I really enjoy the James Bond series and have seen plenty of its films, but I've never ended up going through all of them. I could just fill in the blanks whenever one pops up on a streaming service, but I've always do a full marathon, see all the movies one after the other. And with Amazon Prime getting all of the Bond films for a "limited time", I thought this was as good a time as any to go through the series once and for all.
There is one issue, however. Spectre, one of the last Bond films, is leaving Prime in like a week. So I decided to give this marathon a bit of a twist. I'm going to watch the James Bond movies in reverse actor order, meaning I'm going to start with the Craig movies, then watch the Brosnan films, and keep going until I end with Connery. So Spectre will be one of the first movies I watch, and I won't have to cram 23 movies into like 9 days. Let's start things off with the Daniel Craig era:
Since I've watched plenty of these movies already, I wanted to mark the ones that I'm rewatching rather than going into blind. To keep things simple, if you see the (R) symbol next to a movie, that means that I've seen it before and that this is a rewatch.
Casino Royale (R): Casino Royale is actually a really good place to start a Bond marathon. It's an origin story for Bond and a soft reboot (albeit a slightly subversive one) meant to draw in newcomers to the series. However, I'm also worried it may have set the bar too high because damn does this movie go so hard! Casino Royale isn't just a great Bond film, it's a fantastic movie on its own merits and a tough act to follow for pretty much every other film in this marathon. I liked it the first time I saw it, but I love it even more on rewatch.
As mentioned above, Casino Royale is basically a James Bond origin story. This is his first mission after making 007, and he's far more rash and clumsy than you've come to expect from the guy. Bond even gets attached to the Bond girl in this one, and it really comes to bite him in the ass by the end of the movie. Casino Royale also does a lot to subvert and play around with the Bond formula to further illustrate the character's inexperience, like when he rejects a drink or when he gets taken out of commission shortly into a car chase. I hate to use this comparison yet again, but this is the Last Jedi of the Bond films, and that's a big risk for a franchise as long as this. Bond is rarely portrayed as this flawed, but I think the writers and crew pulled it off excellently. Bond's character arc is well-done and given the attention it deserves, and I think it gives the movie a stronger emotional core compared to the majority of Bond films. But even outside of Bond himself, the cast is fantastic. Le Chiffre was always one of my favorite Bond villains out of the ones I'd seen solely because Mads Mikkelsen is such a great and intimidating actor. Vesper is an easy contender for best Bond girl because of the depth she gets, her chemistry with Bond, Eva Green's fantastic performance, and the crushing heartbreak of her death. And of course, I also adore Judi Dench as M and Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter, those two are always standouts no matter the movie.
What I find especially interesting about Casino Royale is the structure. This movie definitely has a three-act structure, but the acts are entirely different lengths and feel like entirely different movies at times. The first "act" is the first hour of the film, a top-tier high-octane spy thriller with some of the best action is the series. That incredibly raw opening, the parkour chase, the Body Works fight, the tanker chase, Bond's cheeky smile, this opening hour is perfection. And yet, the second "act", which takes place almost entirely in a casino, might be even better. Despite most of the action scenes being replaced with sequences of poker, the casino stretch is where Casino Royale really comes alive. From the tender scenes between Bond and Vesper, to the way it eschews series conventions in a variety of ways, to the fantastic poker scenes that are way more tense, gripping, and engaging than they have any right to be. However, then there's the "third" act, the final thirty minutes after Le Chiffre's death where Bond retires only for Vesper to betray him and die. I hated this third act when I first watched Casino Royale because it felt really slow and disjointed from the rest of the movie. I still liked Casino Royale overall, but those last thirty minutes soured it a bit. Upon rewatch, while I do still find it to be the weakest part of the movie, I like this final act a lot more. Vesper's death gives Casino Royale an emotional impact that most Bond films don't really have, and it allows Bond's character arc to be properly completed. And as a whole, it's that character arc that really ties Casino Royale together even with how unconventional its structure is.
Overall, minor pacing issues aside, Casino Royale is a phenomenal movie and a tough act to follow for the rest of the series. Bond's character arc is incredibly well-written, his relationship with Vesper gives the movie a strong emotional core, the action scenes are outstanding and super raw, the poker scenes are tense, the subversions are clever, and everything comes together perfectly. While Skyfall was my favorite Bond movie prior to this marathon for the quality of its visuals and action, Casino Royale's narrative (and also its action) is so good that it might just surpass it for me. Get back to me on that in two movies.
5/5 Stars
Quantum Of Solace: You know that meme with the horse where one half is on fire and super well-drawn, and the other half is a sketch drawing of the horse? Quantum Of Solace is the sketch drawing. In theory, a direct James Bond sequel has a lot of potential, especially coming off of Casino Royale's downer ending. Bond coping with Vesper's death, going on a revenge spree, that's a great idea for a movie! Unfortunately, Quantum Of Solace isn't able to pull that off at all. Instead of being a thoughtful follow-up to the almost too-good-for-its-own-good Casino Royale, it's a poorly-done story strung together by action scenes and duct tape.
Before I start ripping Quantum Of Solace's story to shreds, let me just say that I don't blame the crew for a good chunk of this movie's flaws, because it was being made during the Writer's Strike. Yep, it's that again. Quantum Of Solace has two stories, one of which is easily better than the other. The main world-ending plot involves the villain Dominic Greene trying to create a monopoly on Bolivia's resources, mostly water. While I get that the crew wanted a more grounded story (even more, based on an actual event that was going on at the time), it comes off as really dull especially following Casino Royale. Le Chiffre may have been grounded, but between Mads Mikkelsen's performance, his sick bleeding eye gimmick, and the fact that Bond fights him in an overly dramatic game of poker, he still felt like a Bond villain. Greene could have been in literally any other generic spy thriller, he feels so bland. The other main storyline, Bond trying to get over Vesper, fares a bit better. I feel for Bond, and his struggle flows well off of the ending of Casino Royale. What prevents his arc from really landing though is the fact that unlike in Casino Royale, where every aspect of the story plays into Bond's development, the storyline with Greene feels too disconnected. Bond trying to stop the monopoly in Bolivia doesn't do anything to help him overcome his demons, he just happens to do so while going on this random mission. It's a shame because there was a lot of potential here, exemplified in the surprisingly great Bond girl Camille. Vesper is a tough act to follow, but Camille is a badass character with an arc that parallels Bond's. I love how it feels like they're on equal footing, helping each other overcome their demons, and it culminates in a scene in the climax that surprisingly got to me. Frankly, the whole ending is really satisfying, easily the best part of the movie.
So the story already isn't great, but what really gives off the feeling that Quantum Of Solace wasn't properly finished was the sheer amount of action scenes. In the first 30 minutes of the movie alone, we have four action sequences. In total, there's around 9-10. Add in the fact that even with all this action, the movie isn't even two hours long and it's blatantly obvious that QoS was padded out because the crew didn't have enough material for a full movie. But hey, I'm a sucker for some good action. If QoS's action is good enough, I might able to forgive its story flaws, right? Well, unfortunately, the action is hit-or-miss. As you might expect, the movie goes for quantity over quality, compared to Casino Royale's infrequent but always spectacular action scenes. But even worse is the fact that every action scene goes for a Bourne-esque shaky cam direction, and the quality of that direction is very inconsistent. The close-up hand-to-hand fights are actually really good, like that brief knife fight early on, the fight on the scaffolding, and especially the opera fight. The editors also have a habit of intercutting between multiple perspectives during a fight, which is a trick that I am always a sucker for, and gives certain action scenes (especially the aforementioned opera one) a lot more energy. However, whenever there's a much larger-scale sequence like the boat chase, the car chase, and the plane chase, the shaky cam can be a lot more distracting and clumsy, making the scenes harder to follow. As a whole, there are way worse shaky cam movies out there (helped by several crew members having worked on the Bourne films), but I still wish the action sequences were directed normally instead. Even with the action scenes that are bad though, David Arnold's score really picks up the slack. I already liked his music for Casino Royale but he went so hard here, the music is way too good for this movie.
Overall, Quantum Of Solace isn't very good, and fares even worse coming off the heels of the masterful Casino Royale. The story is weak and thin, and the action scenes are incredibly inconsistent. However, I don't hate it. Bond's arc is solid and bolstered by Camille's great character, the score is fantastic, some of the action scenes are genuinely pretty fun, and I feel like it all somehow manages to come together in the end.
2/5 Stars
Skyfall (R): As mentioned above, Skyfall was my favorite James Bond film out of the ones I've seen, and it's not hard to see why. Skyfall is a spectacle, an event. It didn't just align with Bond's 50th anniversary, it aligned with the goddamn London Olympics. When watching Skyfall for the first time, it's hard not to get swept up in the grandness of the entire film. But upon rewatch, yeah, I don't know if this one holds up as well as Casino Royale does.
On a presentation level, Skyfall is immaculate. Sam Mendes directed the hell out of this movie, and Roger Deakins delivered some of his most stunning cinematography to this day. It feels like Mendes' full Bond movie vision, which is always something I like to see in big franchises like this (once again, note The Last Jedi). Skyfall looks phenomenal, better than most action blockbusters in general, let alone Bond films. And it really shows in the action, which is already great but enhanced even further by the visuals. A simple brawl atop a skyscraper is elevated by the decision to have Bond and his opponent be silhouetted by a nearby billboard, the final battle is made better by the fact that everything is lit by a blazing fire, and of course, that cold open is like five different action scenes squashed together and it's glorious. As mentioned above, Skyfall is the 50th anniversary movie for James Bond and it's not hard to see why. There's an overarching theme about how Bond will never be outdated, the Aston Martin goes out in a blaze of glory, and Bond mainstays like Q, Moneypenny, and especially M get a lot more focus. M is probably the highlight of the movie, basically being the defacto "Bond girl" this time around, though I also love the snarky banter between Bond and Q. As a whole, Skyfall feels especially British in its comedy, which I kinda admire.
These are the reasons why I loved Skyfall, and I still do. I think it's a great film that I really enjoy watching. However, on a narrative level, it doesn't quite land for me like Casino Royale did. Skyfall's main storyline about a cyberterrorist named Silva who wants to kill M for betraying him. That's a perfectly fine concept for a villain, as a matter of fact, I love this concept for a villain. Having the antagonist going after a main character gives Skyfall more personal stakes, and the resolution is a gut punch that easily surpasses Vesper's death for me. Unforunately, I'm not a huge fan of Silva as a character. Unlike with Greene, Silva is way more colorful and interesting, and Javier Bardem is actually trying to be charismatic here. However, I think he goes in the complete opposite direction and ends up coming off as really annoying. He's also a pretty blatant Joker clone. Like the last two films were obviously based off Bourne, but nothing in them felt as derivative as Silva's contrived prison escape. I'm also not a huge fan of Bond's characterization either for that matter. For this movie, and only this movie, Bond is this cynical aging dude who lets innocent people die and fails at pretty much everything he tries to do. That Sevèrine scene in particular is a stain on the movie.
Overall, though, Skyfall is still a grand spectacle of a James Bond movie. The direction is masterful, the cinematography is stunning, the action is great, the stakes feel personal yet grand, and it leaves one hell of an impact. It's definitely not my favorite Bond story, but the visual craftsmanship still elevates it to being a strong entry in the series.
4.5/5 Stars
Spectre: I feel like Craig's Bond movies tend to suffer from peaking early on a lot of the time, even with most of them still managing to pull off some emotional gut punch in the ending. Casino Royale peaks in that opening hour, Quantum Of Solace was the most enjoyable during that crackhead pacing first half, and Skyfall was definitely at its best before Silva showed up. But none of these movies managed to bomb their final act like Spectre did.
Spectre's first two-thirds is genuinely pretty solid. The opening was pretty great, a lengthy Day Of The Dead sequence with a oner and some pretty impressive shots, but even the story started off with a lot of potential. The premise is that Judi Dench's M gives Bond a mission after her passing, so he goes behind the current M's back to do the mission, discovering Spectre in the process. I like this idea, it's a neat way to introduce the new Spectre, and lends the film a bit of a mystery element. It also helps that Bond spends much of the first half of the movie being pursued by an assassin played by Dave Bautista, who's not only just a great henchman, but it leads to a whole bunch of really fun action scenes. I know a lot of people poke fun at the admittedly slow car chase, but I'd say the plane chase and train fight both make up for it in spades. I also liked how light Spectre is, especially coming off of the heavy Skyfall. It's the first Craig film to really show a willingness to be a bit goofy and silly, while not going all-out camp with it. I will say that Spectre does suffer a bit from following Skyfall in terms of its production. It still looks fine and the score is as great as always, but the sepia filter leaves it looking somewhat colorless and bland. Spectre's cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema is actually really good too, he did a bunch of Nolan movies as well as Ad Astra and Nope, so it's kind of baffling that Spectre turned out looking so drab. I also found the main theme Writing On The Wall to be pretty weak, the first Bond theme in the marathon that I didn't really end up liking.
Once Bautista's character dies, Spectre starts to spiral out of control a bit, though the first sign of badness is actually a bit earlier on. Around the half way point, we learn that all the villains from the previous Craig movies were a part of Spectre (yes, even Silva). That's a really blatant and contrived retcon, the type of storytelling I absolutely despise, but hey, all of these characters are dead so it's not like it matters much. Where things really went off the rails is when we met Blofeld himself. For starters, Blofeld's actor Christoph Waltz is not a good fit for character. He's a good actor, sure, but he plays Blofeld as kind of a nutjob, where he's really supposed to be cold and calculated. Then, we learn that Blofeld is Bond's brother, and that he ended up staging and planned pretty much everything in the previous movie. I don't need to tell you that the brother twist is stupid, but that latter twist ends up cheapening everything that happened in the last three movies. It feels like a forced attempt at tying everything together that just didn't need to be there, and gave off Angel Season 4 vibes (if you know me, you know that's the worst insult I could possibly give it). But hey, Blofeld and Spectre are finally revealed, so maybe we could at least have a big explosive final battle between MI-6 and Spectre? Nope, instead we have a really bland and unfittingly small-scale skirmish in London that bloats the runtime and ends the movie on a bit of a dud note. It's hard not to be reminded of Star Trek: Into Darkness, but at least that movie had a fun final battle, and Cumberbatch made a fine Khan, and there weren't any retcons. But hey, even Quantum Of Solace ended on a good note, maybe Spectre would... why am I even trying anymore? Bond finds a replacement for Vesper who he has zero chemistry with and retires again with her, resetting his development back to the two-thirds point of his first movie. What the fuck happened to this movie?
No seriously, what happened to it? Spectre was so good in its first two-thirds, a few minor issues aside. The opening was a banger, the action was fun, the tone was pleasantly light, the mystery was intriguing, the henchman was fantastic, everything was in place for at the very least a great Bond film. But I've never had a final act ruin this much goodwill towards a movie since maybe Wonder Woman? It's probably even worse to be perfectly honest. The countless retcons, underwhelming Blofeld, weak romance, dull final battle, disappointing conclusion, it all added up to one of the biggest cliff-drops I've ever seen a movie make. And that's a real shame because, once again, Spectre has so much going for it. Pound for pound, it's a better movie than Quantum Of Solace, if only it stuck the landing.
2.5/5 Stars
No Time To Die (R): No Time To Die is yet another Bond movie I'm rewatching, but unlike with Casino Royale and Skyfall, I feel pretty much exactly the same about it, even with the added context of having fully seen Spectre. It's an uneven film, with good stuff and bad stuff in equal measures.
Let's start with the stuff I enjoyed about No Time To Die, because there is a decent amount. As is usual with the Craig films, No Time To Die peaked in its first hour, especially in terms of action. The car chase in Italy in the opening was excellent, Safin's early-film heist was thrilling, the whole Cuba sequence was a ton of fun, and Felix Leiter's death probably hit me the hardest out of anything in the movie. The new characters were also great, I liked seeing Bond and his new rival 00 Nomi trade barbs, and Ana De Armas's Paloma is so charming and badass that she could've been the best Bond girl in the series had she appeared for more than ten minutes. Cary Fukunaga's direction is a big improvement over that of Spectre, while it still doesn't top Deakins' work, No Time To Die is a beautiful, bold, and incredibly well-shot movie. Obviously, the most noteworthy and divisive part of No Time To Die is the fact that James Bond dies, and you know what? It worked for me. While the final act dragged a bit (more on that later), Bond manages to go out with a pretty stunning oner staircase fight and an emotional self-sacrifice that mostly really works. Granted, I'm not entirely sure that Bond needed to die, it's not like the series is over or anything, but I also can't say it wasn't well-executed.
Unfortunately, No Time To Die has a few issues that prevent me from truly loving it. First is the movie's crushing length. The last two Craig films were already a bit overlong for what should be tight spy thrillers, but No Time To Die is nearly three hours and it shows, especially in the third act. I get that Bond's death is a big event, but it's not like this is Avengers Endgame or anything. It's not a huge crossover with a massive cast that needs a longer length, it's as much of a standard action film as the rest of the series. Another issue I have is with the villain Safin, who I felt was a criminal waste of Rami Malek. Having seen Mr Robot, I know Malek is a fantastic actor, but Safin's confusing motivations, inconsistent screentime, and disappointing final battle made for a pretty mediocre antagonist. But probably my biggest issue with No Time To Die is the fact that the spectre of Spectre is still looming over it. Blofeld shows up again, and he continues to drag down the movie whenever he appears. Madeleine, the Bond girl from Spectre, also gets a lot of focus, but NTTD still isn't able to make her interesting, and even ends up making her backstory even more convoluted by bringing Safin into the mix. And in case the weird soap opera family tree bullshit couldn't get any worse, Bond now has a kid, who's literally only there to make his death more tragic.
Despite touting itself as the grandest movie in the series, No Time To Die is pretty much middle of the pack. It has some fantastic action, great direction from Cary Fukunaga, lovable new characters, and some serious emotional heft, and it doesn't completely fall off the rails like Spectre does. However, it also suffers from its crushing length, weak villain, and having to follow-up the events of Spectre.
3/5 Stars
Since there's a whopping 25 movies in this series to date (no, I'm not watching Never Say Never Again and you can't make me), there's no way I'm going to be able to cram it all into a single post. But for now, here's how I'd rank the Daniel Craig movies:
- Casino Royale
- Skyfall
- No Time To Die
- Spectre
- Quantum Of Solace
See you next time when I review the Pierce Brosnan era of Bond.
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