Kurt Loder on Skyfall

With Skyfall, the transformation of James Bond from the steely womanizer of the old Ian Fleming spy novels and the early Sean Connery movies is complete. Reinvigorated six years ago in the wake of the first two Bourne films, with dour Daniel Craig stepping into the role, Bond is now a thoroughly modern hero, his emotional vulnerabilities here rounded out with mortal concerns and even mommy issues. This may be a shrewd market calculation in a relentlessly sensitive age, writes Kurt Loder, but it undercuts the preposterous fun of the Bond world—which had grown too preposterous over the years, it's true, but is nevertheless missed in its complete absence.