The original post: /r/movies by /u/Nicole_Auriel on 2025-01-03 04:42:51.

The general sentiment around the Craig era is that Casino Royale and Skyfall are masterpieces and the other films are either just “okay” or downright stupid/boring, definitely not must-rewatch material like the first and third.

I couldn’t help but notice that after Skyfall there seemed to be a misguided tonal shift. The first three movies definitely were trying to go for a more grounded-in-reality approach with real life stakes that felt relatable to our modern world (Terrorists/African warlords/Foreign coups). They definitely wanted to ditch the mustache-twirling evil-lair campiness of the earlier bond films in favor of making them as realistic as possible. They even hang a lampshade on this in Skyfall when Q says “A gun and a radio. What were you expecting an exploding pen? We don’t really go for that anymore.”

However in the last two films, they seem to ditch this attempt at over-realism and lean back into the campiness of the old era with notable silly/campy plot points such as the sinister shadowy men sitting around a giant golden table, or a killer nano-robot virus that targets DNA, or machines that can wipe your memories/mind-control you. The gadgets themselves also seem to have taken a 180. Despite them poking fun at the campiness of the older bond films with their high tech gadgets, they end up going back on it and added silly gadgets like the magical magnet balls that allow you float like in zero-gravity.

Keep in mind there is nothing wrong with this approach if you wanted the whole franchise to be like this but the over-the-top campiness of the last two (and arguably bits of the third) definitely clash with the tone that was initially established in the first movie.

The later bond movies also seem to have an obsession with bond as a character with a sort of “he’s key to all of this” approach whereas in the first couple movies Bond was just a normal expendable but highly-competent agent. They also pull the “everything is connected” card, and claim all the villains from the first movies were all secretly working together instead of just letting them stand on their own and have their own motivations.

For me personally, I got so attached to the way the first movie was presented that I just couldn’t get on board with the last couple. I don’t know how we went from targeting financial operations of terrorists to trying to stop killer micro robot infection missiles, and the jarring shift in tone is just too much for me to overlook as someone who prefers the more grounded movies.

I still watch Casino Royale and Skyfall to this day, but I never had any desire to rewatch any of the others. Am I alone in this?