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New Bond movies are NOT deep
James Bond movies always were dumb. That's the thrill of lighthearted escapist fair. It's exhilarating to watch James Bond take down some evil empire, the vehicles, the gadgets, the clothes, the women, the lairs, the quirks, etc... The old James Bond movies were dumb and they knew it. They knew what they were and they had to in order to be good at it.
The Barbara Broccoli era changes all that. Now the movies are filled with emotions, as if that automatically give them depth. But those emotions are explicit; Bond wears them on his sleeve. There's nothing to read into his character. There's only the pretension that there is. In other words, it's character driven not plot driven. It just happens to be that the character himself is the plot. That's the danger with all these origin stories, especially if the emotion is something as stilted as angst.
A po-faced James Bond is at odds with the James Bond world in which super-villains bleed from their eyes and climb up walls like Spiderman just for the theatrics of it. James Bond the character is an idealization. I look up to him. I and not supposed to feel sorry and empathize with him. That's a James Bond that has been domesticated for a female audience. Hence in Casino Royale, instead of Vesper rising out of the water in a bikini a la Ursula Andress, it's James Blonde. It goes further than that. The new movies are filled with precious little nods. Between that and the low brow dialogue, class has become crass. Between that and the Oscar baiting with people like Paul Haggis, Rodger Deakins and Sam Mendes, the new movies are a tedious bore.
The Barbara Broccoli era changes all that. Now the movies are filled with emotions, as if that automatically give them depth. But those emotions are explicit; Bond wears them on his sleeve. There's nothing to read into his character. There's only the pretension that there is. In other words, it's character driven not plot driven. It just happens to be that the character himself is the plot. That's the danger with all these origin stories, especially if the emotion is something as stilted as angst.
A po-faced James Bond is at odds with the James Bond world in which super-villains bleed from their eyes and climb up walls like Spiderman just for the theatrics of it. James Bond the character is an idealization. I look up to him. I and not supposed to feel sorry and empathize with him. That's a James Bond that has been domesticated for a female audience. Hence in Casino Royale, instead of Vesper rising out of the water in a bikini a la Ursula Andress, it's James Blonde. It goes further than that. The new movies are filled with precious little nods. Between that and the low brow dialogue, class has become crass. Between that and the Oscar baiting with people like Paul Haggis, Rodger Deakins and Sam Mendes, the new movies are a tedious bore.
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Comments
They're escapist action fare. They've always been that and they always will be that. They've just been tweaked slightly to accommodate (as you note) an increasing female audience and an increasing latent vulnerability prevalent in Western society (post-911 and due to relative economic decline due to increasing prosperity elsewhere). The changes in dialogue are a reflection in the changes inherent in the way people speak today in a twitter obsessed, get to the point, culture.
We apparently need our heroes to be a little more fallible. A little more accessible. However, we still need them to be heroes, and to rise to the occasion as required.
I agree with you that the new 'exposed' Bond universe makes it more difficult to fit in traditional tropes. They can seem a little out of place. I also agree that there is a risk of crossing the line into depressive angst. I don't think it will happen because DC does an excellent job of giving us traditional bravado along with a little welcome dose of theatrical heft imho.
Multiple new accounts starting pointless and duplicitous new threads with provocative, childish arguments. Moderators!
You're quite right.
When setting out to make Dr. No, I don't believe Albert, Harry and Terence were out to make something that would be considered "dumb" - escapist and action/adventure, yes... dumb and lighthearted? no.. I don't consider Bond's cold kill of Professor Dent lighthearted fair... not sure of your age - but looking at films from that era through the prism of modern expectations, and every film seems like lighthearted fluff.. now it didn't take itself extremely seriously, but there is a lot grey area between that and "dumb".
Bond films can be VERY deepppp ;-):
@JasonBond006 is a very nice guy ;-). I occasionally talk to him on the IMDB-Bond-forum ;-). He's a true Swiss Bond fan, but we tend to disagree on the recent Craig films hehe.