Skyfall

Skyfall's success at the box office has cemented Daniel Craig's reputation as the best Bond since Connery. Bringing to the role the blunt charm of a hammerhead shark and stripping it of all traces of camp, he has helped reinvigorate 007 for a post-Bourne world. This installment has a fine mix of action, humour and, in a deserted island off Macau, a truly great villain's lair.

But the move to the small screen throws into relief some of the drawbacks of hiring a highbrow director like Sam Mendes, whose attempt at a ‘reboot’ of the character means mostly bolting on the inevitable Oedipus complex. Whether this is necessary for Bond is debatable; he, like that other great British fictional hero, Sherlock Holmes, has always been something of a psychological vacuum. Mendes's approach certainly undermines Raoul Silva, the evil genius of the film, who sets in motion the usual preposterous plan not in order to rule the world, but because he misses his mummy. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]