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Craig has made Bond his own - he is not copying Connery.
@0BradyM0Bondfanatic7 that sounds like it would be a masterpiece. :D
That is one seriously good looking car! Oh yeah, baby! I'd like to add it to my collection* of Aston Martins.
*(I wish!)
I think that my favourite Craig Bond outfits have been when he isn't in a suit actually (the Austria and Tangier outfits in SP, quite a few outfits in CR and QoS). I don't think Bond needs to be wearing a suit all the time. He does look really cool in the white tux though, loved that, thought it was one of the many examples of them going all out to make SP a real classic Bond film (basically what I've been wanting since CR).
The Major really hates Craig because he got to do what his favourite Bond didn't, if Dalton has been in the Craig era films instead he'd be ecstatic.
I perfectly understand being bitter about Craig but he is not a blue print of Connery one bit, Dan is a much more detailed and subtle actor than Connery.
Connery is a movie star and has or should say had a quality that very few actors possess, Craig is first and foremost a character actor that became Bond.
He might not have the experience and talent on the stage of Dalton but as far as on the big screen holding his own and coming across charismatic there is no contest.
Like I said before after Connery Craig is the most cinematic Bond of the series. Dalton's Bond seems like something out of a TV series in comparison.
I'm not saying Rog can't hold his own as a big screen Bond but there is a cosy familiar feeling to Moore's films that there isn't to Connery's (bar YOLT & DAF) and the same goes for Craig's although that is absent in SPECTRE to a degree for me at least.
Brosnan showed some danger in Goldeneye but by the time we got to TND it was like the Moore era, you felt no threat and a just a going through the motions.
Dalton while playing the closest to the literary type was furnished with films (and I very much like TLD) not unlike Moore's, if they'd given him something like GE instead of the jarring mess that is LTK you might have seen a turn in his favour.
It was only watching GE recently that I realised, this is a film I've given a hard time since it was released as it just didn't gel with me at all. I finally got it, I see why Brosnan fan cite it has their favourite so much, no I'm not putting it on a pedestal like FRWL & CR but I discovered a new found respect for it and Brosnan.
Although if as I said Dalton could have got this story I think you would have seen his Bond really come into it's own and we might not have got the Moore like trajectory that the subsequent Brosnan entries went. TND for me is like the 3rd remake of YOLT if not entirely the ending is clearly trying to ape SWLM.
Craig shows the confidence that Connery had from the get go and that Moore reached with SWLM, the other actors not so much.
Craig is Craig. He's a good actor, and he has screen charisma. Sufficient to be Bond. However he is no Connery. Not by a long shot. Sean had it all and he was a very subtle actor when called upon. Craig can too, but as I said before he's not as elegant or suave as Sean, Rog or Pierce and when he tries to be it doesn't work for me.
Roger Moore was incredibly charismatic as well, in everything that he did. Not just Bond. It's ok to not like him as Bond (not tough enough, too jovial etc. these are all valid criticisms) but to say he wasn't as charismatic on screen just doesn't pass muster with me. The suavest of the lot too and the most English and aristocratic.
Brosnan too was very charismatic. I just thought he had a problem coming to terms with the role (too much wussing about and pain face). By DAD he had it down and I'm sure if he had a fifth he would have nailed it.
Laz had amazing screen presence for a man who had never really acted before. I was quite impressed. However, as I've said before, the film did him a lot of favours. It was one for the ages.
Dalton is the one actor who I felt didn't quite have that big screen presence, although he's much better on the small screen. I always felt he had to try hard to make an impact. Subtlety wasn't his strong suit I'm afraid.
I like Dalton, but his lapses are many in comparison. Not charismatic, not believable in a lot of the action, no sense of style on the whole, and worst of all his era wasn't fit to him. Dan had the consistency in tone and style Dalton didn't, but even if Dalton did I think his weaknesses would still be all the more apparent. If anything, people would criticize his obvious theater acting even more, as there would only be more of that on display in placement of what wasn't.
To be Bond you have to hit a lot of notes: tough, dutiful, stylish, witty, bold, unflappable, cool, enviable, credible. Sean was able to hit them all in his best films despite missteps, and I think Dan is the only one to come even close on the scorecard in general or consistently. The others have their areas, like George's physicality, Moore's wit and charm, Dalton's intensity and Brosnan's off and on charisma, but one major element doesn't make up for the parts they each lacked in varying numbers from medium to high.
Connery had it all. The others just hit elements of it (never the whole deal like the 'King') and viewers pick and choose their favourites based on what they prefer in their Bond.
The media is complicit in this too. Inevitably the incumbent gets compared to Big Sean (it happened with Dalton, Brosnan and Craig) and the current occupant has some of that stardust sprinkled on them as they are in the role. Once they're gone, the comparisons fade and the lustre shines on the new man.
That's how it always will be and that's what will happen with the new chap. It's all a bit tiresome really, as there will always be one Sean Connery, who defined the cinematic role in his very first scene. Everyone else is just visiting.
Agreed. The tailoring and fit of his suits in QoS are the best he's had in any of his Bond outings and arguably the best since the 60s.
Lindy Hemming didn't quite get it right for all of CR, but she nailed that suit which Craig wore in the casino, as well as the casual attire. She was also superb on the Bat trilogy (Bale looked better than Bond in those suits). I notice she's working on Wonder Woman and from what I can see, that film looks good.
Yeah, outside of the dinner suit and casual clothing, the CR suits looked a little too off the rack and had a somewhat baggy fit. Look at the scene after Bond gets scolded by Vesper over his ego and we then see Bond walking towards the Aston Martin where he retrieves his gun; the suit's cut is off...however, maybe that's intentional. Vesper on the train comments on the cut of his suit in a rather insulting way and then back at the hotel she fixes him up with a tailored dinner suit. So yeah, the ill-fitting suits could have been intentional as by the time we get to QOS his suits are immaculate.
Craig has attained reinventing the character and making it hugely successful in a way that no one since Connery has.
No one is going to be like Connery because he was the first and it's unlikely anyone will have the effect that he had, everyone will be compared to him who plays the role.
Although there is a reason the likes of Tom Hardy & Michael Fassbender are saying they'd be interested and that is Daniel Craig and what he has done for the role.
Before he played Bond you wouldn't have critically acclaimed actors being interested in the role, to think who was being touted at the time before Craig was cast, Hardy & Fassbender are literally 2 of the hottest actors on the planet and they aren't snubbing their nose at the role like successful actors have in the past thinking it would be beneath them.
Daniel Craig has done that and that is what separates him from the others and puts him the closest to Connery in significance, he's changed the idea of who can be Bond and who wants to be and if you can't see that then you are delusional and denying it.
@Shardlake, I agree and I disagree. Yes, he has reinvented the character (I'd say not for the better in some cases) but then that was his mandate. That was the reason they went for him to begin with. That was the vision. No other actor had that opportunity so completely (with everyone being 100% on board). So in a way that was an advantage he had. Who is to say that the others wouldn't have been able to do it just as well if given the choice and opportunity? Half of this is timing.
Moreover, it's clear that EON finally ditched their misguided American fascination with CR and decided to go back to quality European actors (who may not have been as well known). I had been hoping for that for some time, and they took the hint.
Upon last viewing I realized just what a superior ensemble effort CR is. The whole cast elevates that film, although Craig is at its centre.
I'd argue that QoS is the film where Craig owns and carries the entry, not CR.
I swear, I've witnessed you making these comparisons on countless occasions with regards to his SP performance.
Yes, of course! I'm an idiot.
With the Craig era they never found the definite look for Bond which is sad really. This is also true for Craig's sometimes borderline ugly haircuts.
Still I like at least half of everything he ever wears in the films. QOS and SP especially. But it can't be the costume people because everyone else than Craig always looked perfect in the last four films.
I find that a bit strange, honestly.
So no Bond hasn't always look great up to DAD, I don't think Connery looks too great in DAF for that matter.