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The First Major Misstep
There comes a time for every Bond fan that the series you love lets you down. Arguably, many times. What is the first thing that stands out in your memory as your first disappointment with the series? I've always been irritated by the casting of three different Felix Leiters over four films and the wrong headed casting and makeup of Donald Pleasence, but it is the ridiculous sped up footage of the Disco Volante that decades later still renders that sequence as unrealistic now as it did when I first saw the film.
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QoS was a bit of a mess, but at least it was zippy and felt fresh.
But no Bond film has ever made a bigger major misstep than No Time To Die.
It really felt like they lost their timing so late in their career. Send 'em in. . .
MR seen in a drive-in as a 10 year old. I remember loving the movie. The version I saw didn't have the PTS and jumped immediately to the theme song. I remember loving seeing the PTS on TV later and it was a great moment of giddiness.
OP was next seen in the theatre. I loved this movie and still enjoy this film to this day. One of Roger's best for me.
NSNA was seen and I remember thinking if only it had better music. I recall my Dad really enjoying seeing Sean back. I always had a soft spot for the movie despite it's flaws.
AVTAK I found the whole thing was flat and lacked any punch. Probably the first time I left the theatre feeling disappointed. The movie came across as tired and worn.
TLD loved the energy and danger that was present here. Really thought Tim was a great Bond. One of my favourite soundtracks. I never could sing the lyrics of the main song.
LTK another disappointment for me. I didn't like this film at the time and saw it as a wasted opportunity. Never been a fan of this film as it seems small and lacking the scale and style of Bond.
GE WOW did this film restore my faith. Loved the whole thing. I remember leaving the theatre, thinking Bond is in good hands.
TND while I loved the film, it didn't feel like a Bond film. I enjoyed the many action scenes and had a huge crush on Ms. Hatcher. I thought the parking garage sequence was Bondian, but not much else.
TWINE enjoyed the film and liked having a villainess. Good film even with Richards being somewhat wooden in her role.
DAD another disappointment. Way too over the top and I left wondering where they would take the series next.
CR Enjoyed the film, didn't love it. Thought it was overly long and had some padding that could have been trimmed. I did enjoy the energy Craig brought to things and the danger was back.
QOS Liked it but didn't love it.
SF Loved this and thought they had Craig in a good film with a good plot. Was excited to see how they would follow this up.
SP meh! Enjoyed Baustisa and enjoyed the train fight. But there was something off about the overall film. I left feeling disappointed and hoping that Craig ended his Bond career now.
NTTD enjoyed the film until the climax. Was afraid they were going to kill the character and they went there. I left feeling disappointed. It sits on my shelf still in the cellophane. I don't know when I will watch it.
So the first time I was disappointed by the series? AVTAK. Biggest disappointment for me has to be LTK, they had a chance to follow up TLD with something special and pushed out a substandard cheap film.
1. Diamonds Are Forever - An insult and an ultimate misstep in all places! The missed opportunity for a serious revenge after Tracy's death (a giant insult to Tracy in general), the over the top elements of it, poor cinematography, Tiffany Case being a bimbo and airhead towards the end, the convoluted plot, Plenty O Toole (sexy, but don't serve any purpose to the plot), it's just terrible, I could go on and on at how terribly made was this film.
If I could change the past, I would redo and change this film to be a serious revenge sequel, looking for a definition of Misstep, look no other than this film!
2. The Man With The Golden Gun - A disappointment, Mary Goodnight being a bimbo and incompetent, The Third Nipple thing, The unnecessary return of Sheriff JW Pepper, The Solex Agitator, The slide whistle, and that Bond Mannequin at the beginning, there's so many things gone wrong in this film which they shouldn't done.
3. For Your Eyes Only - I liked this film, but it also had its fair share of missteps too: The PTS with the way Bond dumped Blofeld, that 'delicatessen' line!, Bibi Dahl and her cheesy interactions with Bond, the Thatcher scenes, and that double taking pigeon, it's inconsistent.
4. Octopussy was where it turned Bond into a comic character with that Tarzan Yell, commanding a Tiger to sit, and a clown suit, also that crocodile gadget, and it also didn't helped by Moore's age.
5. Moonraker - A wonderful novel turned into a Star Wars Cash in Rip off (space and lasers).
6. The World Is Not Enough - simply, Denise Richards as a Nuclear Physicist Dr. Christmas Jones, and the way her character was written, more to be blame on the script.
7. Die Another Day - Where do I start? The DNA Genetics plot? Jinx's dialogues? The Robotic armor? The Invisible Car? The CGI Tsunami parasailing? Madonna? Well, I think all of that.
8. SPECTRE - Bond being Blofeld's step brother (Brofeld), and throwing away Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci, who had more chemistry and age appropriate for Craig's Bond), only for him to be with this boring and lifeless Madeleine Swann, who had no chemistry with Craig's Bond and looked young enough to be his daughter,and yes, their love story, like the film would want us to believe that Bond would fall in love with this girl that he's prepared to leave the service for her?
9. No Time To Die - It being a continuation of the SPECTRE storyline, the film focusing too much on Madeleine who's not that all interesting, creating an arc for her, focusing too much on her romance with Bond, even connecting the villain to her, it felt like a Madeleine film at all, the anticlimactic killing of the characters, the contrived daughter angle, having a short screentime for Paloma, Nomi being underused and wasted, and yes, the killing of Bond in the end.
Goldfinger's formula being copied by each subsequent film caused Sean Connery to realize he was just a guy who was supposed to show up and read his lines which created more friction with Cubby.
This must have happened pretty early on. YOLT?
YOLT I'd say is also the biggest gap between film and novel, maybe rivalled by MR.
For me, it's Lazenby not continuing for DAF, he worked in OHMSS for me, and Diana Rigg's casting.
But he should also done DAF.
Biggest disappointments overall coming out of a new Bond film: QoS, LTK and AVTAK, in this order. QoS could have been a great movie if only the editing had not gone all Bourne-style fast. LTK felt like a cheap TV-show and AVTAK was simply not good in too many ways.
And then there are the things that repeatedly bother me when watching certain Bond films:
Why, in GF, Bond needed to wreck Tilly's car and risk her life in the process - and why she did not realize that it was Bond rather than a general tyre malfunction that slit her car.
Someone whistling the Bond theme in OP.
Moore in bed with Stacey, Moore in bed with Mayday.
The Jinx character - or Halle Berry in the role, I am annoyed by her from the point onwards when she lets herself fall from the cliff - what a poser (yo mama).
Oh, and lasers:
There being a laser-gun fight in MR. This franchise is not Star Wars.
The laser scene in SP, this was Austin Powers territory.
The laser Polaroid in LTK : When the picture on the wall also reveals a skull on the X-ray image, that is pure slapstick nonsense.
Surely it felt like a cheap movie or an expensive TV show. Nowhere on planet Earth did cheap TV shows look like LTK in 1989.
Hey mate that's fair enough, it's your opinion and it's why this forum is always so interesting.
I do wish QOS would have been the revenge story that DAF was set up to be
Seriously, cannot understand how anyone finds any enjoyment in that film. Even as a child I thought it dull dull dull.
As for me, first misstep in terms of release order? The lack of a proper follow up to OHMSS. First for my own experience? Seeing QOS on TV. I didn't think it was as good as CR.
I don't remember if this was before or after Quantum by now, but I do have a vivid memory of when I first saw Spectre in the cinema and when I got to the titles, the implication they were heading for another love story didn't enthuse me.
First major letdown was the casting of Brosnan as Bond. I have since learned to like his take on Bond in TND, and especially DAD.
Cool electronic beeps, Broccoli & Saltzman present, then you hope for Sean Connery in the gunbarrel sequence.........
.........but no, it's that damned Bob Simmons, oh, how I hate him.
The Bond films have not been the same since.
I don't want to be reminded I am watching a film. Mistakes, inconsistencies, and production decisions that draw attention to the process of filmmaking can often reduce one's enthusiasm for a film.
A peeve of mine as well. Roger Moore's flared trousers were well beyond their fashion shelf life by the time his tenure was up.
Petty though these things may be, they do irritate. I tend to especially bristle at poor editing continuity. In FRWL Bond and Tatiana hitch a ride in a truck. An explosive is dropped from a helicopter that blackens the front of the truck. A few scenes later the truck shows no damage. If an audience member sees that, surely the editing crew noticed. Didn't have an alternate shot? Don't care? Use it anyway. Movies ask us to participate in the illusion of reality. Missteps have a way of pulling us out of the illusion.
And that is the best example possible of retrospective legitimate expectation. :)
Your legal education is showing, my friend.
Yes, Administrative Law has finally come in useful. :)
Overall I'd say Skyfall was the misstep. Based on the glowing reviews I was expecting a masterpiece, but right from that first frame where Bond pointlessly and dramatically steps into view with the cheesy music cue, I knew something was off. The film never picked up for me.
When the Skyfall cast and crew announced that they were returning for Spectre I knew it'd just be Skyfall 2. Yet, the lousy script made it worse and by the time it was over it felt like the Craig era had been derailed.
I think it's a film people have strong feelings about one way or the other. I just find it tremendously boring, and moreover it feels dated in a way the previous Bond films do not. Connery's performance doesn't help. The underwater scenes, while innovative for their time, aren't inherently exciting, nor are they particularly easy to follow.