Quantum of Solace was a bit of a mess, but the Craig version of Casino Royal sets the standard for the intelligent rebooting of moribund film franchises IMO.
God knows the Broccoli family can be their own worst enemy creatively speaking, but every once in a while they manage to micro-manage their way into a decent script.
Here's hoping the pieces fall into place for Bond 23.
This.
I LOVED Casino Royale.
I say this, however, as someone who has become more of a fan of very early Bond and the literary version of Bond, rather than the caricatured version of Bond who is a hair's breadth from becoming Austin Powers (although Austin Powers 1, like Galaxy Quest to Star Trek, is really a terrific Bond movie).
If one is a fan of the more over-the-top Bond, it makes perfect sense that this new direction is awful, dour, and boring. Not enough sex, not enough gadgets, NO quips whatsoever, what's the point, right?
For me, though, I liked that Bond's greatest gadget in CR was his wits and toughness. I liked that he was too shaken to quip much, and that he got stirred by Vesper, only to shut down after her betrayal as a defense mechanism. (GET IT?!) Seriously, though, he was less a caricature, and more of a character in that film.
That said, QOS was a POS in my opinion. Dull story with maybe 10-15 min of really good stuff scattered throughout the film, and with TOTALLY INCOMPREHENSIBLE action sequences. The opening scene alone makes me me want to force-feed the editor grams upon grams of ritalin.
I like Daniel Craig a lot, but not as James Bond.
Clive Owen would be a great Bond, or Eric Bana perhaps.
And they should bring the characters “Q” and Miss Moneypenny back into the Bond franchise, Bond isn’t Bond without those two characters IMO
Clive Owen would have been a FANTASTIC Bond, but he's on record as saying it will never happen and that he doesn't think he's right for the part. I've thought for YEARS that he'd be amazing in the role, but I can understand not wanting to go that route.
Please do not let the next movie descend into another load of Bourne again crap. Let's get back to a proper escapist, sexist Bond film with a decent, larger than life villain, crazy lair, hot babes, mega gadgets and real stunts. Need some innuendo with Moneypenny and Banter with Q.
BUT don't go down the awful bad CGI route of DAD.
The Bourne crap that I dislike is the way the action is staged and the emphasis on disorienting kung fu crap. I do not, however, miss the loss of gadgets, the goofy pun-named women (Xenia Onatop? Come on... I mean, no worse than ***** Galore, of course, but still...).
But I gotta disagree strongly on the whole larger-than-life villain with a crazy layer and mega gadgets thing. To me, that's Bond from a different era, and an era that cannot be recaptured. You can still enjoy the old films, of course, but to try to force that style into a modern telling....well, in my opinion it just doesn't work. If you want that, let me say one word to you that may make you think twice:
Moonraker.