Bond Bonanza: New Adele-Powered 'Skyfall' Trailer, Video Blog, And Video Retrospectives

Today is Bond Day, which is a fancy way of saying this is the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first film in the now long-running series. The release of Skyfall, the twenty-third Bond movie (not counting two unofficial releases in Casino Royale v.1 and Never Say Never Again) is just weeks away, and MGM, Sony, and EON Productions are going all-out to make sure we remember that Bond is back.

Yesterday saw the release of the excellent Skyfall theme song by Adele, and now we've got a new trailer that features the tune. In addition to that, a new 'making of' video blog has been released, along with quite a few little video retrospectives that offer a fond look back at the series.

We've posted a lot of Bond stuff lately, and one might ask why. The answer, for me, is easy: I often like Bond far more as a concept than a reality on screen. I think the movies, by and large, have very entertaining first acts, but with relatively few exceptions my interest in any given Bond film falls off as the running time grows. I put on From Russia With Love last night, often considered to be among the best Bonds, and while the first 45 minutes had me glued, I got more and more detached. By the end I was fully checked out.

I want to like these films, and the little tastes of Bond are so tasty and digestible that I keep going back. Just like I'll keep checking out each new film, in the hopes that it will be closer to one of the Bonds that really satisfies rather than, say, Moonraker. (Which, by the way, was my first Bond on the big screen, and therefore a movie I have fond memories of, even if it isn't any good.)

So, first, the trailer:

Here's the first clip from the film, in which Bond takes on a train:

And then a video blog from EON celebrating the 50th:

And one that goes on location:

And here are some tribute videos, both official, and unofficial:

Finally, compliment that with a couple infographics from Cristina Vanko and (weirdly) H&R Block, via FirstShowing: