Let’s do it. Goldeneye is a better Bond movie than Casino Royale.
Let’s start by saying Casino Royale is a great movie. Technically, Casino Royale is a much better movie than Goldeneye. And yet, Goldeneye is a better James Bond movie. The tank chase is more Bond-y than any shit CGI komodo dragon, limply shot car chases in Rome, or Christoph Waltz looking sad in a cell.
There are many excellent scenes in Casino Royale (apart from all the Venice shit). The casino scenes are great. And yet the movie is disturbingly mastabatory towards the Bourne movies, a set of fine, though overrated films.
Many of the seeds of what is wrong with the Craig movies are planted in Casino Royale. The third, final act is stupid, boring and nearly senseless. This trend continues, every Craig movie stumbles to a final act that deflates all that has gone before. Quantum Of Solace has a fire in an empty hotel. Skyfall is a violent Home Alone. Spectre trundles to a boring, boring, fuck-me-it’s-boring climax. No Time To Die is a Metal Gear Solid rip off, minus the cool but easily defeated armoured suit.
A big seed planted in the Craig-iverse is Vesper. The romance between Bond and Vesper is ultimately ruined because the writers, Wade and Purvis, are convinced they are writing the love story of the 21st century. The real love story is the one between the writers and Vesper. They clearly love Vesper more than Bond, or the audience ever did, so the result is Bond having to act as if he’s been through a love story that just isn’t represented on screen. As with everything in the Craig-iverse, the writers want the end result without putting any effort in. Want another example of Wade and Purvis’ tell don’t show approach to writing? In Skyfall they tell us incessantly that Bond is old, fucked and past it. No he isn’t. Look at him. Why peddle some shit that contradicts what the viewer sees. Why write like that? Want another? In No Time To Die they’re pressing home that Felix is Bond’s “brother” and have been on so many adventures together. We, the audience haven’t seen Felix since Quantum, so we haven’t been privy to them becoming “brothers”. You can’t just bring back a character you ain’t touched for a decade then ask the audience to care.
Goldeneye gives the people what they want (following Elliot Carver’s rule) . It has action, gadgets, one of the strongest villains, a tight plot, it’s well paced, and with the exception of Boris has great characters. Best of all though is that it stars Pierce Brosnan, a man over the moon to he playing Bond. Brosnan loves being Bond, and his Bond loves being 007. The lack of joy drags down Craig, and it’s not all his fault. On the rare occasion Craig is given some quips and funny lines he nails them. Craig had an untapped side as a Bond who gives no fucks, and the first part of Quantum Of Solace actually showcases him well. He is great as a bull in a china shop. But the writers keep hamstringing him with misery. Given he’s having a whale of a time when he plays Benoit Blanc you have to wander what his Bond could have been like.
It is totally, totally understandable that people love Craig and the Craig movies, but ultimately… If you like Casino Royale but don’t like Goldeneye… Maybe the thing you don’t like is James Bond?
What the hell is wrong with giving the people what they want anyway?
No Time To Die gets a well deserved slating here: No Time To Die Review ⭐⭐
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