As most people on the planet probably know by now (what would a review be without some hyperbole here and there), this year is the fiftieth anniversary of James Bond as a movie character. In 1962, Sean Connery became an instant star with Dr. No, and Ian Fleming's British superspy set his first steps on the road to becoming a global icon. So it makes sense that there would be a new Bond movie to celebrate the occasion.

I have to say I'm not what you would call a real James Bond fan - I find most Bond-movies tolerably entertaining at best, and some nearly unwatchable (I gave up not even halfway through Diamonds Are Forever). The reboot of the storyline they started in 2006 with Casino Royale and then Quantum of Solace in 2008, though, starring Daniel Craig as a new, more vulnerable and less imperturbable Bond, has been a resounding success so far, though, in my opinion. With some considerable delay, the scenarists finally figured out that spectacular action scenes, megalomaniac supervillains and sexy sidekicks just aren't that interesting if your protagonist has the emotional range of a teaspoon (to quote Hermione Granger). I liked Timothy Dalton's Bond for precisely that reason, and I'm liking Craig's even more.

The story of Skyfall isn't really linked to its predecessor, like Quantum of Solace was to Casino Royale; but in a sense it's a logical continuation of Quantum of Solace. That movie saw Bond caught between his personal goals and his orders from his superiors at MI6, with him even being detained by his own colleagues for a moment; in this movie, the threat to MI6 has grown much larger than that, and it will take someone with Bond's disregard for the rules to save the day. Dame Judi Dench's character M gets nearly as much screentime as Bond, as QoS's storyline about the political oversight of intelligence services in the digital age is continued and expanded.

M and Bond find themselves in much the same situation - considered old and stuck in an earlier age, no longer up to speed with the way things work in today's world, with people openly doubting their ability to keep doing their job. M's political superiors openly question the use of MI6, while Javier Bardem's supervillain "Mr. Silva" and his henchmen make MI6's computer department look like idiots at every turn (Ben Whishaw, recently in The Hour among other things, plays Q as a young and overly confident whizzkid). But in the final third of the movie, Bond goes back to basics in more ways than one, returning to his parental home in the Highlands for a very low-tech old-fashioned finale. Not very subtle in thematic terms, granted, but effective. The same might be said, incidentally, of Adele's excellent theme song, which is played over a title sequence that contains more symbolism and more interesting visuals than most of its predecessors.

With Bardem, Ralph Fiennes and Albert Finney joining the cast, and Sam Mendes directing, I think it's fair to say that Skyfall's cast and crew has bigger names than most Bond movies, or at least names who have proven themselves more in critically acclaimed movies. Fiennes and Finney don't really get enough screen time to shine very much, but Bardem makes the most of his character and turns him into a memorable villain, though in a sense I feel the scenarists could've done still more with him. The Bond girls, I regret to say, are among the weakest in any recent Bond movie, and the most obvious victim of the increased focus on other elements. It would of course have been too great a break from tradition to cut them altogether, but little would've been lost if they had. No, it's Daniel Craig and Judi Dench who have to carry the movie, and fortunately they really do.

If all this makes it sound to some hardcore Bond fans like he's lost his edge and the movie has turned into some boring emotional drama, though, I can reassure them; the action scenes are certainly up to par, with a spectacular chase scene in Istanbul and plenty of fireworks at the climactic showdown. Skyfall manages to add depth that most Bond movies lack, without shortchanging the traditional ingredients. Wikipedia tells me a lot of critics are calling this possibly the best Bond ever, and I for one certainly think it is.