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5 James Bond Films Where The Franchise Utterly Lost Its Way
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tmc...@gmail.com
Oct 31, 2013, 3:30:41 PM10/31/13
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http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php
Many people think that being a true fan means defending something you love against any criticism of it, failing to acknowledge any potential flaws or differences of opinion. This is, of course, a blatant lie, but one that many people buy into in attempting to justify their own views.
Being a true fan means being passionate about something while wishing to discuss it freely or own up to any flaws it may have. F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, once said: “the test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” It is possible to love something while recognising its flaws, just as you can love a particular franchise as a whole while hating individual installments.
This brings us onto the seemingly interminable Bond series. I consider myself a casual fan, and given the chance I will strongly defend my view that Timothy Dalton was and always will be the best Bond. But even as much as I love aspects of the series from the early offerings of Connery to the grittiness of Craig, there are a number of dark, embarrassing blots on the series’ copy-book that must be acknowledged and analysed to prevent them from being repeated.
Here then are my picks for the 5 Bond films which completely derailed the series. In each case we’ll be looking at the problems of the film in detail, and I’ll be recommending an alternative film in the franchise to take away the feeling of being shaken (not stirred). Oh, and before you say anything, this list is only covering the official Bond series – so Never Say Never Again and the parody of Casino Royale don’t count (awful as they are).
Let’s kick off with a little something from the Brosnan era…
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/2
5. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The Man: Pierce Brosnan
The Mission: Media baron Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) plans to provoke war between Britain and China, using a stolen GPS encoder to sink a Royal Navy ship and shoot down a Chinese jet. With only 48 hours before a possible retaliation, Bond teams up with Chinese spy Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) to investigate…
The Problem: The Bond series has always been at its best when it has had to freshly justify its existence – Goldeneye, Casino Royale, Skyfall and so on. But it’s often the case that the film which re-establishes the franchise is followed by one that’s much more complacent. And that’s just the problem here: Tomorrow Never Dies undoes a lot of the good work that Goldeneye did in bringing Bond back for the 1990s.
While it did have its fair share of problems, Goldeneye did make a very good first of justifying Bond in the post-Cold War period, and had a very compelling villain in the shape of Sean Bean’s 006. Tomorrow Never Dies, by contrast, is very by-the-numbers in its plot, even by Bond standards. Its attempts to appear up-to-date are pretty weak, with Pryce’s pantomime dame villain being a lazy stitch-up of Rupert Murdoch. The whole film smacks of people taking the foot off the pedals, and no amount of Bond making out with Lois Lane is going to change that.
The Alternative: Goldeneye (1995), because Sean Bean is awesome, and so is the game.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/3
4. Octopussy (1983)
The Man: Roger Moore
The Mission: Fellow agent 009 is found dead at the British embassy in East Berlin, dressed as a clown and carrying a fake Fabergé egg (just go with it). The plot that follows is a convoluted affair involving an exiled Afghan prince, backgammon, an Octopus cult and a circus…
The Problem: Aside from its risible title, Octopussy is an example of the series showing its age, in more ways than one. Moore was reluctant to return as Bond, feeling uncomfortable doing love scenes with actresses young enough to be his daughters. He was only persuaded to return in light of Connery’s re-emergence in the unofficial entry Never Say Never Again (which was itself a remake of Thunderball).
On top of Moore’s reluctance, the film is tonally all over the place. On the one hand it’s trying to be a little more serious in its plot, looking back to the Connery era for inspiration; on the other hand it features Moore in a gorilla suit, doing a Tarzan yell and later hiding out in a circus dressed as a clown. If you hadn’t got sick of it before, Octopussy was the moment when all the goofy attributes of Bond finally caught up with the lead actor, and for once his dancing eyebrows couldn’t get him out of trouble.
The Alternative: A View to a Kill (1985). The follow-up sent Moore’s Bond out on a high, thanks to a steadier, darker tone and a brace of good villains in the shape of Grace Jones and Christopher Walken.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/4
3. Moonraker (1979)
The Man: Roger Moore (again)
The Mission: After a British space shuttle is hi-jacked in mid-air, Bond is sent to investigate the operations of the industrialist Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale). His journey eventually leads him to Drax’s space station, from which Drax intends to poison the Earth and begin a new, purer version of the human race.
The Problem: Even amongst die-hard Bond fans, Moonraker is a bit of a joke. Like many films released in the aftermath of Star Wars, it was attempting to cash in on the popularity of space adventure stories without having the proper tools with which to do it. The wire work is poor, the script is weak and none of the villains are particularly compelling. The film comes off as pompous and embarrassing as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though it is at least a little shorter.
As a general rule, stories about eugenics and racial purity don’t work in situations where big action set-pieces and comic one-liners are just as high a priority. The plot has potential, make no mistake, but its execution is so off-kilter that it makes The Boys From Brazil looks sensible in comparison. Not to mention the film takes Jaws, one of the best ever Bond henchman, and turns him into a wet blanket by giving him a girlfriend. Diddums.
The Alternative: For Your Eyes Only (1981), if only for the funny scene at the end in which the parrot talks to Margaret Thatcher – sort of.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/5
2. Quantum Of Solace (2008)
The Man: Daniel Craig
The Mission: Picking up from where Casino Royale left off, Bond seeks revenge for the death of his lover Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) while pursuing environmentalist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). Greene is a member of the Quantum organisation and is planning on staging a coup in Bolivia to steal its water supply. Supposedly.
The Problem: I know I’ve banged on about this before in my Top 10 Terrible Sequels list, but it’s worth re-iterating just how totally incompetent Quantum of Solace is. Despite a decent amount of dramatic talent behind the camera, the film feels like a collection of Bourne-style set pieces with no emotional heart to connect them. For all the characters’ talk about Bond’s pain after losing Lynd, the film feels horribly inert.
Like Moonraker, the villain is largely uninteresting, or is at least given so little to work with that he becomes uninteresting. And like I said before, the theme song by Alicia Keys and Jack White is the worst theme song the Bond series has ever had to endure. But more than that, Quantum of Solace is so confusing and incoherently plotted that it generates no suspense or empathy. Whether due to its production problems or sheer complacency, the story and characters are boring and the storytelling is poor.
The Alternative: Casino Royale (2006). It’s a little too long, but at least it has a story.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/6
1. Die Another Day (2002)
The Man: Pierce Brosnan (again)
The Mission: Bond is imprisoned in North Korea for seemingly killing Zao, the son of a prominent general. After being released, and with his 00 status suspended (sound familiar?), he goes after the men who tortured and betrayed him, eventually falling foul of billionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens).
The Problem: While the Bond series is hardly the paragon of cinematic craftsmanship, you would be hard pushed to find another film in the franchise as contemptibly lazy as this. This is not so much a film as a greatest hits compilation: the plot is lifted from Diamonds Are Forever, the introduction of Jinx is ripped off from Dr. No, Graves’ skydiving entrance is equal parts Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me, and so on.
There are any number of moments in Die Another Day to which the only sane response is to cringe – whether it’s the invisible Aston Martin, Bond surfing on the CGI wave, or Madonna’s horrendous attempts at acting. But the film is altogether worse than the sums of its parts, having very little story punctuated by dull action scenes. In short, it is all the worst elements of the series taken to the extreme, and the worst possible case for why it should continue for another 40 years.
The Alternative: The World is Not Enough (1999). Despite Denise Richards’ performance, it’s not as bad as many people think.
Read more at http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/6#XfikIJL7cfKUMrPI.99
Many people think that being a true fan means defending something you love against any criticism of it, failing to acknowledge any potential flaws or differences of opinion. This is, of course, a blatant lie, but one that many people buy into in attempting to justify their own views.
Being a true fan means being passionate about something while wishing to discuss it freely or own up to any flaws it may have. F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, once said: “the test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” It is possible to love something while recognising its flaws, just as you can love a particular franchise as a whole while hating individual installments.
This brings us onto the seemingly interminable Bond series. I consider myself a casual fan, and given the chance I will strongly defend my view that Timothy Dalton was and always will be the best Bond. But even as much as I love aspects of the series from the early offerings of Connery to the grittiness of Craig, there are a number of dark, embarrassing blots on the series’ copy-book that must be acknowledged and analysed to prevent them from being repeated.
Here then are my picks for the 5 Bond films which completely derailed the series. In each case we’ll be looking at the problems of the film in detail, and I’ll be recommending an alternative film in the franchise to take away the feeling of being shaken (not stirred). Oh, and before you say anything, this list is only covering the official Bond series – so Never Say Never Again and the parody of Casino Royale don’t count (awful as they are).
Let’s kick off with a little something from the Brosnan era…
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/2
5. Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The Man: Pierce Brosnan
The Mission: Media baron Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) plans to provoke war between Britain and China, using a stolen GPS encoder to sink a Royal Navy ship and shoot down a Chinese jet. With only 48 hours before a possible retaliation, Bond teams up with Chinese spy Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) to investigate…
The Problem: The Bond series has always been at its best when it has had to freshly justify its existence – Goldeneye, Casino Royale, Skyfall and so on. But it’s often the case that the film which re-establishes the franchise is followed by one that’s much more complacent. And that’s just the problem here: Tomorrow Never Dies undoes a lot of the good work that Goldeneye did in bringing Bond back for the 1990s.
While it did have its fair share of problems, Goldeneye did make a very good first of justifying Bond in the post-Cold War period, and had a very compelling villain in the shape of Sean Bean’s 006. Tomorrow Never Dies, by contrast, is very by-the-numbers in its plot, even by Bond standards. Its attempts to appear up-to-date are pretty weak, with Pryce’s pantomime dame villain being a lazy stitch-up of Rupert Murdoch. The whole film smacks of people taking the foot off the pedals, and no amount of Bond making out with Lois Lane is going to change that.
The Alternative: Goldeneye (1995), because Sean Bean is awesome, and so is the game.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/3
4. Octopussy (1983)
The Man: Roger Moore
The Mission: Fellow agent 009 is found dead at the British embassy in East Berlin, dressed as a clown and carrying a fake Fabergé egg (just go with it). The plot that follows is a convoluted affair involving an exiled Afghan prince, backgammon, an Octopus cult and a circus…
The Problem: Aside from its risible title, Octopussy is an example of the series showing its age, in more ways than one. Moore was reluctant to return as Bond, feeling uncomfortable doing love scenes with actresses young enough to be his daughters. He was only persuaded to return in light of Connery’s re-emergence in the unofficial entry Never Say Never Again (which was itself a remake of Thunderball).
On top of Moore’s reluctance, the film is tonally all over the place. On the one hand it’s trying to be a little more serious in its plot, looking back to the Connery era for inspiration; on the other hand it features Moore in a gorilla suit, doing a Tarzan yell and later hiding out in a circus dressed as a clown. If you hadn’t got sick of it before, Octopussy was the moment when all the goofy attributes of Bond finally caught up with the lead actor, and for once his dancing eyebrows couldn’t get him out of trouble.
The Alternative: A View to a Kill (1985). The follow-up sent Moore’s Bond out on a high, thanks to a steadier, darker tone and a brace of good villains in the shape of Grace Jones and Christopher Walken.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/4
3. Moonraker (1979)
The Man: Roger Moore (again)
The Mission: After a British space shuttle is hi-jacked in mid-air, Bond is sent to investigate the operations of the industrialist Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale). His journey eventually leads him to Drax’s space station, from which Drax intends to poison the Earth and begin a new, purer version of the human race.
The Problem: Even amongst die-hard Bond fans, Moonraker is a bit of a joke. Like many films released in the aftermath of Star Wars, it was attempting to cash in on the popularity of space adventure stories without having the proper tools with which to do it. The wire work is poor, the script is weak and none of the villains are particularly compelling. The film comes off as pompous and embarrassing as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, though it is at least a little shorter.
As a general rule, stories about eugenics and racial purity don’t work in situations where big action set-pieces and comic one-liners are just as high a priority. The plot has potential, make no mistake, but its execution is so off-kilter that it makes The Boys From Brazil looks sensible in comparison. Not to mention the film takes Jaws, one of the best ever Bond henchman, and turns him into a wet blanket by giving him a girlfriend. Diddums.
The Alternative: For Your Eyes Only (1981), if only for the funny scene at the end in which the parrot talks to Margaret Thatcher – sort of.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/5
2. Quantum Of Solace (2008)
The Man: Daniel Craig
The Mission: Picking up from where Casino Royale left off, Bond seeks revenge for the death of his lover Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) while pursuing environmentalist Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). Greene is a member of the Quantum organisation and is planning on staging a coup in Bolivia to steal its water supply. Supposedly.
The Problem: I know I’ve banged on about this before in my Top 10 Terrible Sequels list, but it’s worth re-iterating just how totally incompetent Quantum of Solace is. Despite a decent amount of dramatic talent behind the camera, the film feels like a collection of Bourne-style set pieces with no emotional heart to connect them. For all the characters’ talk about Bond’s pain after losing Lynd, the film feels horribly inert.
Like Moonraker, the villain is largely uninteresting, or is at least given so little to work with that he becomes uninteresting. And like I said before, the theme song by Alicia Keys and Jack White is the worst theme song the Bond series has ever had to endure. But more than that, Quantum of Solace is so confusing and incoherently plotted that it generates no suspense or empathy. Whether due to its production problems or sheer complacency, the story and characters are boring and the storytelling is poor.
The Alternative: Casino Royale (2006). It’s a little too long, but at least it has a story.
http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/6
1. Die Another Day (2002)
The Man: Pierce Brosnan (again)
The Mission: Bond is imprisoned in North Korea for seemingly killing Zao, the son of a prominent general. After being released, and with his 00 status suspended (sound familiar?), he goes after the men who tortured and betrayed him, eventually falling foul of billionaire Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens).
The Problem: While the Bond series is hardly the paragon of cinematic craftsmanship, you would be hard pushed to find another film in the franchise as contemptibly lazy as this. This is not so much a film as a greatest hits compilation: the plot is lifted from Diamonds Are Forever, the introduction of Jinx is ripped off from Dr. No, Graves’ skydiving entrance is equal parts Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me, and so on.
There are any number of moments in Die Another Day to which the only sane response is to cringe – whether it’s the invisible Aston Martin, Bond surfing on the CGI wave, or Madonna’s horrendous attempts at acting. But the film is altogether worse than the sums of its parts, having very little story punctuated by dull action scenes. In short, it is all the worst elements of the series taken to the extreme, and the worst possible case for why it should continue for another 40 years.
The Alternative: The World is Not Enough (1999). Despite Denise Richards’ performance, it’s not as bad as many people think.
Read more at http://whatculture.com/film/5-james-bond-films-where-the-franchise-utterly-lost-its-way.php/6#XfikIJL7cfKUMrPI.99
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