Daniel Craig's James Bond Series

Taking All the Time in the World

3/5

Casino Royale / Quantum of Solace / Skyfall / Spectre / No Time To Die

3/5 - 2/5 - 4/5 - 3/5 - 4/5

Spoilers

Often, a cinema visit leaves an imprint of about a week. You come out fizzing with opinions and gradually lose your sparkle over repeated tellings of what you have seen until all that remains is a light memory of emotional resonance. "Did you see Downy Jr.'s Dr. Dolittle?" someone may ask. "Ah, yes," you reply, a flush of feeling returning, "it was awful." You remember little about the details but Downy Jr.'s less-than-lilting Welsh accent still rings in your ears. Occasionally, you find yourself in a truly thrilling experience which sticks with you for life, such as a genie first appearing from a bottle or a very old man lifting a slightly large hammer.

Then there are the cinematic scars, times you went to the flicks only to be confronted with either an embarrassment of embarrassments (I mean, predator dogs, seriously?) or a serious let down. Joy can always be found in the endless mocking of the former but the latter brings nothing but gloom and annoyance.

In the Winter of '06, we trundled along with brisk anticipation to catch Casino Royale and the dawning of a new Bond era. To a child of the 90s, the changing of Bonds felt akin to the transformation of Doctors; a necessary and integral part of the franchise that presented new opportunities. Although I had enjoyed the Pierce Brosnan era, as a child of the 90s, this new start felt thrilling! As we sat in the musty old seats of the Sutton Coldfield Empire (or was it still an Odeon then...?) the mood sharply turned as we were presented with a change we had not anticipated: Bond was Bourne.

As fans of the Bourne films, this new direction for Bond felt like a poor imitation at best. To us, it paled in the superior film's shadow. And when it wasn't full on Bourne-ing, it was pretty full on boring. We yawned as the casino element of the title proved to be a threat to pacing than a promise of excitement. As we departed on that dreary winter's day, we felt betrayed and irritated. I vowed there and then never to watch another Daniel Craig Bond film, wishing the whole sordid experiment would flounder.

Whilst it did quite the opposite, reinvigorated an aging franchise, and began to become a hot ticket every few years, I stuck to my word. No amount peer pressure, critical reviews, or promises of cinematic glories could tempt me from my chosen path. The rod, though hand-crafted, proved a comfort to my back.

I have spoken before about the impact of Covid-19 on the cinema; Daniel Craig's Bond journey has become an unlikely part of the narrative. As we all know, from the endless press coverage, No Time To Die was due out in April '20 and continued to avoid release dates like the, well, plague. Thus, by it's October '21 release, it had become something of an 'event'. As a rule, I try to catch every major film at some point but will avoid the odd stinker, where possible. But I cannot bear to miss 'the big ones' and, through gritted teeth, agreed to watch not only No Time To Die but also... the other four.

The first thing that struck me about these films is that they're not actually that bad. In fact, some are actually quite good. Others are based on stealing water from Bolivia and selling it back to them at a slightly inflated price. In the many years I have spent bemoaning Casino Royale it became apparent that I could not remember the third act in the slightest. My biggest criticism had always been that it ended weirdly, with Bond recuperating. Turns out there was a whole chase scene and a sinking Venetian house at the end. I'm not totally infallible all the time.

When Quantum of Solace, a frankly incredibly dull film, was released, I did scoff at the concept of a Bond plot sequel. Bonds typically start afresh with each journey and I was outraged at the new injustice. What No Time To Die gave me was a sense of conclusion and a fairly well rounded narrative arc. As a set of five, Bond does indeed go on a journey. His path from youthful carelessness to aging master assassin is well judged. The moment he explodes at the end came with pangs of remorse for a character I had grown vaguely fond of. Craig's performance has grown across the five films, turning into a version of Bond that is somewhat more believable. Although, as I thought in 2006, maybe that strips some of the fun away.

I enjoyed the supporting characters through most of the films. Although Jeffrey Wright's Felix Leiter was somewhat 2D at times, the work given to both Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes as M was greatly enjoyable. Dench especially brought a edge of flint little seen before that led to the emotional climax of Skyfall. The two primary love interests, the excellent Eva Green in Casino Royale and the broadly solid Léa Seydoux in the final two films both brought drive to what could have been flat characters. The true touch of genius was Ben Wishaw's casting as Q, though. At times I find him hard to watch but as Q he took us away from a silly gadgets man to the well-meaning face of British espionage; Paddington with a PC.

Less convincing have been the bad guys. Each creative team have sought to create a new legendary Bond villain in the league of Dr. No or Hugo Drax, yet each have failed. It seems the directors think that simply taking a good actor, ideally European, having him act in an understated manner, and then adding a weird gimmick (tears of blood, a false jaw, being an evil Steve Jobs, being Rami Malek, etc...) is enough. But if you move to a more realistic, Bourne-esque style of thriller, then you must accept two facts. Firstly, strange ticks and weird conditions don't gel with a serious plotline. Secondly, you don't need to have a AFI Top 100 Villains bad guy. For a modern interpretation of the thriller, the silent criminal works best. The fiend behind the scenes. The suspicious organisation. Even the 'everyman'. I would hesitate to suggest that the only two villains who worked across the five films were Dave Bautista in Spectre and Daniel Craig himself.

Across the five films, the plotting wandered between well structured and thought through to a banal series of incidents. At the bottom end you have the frustratingly pointless Quantum of Solace. Here you have Bond accidentally stumble upon some suspicious activity that turns out to be tangentially linked with the death of girlfriend. He then starts interfering for pretty much no reason, stumbling from one scenario to the next, before getting into a fight with capitalism itself. It might as well have been called The Accidental Communist. Likewise in Spectre, Bond goes out of his way to not be helpful with MI6 which only pays off by chance, before you are led to believe that some random guy you've never seen before (putting aside the original films) was behind everything else. Ultimately, I just though "OK - you're point?". The apex of odd plotting comes in Bond's sudden and extreme romantic attachments to both Green and Seydoux after spending less than a day with them, on which his emotional journeys hinge in both Casino Royale and Spectre.

On the flip side you have Skyfall and No Time To Die, both films that have a neatly constructed plot. Although the time drags in all five films, these two do more to keep your focus and make the endings earned. Skyfall especially creates an interesting bread crumb trail that leads to a spectacular finale. It is a bold move to end a Bond film in the deserted Scottish Highlands with a team of assassins fighting Bond, an old worn M, and his elderly groundskeeper. But that's what makes it brilliant.

My initial distaste for this run of films came from the seeming abandonment of tradition. It has been said before that I don't like change - I couldn't possibly comment. Although the start of the quintology was treated as a clean slate, barring Dench's performance, the series did ultimately, and somewhat subtly, bring itself back into play as a proper part of the canon. I don't mean through the slightly ham-fisted uses of Blofeld (etc...), but through other smaller actions. Some were welcome - the return to M's office, the excessive alcoholism (well, we must all have a role model somewhere), and the Aston Martins. Some, less so. In our modern era, the excessive and pointless amount of sex scenes seemed more and more distasteful. The producers noted with glee that Monica Bellucci was the 'oldest Bond girl' when she appeared in Spectre. They seemed to focus on the 'ageism' issues of Bond girls rather than the 'treating women as sex objects' issue.

No Time To Die did include a series of homages to previous films, most notably the sweeping Italian hillside drive putting fans in mind of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The less-than-subtle scoring brought We Have All the Time in the World to our ears once more before concluding the film with Louis as they did in 1969. As the credits rolled I felt a sense of conclusion, not just to Daniel Craig's tenure, but also to Bond more generally. This last outing and the heroic demise of Britain's greatest spy felt like a classy send off for the franchise. My heart sank a little, for the first time ever, when the immortal 'James Bond Will Return' rolled across the screen. Perhaps now is the time to leave the old fashioned spy, chatting up girls at the bar with a strong martini, in the past. There are enough spy thrillers being written - does Bond need a fresh coat of paint? When does Bond stop being Bond? Surely it would be better to leave it with the toast of scotch amongst colleagues and the lilting vocals of Louis Armstrong. But when does Hollywood take the fitting end over the cash potential? When will Hollywood learn to let Andy leave his toys with Bonnie?

Casino Royale, 2006 / Quantum of Solace, 2008 / Skyfall, 2012 / Spectre, 2015 / No Time to Die, 2021

Director: Martin Campbell / Marc Foster / Sam Mendes / Sam Mendes / Cary Joji Fukunaga

Writer: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, & Paul Haggis / Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, & Robert Wade / Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, & John Logan / John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, & Jez Butterworth / Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, & Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Composer: David Arnold / David Arnold / Thomas Newman / Thomas Newman / Hans Zimmer

Starring: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, & Judi Dench / Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright, & Judi Dench /

Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Bérénice Marlohe, Albert Finney, Ben Wishaw, & Judi Dench / Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci, & Ralph Fiennes / Daniel Craig, Léa Seydoux, Ralph Fiennes, Rami Malek, Christoph Waltz, Lashana Lynch, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, & Ben Wishaw

All, except No Time To Die, available to rent on Amazon

No Time To Die is currently showing at major U.K. cinemas

Postscript

A brief comment on the modern Bond themes, especially in light of the death of the legendary Leslie Bricusse, behind the lyrics of Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice. Modern Bond themes, Skyfall excluding, are terrible. I don't feel I need to dignify this with an in-epth analysis. They just are. Whatever happened to a good tune? An upbeat tempo? Coolness?!