Craig makes him a violent, brutal man with a soft spot, actually treating him like a real guy rather than some silly icon. It seems this is the way the character needs to be portrayed. And he wears it well.Ive never been much of a Bond fan, but I dug this new incarnation of the character starring Daniel Craig. As always – and was it ever really in doubt? – James Bond Will Return.įor all things Bond, check out our Bond Hub >īond 21 is refreshed yet faithful, any grumbles easily quashed by Craig's powerful presence.

Vibrant, vital and violent, when he utters the immortal final line (and the classic theme finally kicks in), your neck hairs spike and your pulse pounds. It’s been noted he’s an actor more than a star, yet here he needs to be, providing heart to a character that even in this brave new Bond could so easily have become a cipher. Other gripes – the oh-so-wrong title tune, soulless product placement and David Arnold’s ersatz John Barry score – are forgiven because this is Bond, James Bond and there’s no disputing the icon is re-energised by Craig. Still, the decision to dial things down and replace camp with a prickly sense of humour (Martini shaken or stirred? “Do I look like I give a damn?”) does pay dividends. A useful quality for playing an assassin. More pertinently, he’s also the first 007 who genuinely looks like he could kill a man with his bare hands.

What it does have is The Man With the Golden Hair, Daniel Craig. And the latest crash diet involves no more silly gadgets, no lame innuendo, no dreadful puns, no bikini-clad ‘equals’ and no Q. But even that James got flabby (it was the invisible car that did it). The best example? Perhaps the tentative 007 of Licence To Kill leading to the arch, self-aware smarts of GoldenEye (“Sexist, misogynist dinosaur” etc). Bond actually goes ‘back to basics’ remarkably frequently: the lunatic excesses of You Only Live Twice precede the emotionally wrought On Her Majesty’s Secret Service the space operatics of Moonraker make way for the smarter, darker For Your Eyes Only the geriatric antics of A View To A Kill provoke the keener edge of the underrated Dalton debut The Living Daylights. Then, on the brink of parody, comes the purge: the extravasate, the rethink. First, the constant appetite to top the last film bloats the franchise with ever-bigger but not better adventures.

The world’s most bulimic agent has an established routine. Let’s not forget that Casino Royale’s (relatively and – in the torture scene – literally) stripped down approach is actually part of Bond’s regular binge-and-purge cycle.

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