To celebrate 50 years of not-so-stealthy spying and espionage by James Bond, MGM has celebrated the spy’s birthday by giving us Skyfall, the third Bond film to feature Daniel Craig and his beautiful blue eyes. And what a celebration it is.

The movie starts the way every good Bond film should: a blood-pumping, action-packed opening that thrills and puts you on the edge of your seat. It delivers here, and just continues to get better as the film progresses.

Unlike Quantum of Solace, this film features a very simple, but intriguing storyline that causes Bond’s boss M to have to face the skeletons in her closet at the hands of the newest Bond villain, a former MI6 agent named Silva.

Every actor is in top form: Ben Whishaw plays a wonderfully resurrected Q, Ralph Fiennes is great as always as a member of MI6, and Judy Dench, who’s no stranger to the franchise, is given a much more vulnerable portrayal in this film. Daniel Craig is phenomenal, and his history with the Bond franchise really shows: he still has the raw, brutish nature we have seen in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but he is much more settled into the role in this one. He has a suaveness that makes him come off much more sly and clever, and it really plays to the movie’s advantage.

And speaking of great performances, Javier Bardem as Silva is absolutely captivating. He plays the villain with such sinister delight and wickedness, where everything he says just makes you think “Wow, this guy is really messed up.”

Like all good Bond films, Skyfall delivers exotic locations, thrilling action scenes and sexy women. But the film, helmed by Mendes, is not only able to honor the Bond formula, but also break away from it, as Mendes focuses heavily on the human aspect in the film. This causes the scenes where there is only dialogue to be almost as exciting as the action sequences.

Skyfall is everything a Bond, or for that matter any filmgoer, could possibly want: it’s entertaining, it’s exciting, and it’s a testament that even after 50 years, the franchise is far from growing stale. It is easily the best recent Bond film, and I look forward to where they will be taking the franchise in the coming years.