There have been several portrayals of James Bond to this point. However, none is more impressive than the darker, grittier, and more realistic take on the character given by Daniel Craig. The Craig Bond movies are a series of five that eventually all tie together when the fourth entry, Spectre, comes around. The series is not afraid to kill off characters, which ends up being one of its best assets by the time No Time To Die, Craig’s final outing, comes around. Craig is easily the most believable Bond in all these movies. He is the only Bond we have had that looks like he can throw hands as well as seduce beautiful women. With other Bonds, it is usually either one or the other. So, given the five Craig films, which ones are the best and worst?
5. Quantum of Solace
Coming in fifth and last place is Quantum of Solace. This movie is easily the worst Daniel Craig movie. With a runtime of around one hour and forty-five minutes, this is far and away the shortest movie of the five. It is also the most boring. This movie covers a lot of ground very quickly and has pacing issues because of it. The story is pretty straightforward; Bond is basically out to seek revenge for Vesper, who dies in the first movie. To that point, she was the love of Bond’s life, even though she technically already had a boyfriend. It is a sticky situation. But, as Bond says in Casino Royale, women who are already spoken for are his type. The action is at least decent in this movie. There is just not much story involved. Thus, making it the weakest entry.
4. No Time To Die
The fourth-best Craig outing is No Time To Die. Ranking the movies outside of Quantum of Solace is rather difficult, given that they are all really entertaining and as juicy as a soap opera. But, that being said, Craig’s final outing was a bit underwhelming given how good Spectre was. We see the return of Blofeld (played by Christoph Waltz), who was a great villain. He bites the dust in this one, and it is all the worse for it. He was Bond’s ultimate foe. In this movie, Rami Malek is the main villain, and he has a personal connection to Bond’s new love interest (Madeleine Swann) that first shows up in Spectre. She knows Malek’s Lyutsifer Safin from when she was a child.
Through flashbacks, we are shown that Madeleine nearly kills Safin when she is a little girl. Malek is technically much older than Madeleine is, though his face is covered at the beginning of the film. Malek looks to be the same age as Bond and Swann, so it is not very believable that Safin had been there since the beginning. Despite No Time To Die taking the biggest risk in killing off Bond, the rest of the movie fails to live up to the top three.
3. Skyfall
Coming in third place, and this might be controversial as it is some people’s favorite Bond movie ever, is none other than Skyfall. Skyfall has perhaps the best villain of these movies in Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva. This movie probably had the best cinematography of all of the Bond movies. Craig is admittedly at his best in this movie. Bond being presumed dead was great foreshadowing of No Time To Die. They tease throughout these movies that “double 00” agents do not have that long of a lifespan. Javier Bardem turns in what is the best acting performance by a villain in all of Craig’s Bond movies. It is interesting to see a washed-up Bond after M orders Moneypenny to shoot at Bond and mercenary Patrice, on a moving train. Moneypenny completely misses her target, hitting Bond instead. Bond is presumed dead for quite a while, though his handler M does this to throw off their enemies.
Once Bond comes back, he fails all of the tests that are meant to get him back in the field, yet M sends him back out anyway. This film is probably the most inspiring of Craig’s Bond movies as he comes back and saves the day after being in a very dark place.
2. Spectre
The second-best Craig Bond movie is none other than perhaps the juiciest of them all, Spectre. Spectre sees Christoph Waltz as Blofeld, an international terrorist who is responsible for all of the other villains in the series. In some ways, it admittedly feels like retconning (when a story takes something and later includes it in as if it were there the whole time when it really was not), but ultimately it makes for perhaps the most entertaining film overall. Though it is in second place, this movie could easily be number one if it weren’t for Casino Royale being so perfect. For the first time, we see Bond spare a villain.
1. Casino Royale
The best Craig Bond movie is none other than Daniel Craig’s debut in Casino Royale. This movie has everything a Bond fan would want: a great story, beautiful women, high stakes, and twists and turns until the end credits. Just when you think the story is over, something new happens, and they keep going. Bond’s love interest, Vesper, plays both sides and makes it tough for Bond to know if she ever truly loved him. By the end, she dies, leaving a heartbroken Bond and leaving him picking up the pieces for the rest of the series.
James Bond is a very emotionally complex character who really only shows off his confidence and charisma to people. But, deep down, he is hurting just as much as any of the rest of us are, having grown up an orphan. He becomes more and more relatable and down-to-earth as the series goes on, which makes these films all the more memorable. There is a case to be made that the Craig Bond films are right on par with, say, the Bourne series. Craig will go down as the best Bond of all time, given how much ground he covered in these movies.
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