Is this a James Bond movie or some new big-screen take on Chicken Licken? (The title also reminds me, unfortunately, of Sir Freddie Laker's cut-price airline Skytrain.)
Well, the acid test is whether or not you can imagine Shirley Bassey singing it over some surging brass, while silhouettes of naked women posing with handguns get superimposed over a close-up of a roulette wheel. This passes the test: Sky-faaaalll!
I still can't help being a bit excited by a new Bond film, and this has got a lot going for it.
There's a classy, cerebral director in the form of Sam Mendes and a fascinating choice of sexy baddie in Javier Bardem. (The rumour is that Sam Mendes wanted to cast British stage star Simon Russell Beale as the villain, but the producers reckoned he wasn't famous enough. It would be great to see Beale stroking a white cat in some sinister mountaintop retreat.)
Then of course there's 007 himself. Daniel Craig was always inspired casting: tough, rugged in the old-fashioned, Connery-ish sense, with a tiny touch of cruelty.
But having said all this, I wonder if Skyfall will really show that the Bond franchise is capable of re-inventing itself.
The Bourne films showed a much younger, meaner, more athletic kind of agent who wears tight-fitting T-shirts, not white tuxedos. Television's Spooks put more emphasis on hi-tech investigation and teamwork and the latest film version of Le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy struck a chord by emphasising the shabbiness and banality of a real spy's life.
Casino Royale, Craig's first outing, was great because it was back to basics (in a way), an origin story, showing how Bond first earned his double-0 rating. But the next movie, Quantum of Solace, though good fun, was really just another crash-bang parade of stunts and luxury locations. And I have a horrible feeling that Skyfall, in order to be a commercial hit, will have to offer up the same thing.
I personally would love to see a Bond film which returned the agent to his original late 50s/early 60s heyday, the era of the Fleming novels. Or perhaps the mid-60s, the period of Sebastian Faulks's Bond novel, Devil May Care? After all, the womanising Martini-quaffers of Mad Men were a hit. Why not let 007, the true master, show the world how it's done?
Well, that's not going to happen. But Skyfall has to create a real drama with real characters, real, believable tension between Bond and his enemy as well as gadgets and explosions. It has to reposition itself in a crowded action-movie marketplace, appealing to grown-ups with a smart script. The 007 fanbase is longing for this film to be a success: the sky's the limit.
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