There are three James Bond films in particular that changed the franchise fundamentally and saved the series from dying. If it wasn’t for these three entries, 007 could have ended abruptly. Pulling audiences back into the cinemas and sparking interest once more in the franchise, this triplet of films is arguably the most important in the entire series.
The 007 franchise has always had its ups and downs, both commercially and critically. But some bumps in the road were just too big to ignore. As a result, a resurgence in quality and a reinvention of various elements were needed to revive the series.
The Spy Who Loved Me Saved Bond After 2 Lackluster Roger Moore Movies
Although Roger Moore’s Bond in Live and Let Die was not, strictly speaking, his debut playing the character, it was his first official outing, and it was a fine one. But it did lack that special punch that fans expected from a Bond movie. Coming off the wildly successful era of Sean Connery, expectations were high for the new Bond. Like its successor, The Man with the Golden Gun, Live and Let Die was one of the few Bond films that didn’t feature 007 in the pre-title sequence.
This was a problem for fans, who wanted to relish in the new version of their hero, the lackluster and almost reluctant way producers were brandishing the new 007 turned fans off. Neither of Moore’s first two outings was particularly well-received by critics, nor did they garnish much interest commercially, with Bond's ninth film, The Man with the Golden Gun doing the fifth worst in of worldwide box office gross in the whole series.
The producers already tried to replace Sean Connery with George Lazenby in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but it was a mission failure in financial . So they brought Connery back again for Diamonds Are Forever. Now, with Connery gone, and the new Bond (again) failing to resonate well with audiences after two films, the series was in dire straits in of audience investment.
After a slightly longer gap between productions than what was typically expected at this time of still relatively early Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me was served to audiences, and it celebrated every element of the 007 series with great aplomb, in dramatic contrast to its predecessors. This time, the plot was bombastic with high stakes, Bond had a flashy car in the submarine-enabled Lotus, the action was firing from all cylinders, and Bond himself featured at the beginning of the film in an amazing pre-title sequence involving a breathtaking stunt. Thanks to The Spy Who Loved Me, which was energetically and relentlessly eager to please, fans were, once again, interested in James Bond.
GoldenEye Rescued Bond After Timothy Dalton's Commercially Disappointing Era
Bond producers were looking at Pierce Brosnan as a possible 007 as early as the mid 80’s, as a potential replacement for Roger Moore. Timothy Dalton took the helm, however, and the producers had many plans for The Living Daylights, the first entry to star Dalton, many of which were never realized. It almost feels as though the wait was worth it, though, for the sake of GoldenEye getting off to the explosive restart fans needed from the franchise. The series perhaps needed to prove it was on tired legs so that audiences could see just how much they were in need of a modernization of the Bond films.
Dalton’s two entries, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill, were commercially disappointing. Both of these entries, and the film that immediately preceded them (Roger Moore’s last outing, A View to a Kill) are all the three lowest-grossing films of the series when adjusted for inflation. A change was drastically needed. Dalton, despite his movies having aged well in a critical sense, was struggling to win over audiences at the time. And with the legal complications occurring behind the scenes causing too many delays, he wasn’t prepared to keep waiting for his opportunity for a third outing.
Although it wasn’t billed as such, GoldenEye, hitting cinemas six years after Dalton’s last adventure, was a reboot of the franchise, albeit a soft one. Brosnan’s first entry recharged the series with a modern zing, with Martin Campbell directing and new producers at the helm. It was also one of the first Bond films to not be directly based on any Ian Fleming title or material and was named after Fleming’s own estate with the same name, located in Oracabessa Bay on the northern coastline of Jamaica, where he wrote his 007 novels and short stories.
An enormous amount of pressure was on GoldenEye, as it simply needed to deliver, and it was never guaranteed as a blockbuster back in the mid-90s. There was no shortage of media attention, it boasted a strong marketing campaign, but Bond had not been box office gold for quite some time. But with the exciting plot set amidst the end of the cold war, and with a stellar cast adorning the screen as some of the best villains and James Bond girls ever to grace a 007 film, audiences were given the full package with GoldenEye, which both brought fans back into the franchise and created many new ones.
Casino Royale Proved Bond Could Work In The 21st Century (& Guaranteed Its Future)
Die Another Day, Brosnan’s fourth and last time as 007, despite its reputation for being the black sheep of the family critically speaking, did do well commercially, currently standing as the sixth most successful Bond film at the worldwide box office. However, the formula was running out of steam. Director Lee Tamahori wanted to appeal to younger audiences with Bond 20, with the video game industry in full swing at this stage and 007 games performing well, Tamahori wanted to try a different approach. Because Tamahori was deliberately trying to align the film with the visually exhilarating style of video games to please a more adolescent audience, the movie ends up lacking any real depth, with cringe-worthy one-liners littered throughout.
After a four-year hiatus, Pierce Brosnan didn’t return in Casino Royale, as it had to reckon with Bond's future in fundamentally important ways. Even though the series wasn’t in any trouble financially, the producers found themselves at a dead-end creatively, as the Brosnan formula had gotten samey and increasingly shallow. 007 was beginning to be regarded as somewhat of an outdated, sexist relic, and with Die Another Day's fantastical nature, Casino Royale needed to bring things back to reality and bring Bond into the 21st Century.
The response was a grounded, mature and compelling masterpiece that not only reinvented James Bond himself but revitalized the entire franchise. It set up perfectly what was to be arguably the most successful run of any Bond actor’s reign in Daniel Craig. But more importantly, it proved to audiences that James Bond can remain relevant today.
