7. Skyfall
If Skyfall isn't the best Bond film yet, then it's at least in the top 5. Where Casino Royale was able to give the world a 21st century Bond, Skyfall upped the ante significantly. Bond films had been on decline in quality, honestly, since Goldfinger until Casino Royale, so to see the 50 year old franchise make such an incredible leap forward is very exciting. 2012 was, finally, the year that a real auteur director was finally hired to helm an entry in the series and it shows from the first frame all the way until the end. Sam Mendes has always made movies that deal heavily with the theme of family in a realistic way (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Revolutionary Road and Away We Go) so he was able to add an extra layer of depth to an icon like Bond that has never been there. The decision of making 007 more of a real person and less of a character is the best thing to happen to him since Sean Connery first uttered the phrase "Bond, James Bond."