First look–Daniel Craig returns as James Bond in first trailer for Skyfall

Just released is the new “super trailer” for the 23rd James Bond adaptation, Skyfall.

It pretty much speaks for itself. You either like James Bond or you don’t (and how could you not?). And fans will forever quarrel over who was the best Bond. I’ve said before here at borg.com that what like about Daniel Craig is his ability to so easily and visibly take over the room as he enters, simply through his walk and attitude. He has presence, and it reflects the sure-footed, suave, and brilliant character Ian Fleming created in his novels.

As Bond, Craig has become “the man every man wants to be, and the man every woman wants to be with.” Craig is the ultimate British hero, but he plays it differently than the prior Bonds, a more modern type of British character. In the trailer he appears as tough and thick-skinned as ever, and what’s that? James Bond in jail for murder? Will this third film with Craig be his last?

In his first role as Bond, Casino Royale, Craig took the character to new places returning to Bond’s first 007 super-spy mission. Edgier than ever before, we saw someone in a foot race that seemed like he really was actually in a foot race and actually trying to catch the bad guy, and not caring whether he got scars along he way or his clothing rumpled, unlike some past Bonds. Playing a high-stakes card game this Bond is not mild-mannered so much as cool and cocky. Like Steve McQueen in Bullitt, this Bond doesn’t care what anyone else is doing around him. As much as we are glued to the every move of each “Bond girl” in this film–Caterina Murino as the first bad guy’s girlfriend, and then Eva Green as Vesper, soon to be his first and last love in the series–they are focused on Bond.

The follow-up film, Quantum of Solace, whose title comes from a Fleming short story, was not as great from a story standpoint, but Craig made the best of it. His best on-screen relationship is with Judi Dench’s M, who strangely comes across as a determined and scornful but somewhat caring mother figure to Bond as much as a boss and head of covert ops at MI6.

Luckily we get to see Craig at least one more time as Bond this October. Skyfall stars Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) as the villain, with Dame Judi Dench (Henry V, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs. Brown) returning as M, with Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter series, English Patient, Schindler’s List), Albert Finney (Big Fish, Tom Jones), Helen McCrory (Life, Harry Potter series, Doctor Who) and Ben Whishaw (The Hour, Layer Cake) in key supporting roles, and Naomie Harris (28 Days Later, Pirates of the Caribbean series) and French actress Berenice Marlohe as the next “Bond Girls.”

Sam Mendes (Road to Perdition) will direct, with filming locations in Scotland, Istanbul and Shanghai. And still no word has been released as to whether we will see anyone reprise the role perfected by Desmond Llewelyn and later by John Cleese as Q.