Designer Dennis Gassner: This is something of a mix of the old and new
guard, as Gassner only joined the franchise with Quantum of Solace, whereas Broccoli
and Wilson are the second-generation keepers of the tradition. Gassner is by far the most
voluble of the participants, but overall this is a more relaxed and less dense commentary
track, with brief but frequent pauses. Much of the running time is spent simply admiring
what's on screen, although the participants do slip in some interesting stories along the
way.
Shooting Bond (1080p; 1.78:1; 59:24): Whether viewed as a single documentary or as
individual featurettes, this comprehensive overview of the production of Skyfall
demonstrates what can be accomplished when a documentary crew follows a production
from the beginning and then edits together the best material. Here you'll find input from
most of the major department heads (with the notable absence of editor Stuart Baird), as
well as the principal cast, the writers, the producers and director Mendes. For those who
don't have the patience for commentaries, this is the place to learn how Skyfall was made.
(Caution, however; the documentary assumes you've seen the film.)
Intro (2:26)
Opening Sequence (4:19)
The Title Sequence (2:56)
007 (3:48)
Q (1:59)
DB5 (1:36)
Women (4:27)
Villains (6:51)
Action (3:33)
Locations (3:24)
Music (3:43)
End Sequence (14:03)
M (4:47)
The Future (2:13)
Skyfall Premiere (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:28): Scenes from the world premiere at the Royal
Albert Hall, featuring interviews with Mendes, Craig, Harris, Bardem, Fiennes, Whishaw
et al.
Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 2:31): As much as it appears to give away, there's so
much more.
Soundtrack Promotional Spot (1080p; 2.40:1; 0:40): With a brief introduction by
composer Thomas Newman.
Sneak Peek (1080p; various; 15:42): The "sneak peek" items marked with an asterisk
also play when the disc first loads but can be skipped with the chapter forward button.
The year is young, but Skyfall is already shaping up to be one of 2013's biggest sellers on Blu-ray. It hardly needs my recommendation, but
I'll give it anyway. Whether you're filling that
empty space in your Bond 50 set or just want to see Skyfall again in a first-rate presentation, this
Blu-ray edition from Fox/MGM is a worthwhile addition to your library. Just be aware that, as
with all things Bond, there will be future editions. (Yes, plural.) But buy this one now, and you
can always wait to see what extras the others have to offer. It's hard to imagine that the
audio/video presentation can get much better. Highly recommended.
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