It’s been 50 years since the world came to know a classy-suited spy who drinks a particular cocktail and effortlessly swoons glamorous women, while tracking down big-time villains (and their cronies) using his license to kill. Bond, James Bond is his name. This pop-culture icon isn’t ready to give up his license just yet. The reason is simple. With returning Bond, Daniel Craig, primed in his super-tight suit and rippling muscles to attack anything in his way, the Bond franchise is finally looking as golden as its make-believe hoopla.

Skyfall starts off with a chase sequence tearing through the outskirt of Istanbul, upending a fruit cart and wrecking anything in its way. Bond and new field operative Eve (Naomie Harris), are hunting down a baddie. They are on foot, on motorcycles and over passenger trains, while M (Judi Dench) commands the scenario from a control room.

The sequence ends with a bad call from M leading to a little down time for Bond, while the bad guy gets away with the stolen commodity. The item is a hard drive that contains information on undercover NATO spies. Soon, M, neck deep in inquiry — and threatened retirement — gets an added case of worries when the terrorist turns his deadly agenda personally on her. And as we all know, Her Majesty’s Secret Service finds itself easier to breathe when it can count on Bond.

Sam Mendes and writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan have done two things for Casino Royale-reborn Bond in Skyfall: to edge in more psychological darkness while letting in bits of his past glimpses and bring back franchise familiars in new guises such as the new Q (Ben Whishaw), the lovely Aston Martin (which seems to have jumped right out of Goldfinger) and a few others I won’t spill the beans on.

Dench gets meaty screen time and more dialogues than Craig and plays M with steely-control — and first time with a hint of warmth. Regardless of Craig or Dench, Javier Bardem’s villain is the reason behind Skyfall’s instant classic status. He is Raoul Silva, and he walks into every scene with full intentions to be remembered as the one of the best Bond villains in the franchise.

With Skyfall, Mendes has proven that he cannot only commandeer emotionally driven features like American Beauty, Road to Perdition and Revolutionary Road with skills but that he also knows his action.

Skyfall is rated PG-13. Everything is clean, big and realistic, shot beautifully by Roger Deakins and framed with a tension elevating soundtrack from Thomas Newman (a Mendes regular). It even has a wonderfully performed theme song by Adele. Oh, joy!