(Updated from my NTTD review published in 2021)
Me and Bond go way back, back to when I saw Dr No with my Dad in Monton’s Princes Cinema on its first run. Then From Russia, and on. We went to each new movie until I got a girlfriend to go with (with a generational resonance that passed over my head at the time).
I’m not obsessive, but you can say I’m invested. I mean, I loved Star Wars on its release but the subsequent spinning-off and franchising have diluted my affection to a homeopathic level. Meanwhile each new Bond title, each new casting, has been a standalone event. I can more or less map my life against them, so I’m more aware than most of how each phase of the series reflects its era.
Craig’s been terrific in the role, I think. I’ve written elsewhere of how he crossed my radar on an earlier, unmade project, so I was sold from the start of his run. The essence of Bond is that he’s toxic masculinity weaponised for the common good. Team Craig’s achievement is that his Bond is aware of the fact, and isn’t at peace with it. The humane approach doesn’t sit well with some, who are quick to call it ‘woke’. But there was a time when a two-fisted lothario could be promoted as something admirable, and that time is not now.
Screenwriters Purvis and Wade have been the largely unsung heroes of the series since The World is Not Enough, often overshadowed by the addition of a more celebrated figure to work over their material. I’ve no inside line on how well that’s worked, but I do occasionally think the intrusions stick out.
Casino Royale blew me away, Spectre had its problems to deal with, and I loved that in Skyfall I could disregard its preposterous foundation for the joy it unlocked. Any issues I had with No Time To Die were less about intent, more about narrative clarity. I didn’t buy Bond’s go-to blaming of Madeleine when literally any of his enemies could have foreseen a visit to Vesper’s tomb, yet his rejection is fundamental to everything that follows; the journey, the discovery, the regret, the redemption (it’s a point that could have been so easily sorted with a misreading of some secretive behaviour that pays off later as the pregnancy reveal). The side-plot involving Blofeld and Spectre made for a diversion that easily exceeded its story value. The actual villain’s plan and the nature of his weapon were so unclear that I reckon a lot of people maybe didn’t get why Bond had no choice beyond self-sacrifice at the end.
(He’s now a Patient Zero, bearing an infection that will make its way through the global population unnoticed by anyone until it reaches the people it’s programmed to harm. Those pathways, it’s been demonstrated, can be surprisingly short.)
What the Amazon deal means for the future of the series, I don’t know. I sat next to Barbara Broccoli at a screenwriters’ lunch once and I know she’s smart (too smart to look me up again, apparently, but what can you do?) I can imagine that she’s spent the last four years wondering how to top the Craig arc, maybe ultimately deciding it’s a chalice best handed on to someone else.
If you stay around until the end of the latest credits the final card reads, as ever, JAMES BOND WILL RETURN. Some people have been assuming this is an indication that he’s somehow survived the blast, or that they’re now committed to continuing with Lashana Lynch’s redesignated 007.
What it points to is a franchise reboot. New deck, new game. So what if he died in this one? There’s more than one film about Jesus. More than one staging where Hamlet always gets it at the end.
The Bond phenomenon involves an unusual pact between makers and audience. We all know there have been other Bonds and other movies. Both sides enjoy nods to them while accepting that this one’s the present reality, a self-contained iteration of the character. Casino Royale started with Bond earning double-0 status with his very first sanctioned killing. So that was a debut, not a continuation. Yet in Skyfall we all lit up with delight on the reveal of the Goldfinger Aston Martin, machine guns at the ready.
I regret that they didn’t put Moneypenny back in the field. Naomie Harris shone in Skyfall and I’ve been itching to see her used more in every outing since.
But it’s too late for that now. New deck, new game.
