The future of James Bond

There was as bad or worse ones earlier in the franchise.

To be honest I would have Goldeneye somewhere in my top 10 …… it is a very entertaining film generally with great action ….. I expect these jokes and the names like Onatopp …… it is part of the series ….. and no way are the stunts even remotely realistic but it is an action movie ….. same goes for Superman, Spiderman even Batman ….. they are escapism ….. what is most disturbing is that the bad guys are way too realistic these days though !!! …..

As regards Bond films I hate myself ….. there is only one ….. Casino Royale 1967 version ….. anyone coming at this thinking it is an early take on the superb Daniel Craig film from 2006 will be in for a shock …. it is supposed to be a comedy but is not remotely funny …. seems like the imaginations of a person on drugs' idea of a Woody Allen film to me ….. and Allen is actually in it !!! ….. besides this almost the whole thing is filmed on an obvious cheap set not location ….. not even sure where it is meant to be set ….. but it mixes in Mata Hari and even Geronimo into the plot …… beyond stupid ……

I know that films such as A View To A Kill and Die Another Day often get …. in my view unfair …. criticism but this Casino Royale from 1967 is a REAL bad Bond film …… it is a mess ….. other films all have something to offer but this is just stupid ……

I am 100% aware it is a parody …. but not a very good one …. and know it is not from Eon ….. not only is it the worst Bond related movie I ever saw …. it is also one of the worst movies I ever saw period …. the set looks cheap and plastic ….. the only part that is somewhat enjoyable is the Scottish section ….. because it is actually set on location unlike the rest of the mess …..

Many of the Bond girl names have been always a bit over the top ….. and it came from Fleming too …… Some early examples are Honey Ryder, Pussy Galore, and Plenty O'Toole ….. the normal Tracy/Teresa was a break from the ridiculous names!! ….. Mary Goodnight, Holly Goodhead, and Christmas Jones continued that ….. I am not counting Domino, Solitaire, Octopussy, etc. as they are clearly pet names ….. and Tiffany Case sounds normal in the grand scheme of things and could easily be a real name …. despite she saying she was named after a place …..

There's nothing wrong with A View to a Kill IMO, aside from Moore, as you said being too old. Great villain, great soundtrack, believable storyline.

Spectre which I have watched 3 times and still have no idea what is going on. Similarly, QoS, I've watched a couple of times still not clear what is going on. Two examples of poor movies.

In theory Spectre was incredibly simple. Rogue Joint Chiefs Officer 'C' plans to give Spectre access to the '5 Eyes' satelite intelligence system. Bond has to work this out and stop it.

It's reasonably plausible, and could have worked as a really down-to-earth plot, like For Your Eyes Only and it's 'get the McGuffin before the Russians'. The stakes don't always have to be 'save the world from destruction with 7 seconds to spare'.

But somewhere along the line they lost courage and retconned Spectre as Quantum, Blofeld as Bonds foster brother, M giving Bond advice from the grave etc. And turned it into a mess. Even the action setpieces were largely tedious, unforgiveable for a Bond flick.

I think a lot of the recent Bonds films take themselves way too seriously, there's little to no humour in them. The likes of View to a Kill for example is fun to watch, sure the plot might be ridiculous but, they all are ( including the recent films) whereas the likes of Spectre and QoS drag on and are not a great watch. The Daniel Craig era in general hasn't been great imo, if I wasn't a Bond fan I don't think the recent films would draw me in and make me a Bond fan. It'll be interesting what direction it goes in, it definitely needs a refresh and reset as it seems to have lost it way in the last decade or so.

In fairness, looked at objectively, no era was truly great. There have been great films in everybody's tenure, but over all they end up averaging out as just ok, with some good movies and some bad ones.

As far as the more serious take of the Craig era, I very much welcomed that. 'Casino Royale' is easily one of the best Bond's ever made. The problem that was earlier encountered was that Bond became too stupid and silly. It was practically a parody of itself in the Roger Moore era, to the point where they were almost comedic. But even Connery's term saw things dive into the absurd by the time of 'You Only Live Twice'. A little nudge and it would have been giving Austin Powers a run for its money.

Craig's series of films eventually got marred by a needless need to do something "different" and introduce some family drama. The writers should have had brakes put on that right away. In many ways, though, I think that the writers were just stuck on where to go next.

No doubt they're in an even worse state now.

The mother of his child? I actually had to look up the wiki page to see her name - Madelaine Swann.

There were so many other Bond girls over the years who I'd have liked to see pop up in a second film (and plausibly could have) like Agent Triple X from the Spy Who Loved Me or DEA-agent Pam Bouvier in License To Kill. So kinda ironic (yet fitting for the Craig era) that the one who finally gets a second film is a charisma vacuum.