James Bond characters, in order of preference

[CigarStone]

Sean Connery: Too cool for school.
Roger Moore: Cocky and cool.
Pierce Brosnan: Smooth as glass.
Timothy Dalton: Brash but not up to standard.
George Lazenby doesn't really count

This is where the real Bond movies end in my opinion. I love Daniel Craig as an actor but I think they ruined the Bond character with his movies. Bond was always cool because he outwitted his opponents, had his cool gadgets and gizmos, and could handle himself in a fight. Bond movies were cool because we all knew there was an air of comedy.

Daniel Craig falls off of 4 story buildings and gets up and beats up 10 highly trained assassins.
Daniel Craig is poisoned and gets up and beats up 10 highly trained assassins.
Daniel Craig dies and brings himself back to life and gets up and beats up 10 highly trained assassins.
Daniel Craig gets shot five times and gets up and beats up 10 highly trained assassins.

Bond movies were entertaining on multiple fronts until the Danial Craig character; now he just plays a superhuman dude. The plot of several of the Daniel Craig movies is great, I just get tired of watching him be do the same shit over and over.

 

[Darin]

Agreed!

 

[CigarStone]

Seems this is a repeat of a thread someone previously posted using my username.

If at first ........

 

[rbbrock]

As a lifelong Bond fan (I used to watch them with my Dad when I was a kid), I pretty much agree with your assessment. I'll add my own two cents anyway!

Connery: the gold standard, what more can you say? The films were good, and his portrayal of the character is the benchmark.

Lazenby: meh. Good movie, but he wasn't the caliber of actor the role deserves. I think his body of work, such as it is, bears this out.

Moore is a tough one for me. He was good in his early films, but between his age and the writing getting progressively sillier in every film, his later work as Bond is pretty bad IMO.

Dalton: I think he did a good job in the role, but the movies were not up to the standards of the what Connery and early Moore had to work with. I like his portrayal of Bond the character more than most people seem to. It could be partially because I usually watch the films in order and was so unhappy with the last couple of Moore's movies that I appreciated the change up.

Brosnan's films suffered the same problem as Moore's. The first was really good, the second was decent, the third was just OK, the fourth was pretty bad. As far as Brosnan himself, I have always been a fan of his portrayal. I don't think I can say it any better than you did: "smooth as glass."

Craig: the films were not really "Bond films" so much as just generic action films with some "Bond" flavoring. Casino Royale was decent, Quantum of Solace was just plain bad, Skyfall relied too much on nostalgia about the actually good older films, and Spectre and No Time to Die were just boring to me. Plus, they progressively ruined the character, as you noted.

Here's hoping they can get back to the formula somehow, but I'm not sure what they're even planning after NTTD.

Edit to add my personal ranking of the actors (not necessarily the films they were in):

Connery
Brosnan
Moore (early)
Dalton
Craig
Moore (late)
Lazenby

As I said, Moore is a tough one, so I had to split him in half for the rankings.

 

[MX]

My Favorite Bond Characters in order:
Xenia Onatopp