It may very well be difficult to remember, but eons ago last month, the newest James Bond 007 film, No Time to Die, finally released to theaters, following a six-year gap between now and the last one. And having still not seen it, it nonetheless sparked my latest resurgence of abnormally high interest in the whole James Bond enterprise. Beholding the opening title sequences and theme songs! Watching the gun barrels! Rereading Film Crit Hulk’s supermassive four-part all-caps tome about the film series from Dr. No to Skyfall! This particular time, it’s even involved–gasp–watching a couple of the films that I’d never seen before this point!
Being a Nintendo 64-owning child of the 1990s, it would be downright criminal to not mention that my first exposure to 007 was not through the books or even the movies, but through their videogames. Specifically, Rare’s classic Goldeneye: Not only my first piece of 007 media, but also my first first-person shooter. It left a profound enough impact on me that during the next console generation, I partook in later though less-classic James Bond games, namely Nightfire and Agent Under Fire. I’m pretty sure it took years after my gaming introduction to James Bond before I finally watched one of the films, and it wasn’t until the Daniel Craig era when I began keeping more thorough tabs on it.
My feelings on Bond, after all of that, are perhaps on the less straightforward, more peculiar side; I’m not so much an outright fan of the whole franchise, but I am wholly fascinated by the span of its permutations. As a nerdy, excitable little boy, the concept of a badass but also suave super spy is what my dreams were made of, but then as I’d get deeper into it, I’d be caught off guard by its plethora of signature, eccentric trademarks. Those previously-mentioned title sequences (James Bond is anime, don’t @ me) and gunbarrels, the gadgetry, and the “Bond girls” chief all among them, of course, but also mind-blowing facts like how the central character gets portrayed by multiple actors within a single lineage and not, as my puny child brain first assumed, being just Pierce Brosnan and only Pierce Brosnan. Pondering how all these different guys could distinguish their James Bonds from one another seriously expands the mind!
I’ve found Bond to be the kind of entity where I tend to more frequently imagine and think about the character, movies, games, and whatnot than be motivated to actually watch or play any of the movies or games. Part of that may be that when taking stock of the games and movies that I’ve experienced, the track record really kind of sucks! In the games space, only Goldeneye holds up as a classic while Nightfall and Agent Under Fire were ultimately pretty disposable. And no, I’m not going to count Perfect Dark as “actually a Bond game” for purposes of this discussion.
As for the movies? I vaguely remember Goldeneye being pretty damn good, and I really liked Casino Royale and Skyfall. But then we get to the rest of what we saw. The best of that bunch would have to be Moonraker of all things–which I watched solely because I wanted to behold a shitshow, but turned out to be better than expected, i.e. it was alright–which truly says it all, because I do not trust my 12-year-old even-then-only-mildly-appreciative feelings towards Die Another Day, what little I remember of my Diamonds Are Forever-watching experience was dull, Quantum of Solace just sucked, and I outright hated the then-latest Spectre for being atrociously, vacuously dull.
Even with the most generous interpretation of what counts as being liked or disliked, that collection of games and movies still doesn’t clear a fifty percent hit rate! And when it comes to franchises that are wildly hit-and-miss yet still captivate me enough for me to consider myself a fan, Sword Art Online already touches my inner teenage soul far deeper than James Bond ever could.
However, I’d also not gone even remotely close towards where the film history of James Bond began. No Sean Connery film that wasn’t Diamonds Are Forever, which appears to be the consensus choice for his worst (official) entry. And this year, on a whim, I decided to try rectifying that oversight.
Thus far, that has actually proven to be a fruitful and enjoyable experience! Dr. No and From Russia With Love are significantly different beasts from the archetypical “Bond films,” not just how the setting and stakes don’t go full batshit, not just how they take their sweet time with rolling out their stories–Dr. No spends like a good ten minutes before we get to see James Bond’s face!–but also with how they make an effort to depict James Bond doing actual detective and spy things, what a concept! Plus, this isn’t breaking news or anything, but Sean Connery is insanely good in the role. Add all that up together, and I’ve been having a fun time thus far with this chronological journey through the film series.
Also, seeing From Russia With Love pull a Marvel Cinematic Universe-style “he will return” proclamation announcing Goldfinger in the credits, all the way back in the 1960s, made me giggle.
Today’s questions:
- Do you have a franchise or series that you appreciate in concept more than you actually enjoy?
- Have you been a latecomer to any particular piece of media, and what motivated you to finally delve into it? How did you like it?
- Any favorite licensed video games?
- For the karaoke enthusiasts among us, what’s a song that you love to sing even though you may not love the song itself?
- All manner of James Bond opinions are, of course, welcome here.
And, as always, Talk Amongst Yourselves!
Ooh, also, today is 11/11, so make a wish!!
Today’s Morning Jam, which I recently karaoke’d and had a blast doing so, even though it’s not exactly a good song. I have nothing but love for you bombastically and histrionically chewing all of the scenery, Tom Jones–much respect to a level of dedication so absolute that you made yourself faint on the last note–but the actual song is kind of lame and unintentionally funny. “He always runs while others walk,” huh?
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