Director: Martin Campbell
Year of Release: 2006
Should you watch it? Fuck yes.
Why?
This is not only very obviously the very best Bond film ever, but it’s also one of the best films of the decade. This is the type of film that makes you wonder why all big action spectacle films are not good. I am being deadly serious. The writing. The characters. The casting. The set pieces. The look. They are all top fucking notch. I am not even really sure what else to say. This is one of the most fun and exciting big budget films ever made.
How is the Bond?
Daniel Craig’s debut as James Bond is the best Bond performance by the best Bond ever. I once talked to my older uncle about why he felt it was unquestionable that Craig was the best ever, and it stuck with me ever since. He explained that in order for a person to do the things that James Bond is supposed doing, he would have to be totally insane. And the only person who has been able to successfully convey the necessary level of insanity is Daniel Craig. This movie helps him in no small part by giving him the best arc of any Bond film.
At the beginning of the film, Craig is young and new to the job and trying to force himself to believe he doesn’t need to care about people. They are disposable: either to be killed or to be fucked. Then he is made to care by Vesper. Vesper is forced to betray him. Now, Bond has to double down on not caring about people. “The bitch is dead.” He says the words, but you can tell he does not believe them. It is all brilliantly done.
How is the Bond Woman?
Eva Green is absolutely stunning in this film in every single way. She is by far the best written female leads in a Bond film. She feels like an actual true human being who exists in her own story separate from Bond (even if we do not get to always see it) and who has her own motivations and emotions. The twist at the end where she has to betray Bond FEELS tacked on, but man I think it was thematically worth it and really feels better more and more as the decades go on.
How is the Bond Villain?
Along with the best Bond performance and the best Bond woman, the best Bond film ever unsurprisingly also had the very best Bond villain. Mads was just incredible in this film, and they really did a great job with his character. There is a desperation to him because he is merely a smaller player in a much larger world. They also avoided the trap of hiding the big bad by not announcing that there is a big bad guy. Mads was a big fish in a puddle, and we did not know about the ocean his puddle trickled into until the end. This should be a model for how to make a villain for any franchises that have aspirations to make a series of interconnected films that need bad guys that are not their big bad.
Does the film irresponsibly present the West as the hero of the world and thus promote imperialism and colonialism as inherently positive?
Yes.
The Reel World 