I
adore the 'Craig Trilogy'. Just as the remake of
Resident Evil is, in my view, the perfect example of a remake, the 'Craig Trilogy' is the perfect example of a reboot.
I do feel it got better as it went on.
Casino Royale is one of the best movies I have ever seen and
Quantum of Solace, while not necessarily better as an individual movie, was the exact kind of film that needed to follow it.
CR has Bond's vulnerabilities exposed and attacked to an extreme degree and we needed to see how he repsonded to that and grew as a character. That is what
QoS does, and it does it very, very well. Then we get
Skyfall, a film that I cannot praise enough. It is the best Bond film, without a doubt.
Goldeneye remains my
favourite (for numerous reasons I shan't go into here) but
Skyfall is the best. We see Craig's Bond as a complete character for the first time. This is what he is, what the first two films have made him. I'm gonna draw in a quote of mine from another thread:
And then we have Craig. He is the closest to Fleming's Bond since Dalton and make no mistake. Whenever I watch Craig I always think 'come an' have a go if you think you're 'ard enough!', especially in Casino Royale. He's an arrogant Bond, but his arrogance hides his vulnerability. Heck, Quantum of Solace was all about Bond's vulnerable side (it was essentially the emotional tone of character that [Diamonds Are Forever] should have had).
What's interesting with the release of Skyfall is that it is clear that Craig's Bond is different from the others in a very fundamental way. While the other actors have played Bond as they understand him, Craig's is the only one to actually develop as a character over the course of several films. The Bond of Skyfall is quite different to the Bond of Casino Royale and therein lies my affection for Craig's Bond. He feels like a person. He feels like an actual man who exists, not a fantasy we should aspire to. That is a trait Craig's Bond shares with Fleming's and it brings a lot of depth to the series.
Right there, that is why I adore the 'Craig Trilogy'. It shows Bond develop as a man and as a character, rather than just showing us a series of missions he went on. Since the reboot, we have seen a more mature Bond, a more complex Bond and a Bond that is so much more rewarding to watch and see grow. I hope this continues for many years to come.
Is Bond still Bond taking this trilogy as an example which seems to bear a lot of similarities to the Bourne series?
This is a great question because the answer is that yes, Bond is still Bond and it is
because the influence of Bourne can so clearly be felt.
Bond has survived 50 years by evolving and moving with the times. As a series it has always been changing itself and adapting in order to keep audiences interested. When it first arrived, Bond was the centrepiece of the spy movement in popular culture. The decade was littered with TV shows like
The Avengers,
Mission: Impossible and
The Saint and Bond was riding high on the public's fascination with fantasy espionage. As the 70s moved on, we saw Bond delve into Blaxploitation (
Live And Let Die) and become more light-hearted as the spy craze began to die down.
Moonraker was produced purley to capitalise on the recent explosion of science-fiction that followed the release of
Star Wars. In the 80s, Bond became a more gritty series, especially when Timothy Dalton took over the role, and Cold War tensions were used as a frequent backdrop once again (
For Your Eyes Only,
Octopussy,
The Living Daylights). As the 90s moved in, Bond evolved once more into the kind of extravagnat, big budget action movies audiences were used to. The cars were faster, the women more exotic and Bond was so much more the man men want to be and women want to be with. Pierce Brosnan fought technolgy more than he fought wars of ideology like his predecessors.
Goldeneye brings in the dangers of the Internet and satellite technology,
Tomorrow Never Dies deals with the modern media and
The World Is Not Enough has to do with the oil trade and the threat of nuclear terrorism following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Bond has always moved with the times, reflecting the changing trends in not just movie-making, but social and political changes. In this way, Bond has always been relevant and that is why the series is still so popular five decades on. In the years between
Die Another Day and
Casion Royale, action movies changed once again and the Bourne films were the main cause of that. So what did Bond do? It adapted again and gave us three movies which fit so well into what modern action movies are like. Bond takes that style and leaves its own stamp on it. This is why Bond is still Bond
because of the similarities to Bourne. I would expect nothing less.
As for the order of my favourites, I doubt mine is any different from anyone elses:
Skyfall
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace
