45 replies to this topic

[Hockey Mask]

It was mentioned that we needed a sister thread to the Best Thing the Bond Franchise ever did. Sure, it would be easy to turn this into worst moment in Bond franchise (DAD CGI). I think this would more useful to consider what game changing franchise moment had the most negative impact. Considering where we are now it is hard to alter the past. I don't want to be the cause of Skyfall never seeing the screen.

That said, The Worst Thing the Bond Franchise Ever Did Was not give Connery the OHMSS movie.

[thecasinoroyale]

The worst thing the Bond franchise ever did was lose Timothy Dalton after just 2 films.

 

[Walecs]

I'd say not having Lazenby for seven movies, but it was his choice, so, the worst things were:

 

1. Starting with Dr. No (I perfectly know they didn't have the rights for Casino Royale, but they could start with Live and Let Die).

2. Not following the books' order, especially You Only Live Twice before OHMSS.

3. Not following the books' plot closely.

4. Changing Felix Leiter actor every single movie.

5. Having the Beatles singing a Bond song.

6. Not making any reference about Tracy in Diamonds are Forever, nor having Bond going for a vendetta.

7. Using Another Way To Die as main theme.

8. Using the same actors for different characters (Charles Gray), using different actors for the same character (Blofeld) WTF??

9. Making Thunderball so boring and all those underwater scenes

10. Underusing Bond theme in certain movies (GF, AVTAK, QOS)

11. Getting rid of Brosnan.

[thecasinoroyale]

I agree with points 4, 6, 8, 9 and 10! 

[SecretAgentFan]

I´d say the worst thing the Bond Franchise (meaning EON) ever did was rushing the CGI effects of DAD. If they had been done better THAT scene would not have invited so much criticism.

 

Anything else they handled pretty well, considering the circumstances they had to steer the franchise through.

[AMC Hornet]

Making AVTAK with Sir Roger & Tanya Roberts.

[FlemingBond]

Probably bringing back Sheriff Pepper in TMWTGG

or maybe it's TMWTGG overall

or maybe it's letting Lee Tomahori direct DAD

[tdalton]

The worst thing the Bond franchise ever did was lose Timothy Dalton after just 2 films.

 

Agreed.

 

I'd also say that not having an established Bond actor starring in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.  

[plankattack]

Turning their back on some great source material. The fact that YOLT lies un-adapted is a travesty. There are times when EON has got it right (Maibaum improving both GF and OHMSS), but there is some great stuff that has been ignored.

[QOS4EVER]

sold their souls to the devil by making a drama movie. When the founding father's were resolute on making a pleasurable escapist adventure.

[seawolfnyy]

Bringing in Madonna for Die Another Day.

[007jamesbond]

-turning Bond into a parody character and no long true to Fleming

-Moore too old 

-silly gadget 

-no adaption of novels MR and LALD who was ruined by silly parody villain 

-years of paody non-Bond movies 

[Walecs]

-turning Bond into a parody character and no long true to Fleming

-Moore too old 

-silly gadget 

-no adaption of novels MR and LALD who was ruined by silly parody villain 

-years of paody non-Bond movies 

 

Totally agree on your points all of them.

[Shaun Forever]

Right, think about how 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' ended, you had the wedding, and then the shooting.........

 

 

 

Imagine 'Diamonds Are Forever' opening with the funeral of Tracy (even with Connery as Bond, this still could have worked), then Bond

going off to do a bit of shooting of his own.

 

 

I don't dislike 'Diamonds Are Forever', but it could have been a lot better.

[Walecs]

Right, think about how 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' ended, you had the wedding, and then the shooting.........

 

 

 

Imagine 'Diamonds Are Forever' opening with the funeral of Tracy (even with Connery as Bond, this still could have worked), then Bond

going off to do a bit of shooting of his own.

 

 

I don't dislike 'Diamonds Are Forever', but it could have been a lot better.

 

Exactly. I did enjoy watching Diamonds Are Forever, but I was disappointed because it wasn't neither a revenge story, or a faithful adaptation of the novel.

[freemo]

THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

[Baccarat]

To not take itself seriously enough from DAF to DAD, thereby allowing many of those films to slip almost into parody. 

[S K Y F A L L]

• Not getting a 3rd Bond film in 92 with Dalton or a 5th Brosnan film. 
• Not having Connery in OHMSS 

[Professor Pi]

For six years they had us "suffer, and suffer, and...suffer" without a Bond movie from 1989 to 1995.

 

(Second worst:  Britt Eklund's Mary Goodnight character.)

[Guy Haines]

The visual "gags". The double taking pigeon, or the disbelieving drunk in Moonraker, for example. The gadgets going wrong in the background while Q is explaining something to Bond in the foreground (GoldenEye, amongst others). At least they had the good sense to drop the "magic carpet" scene from TLD.

 

Humour definitely has its place in Bond, but for me it should come out of the situation on screen naturally, and preferably through diaglogue - the famous "one liners" for example -, rather than having some slapstick scene bolted on to an otherwise action packed or dramatic part of the film.

[AgenttiNollaNollaSeitsemän]

Die Another Day.

[Odd Jobbies]

....rushing the CGI effects of DAD... [in] ....THAT scene.

 

Yep

[Orion]

Lee Tamahori, or not evolve early in the eighties like they clearly should have...Ill go with not taking a new route in the eighties when they should've so they almost killed the franchise. least they learnt from the Tamahori fiasco.

[KBOX007]

1. Not force John Barry to score Goldeneye and subsequent Bond films before he passed. Perhaps a larger paycheck could have cured that writer's block of his? 

 

2. Denise Richards in TWINE

 

3. Marc Forster as director of QoS

 

4. Madonna's appearance in DAD

 

5. Not allowing Pierce to do #5 in 2004 

 

6. Allow NSNA to be made and confuse "casual" Bond fans for the last 30 years

 

7. Have large licensing fees on merchandise related to the more recent films so fans can't buy Jeff Marshall litho's of the post Dalton era  

[Walecs]

I agree with 1 (see below, not very sure about this) 3, 5, 6 (I don't understand this one), 7.

 

Would John Barry have been a good choice?I find his Octopussy/AVTAK scores (and possibly Moonraker) so bad, and tired, like Moore felt during his late movies, (save for the theme songs, TMWTGG included). His rendition of Bond theme during the Moore era is so bad.

No, I am glad we got GoldenEye's overture, instead.

Edited by Walecs, 15 February 2013 - 07:08 PM.

[KBOX007]

Oh no, sacrelig! Moonraker is my all time favorite Bond score, and thus, my all time favorite film score. 'Bond Lured to Pyramid' is one of Barry's most beautifully composed songs ever. Octopussy is probably #2 on my list of favorite Bond soundtracks. AVTAK is ok, nothing too special there (like the movie itself), and TLD was phenomenal. If Broccoli and Wilson just re-used and remixed Barry's work from the old soundtracks on future movies instead of hiring new composers, I would be quite fine with it. David Arnold has his moments, but I feel that he doesn't do justice to the locale of the films the way Barry did. Part of my love of these soundtracks and this era of Bond film may be because this is what I grew up on in the 80s, or just because they're awesome.  

 

A few years ago, there was a great interview with Barry in which the interviewer described Barry's film scores as adding another character to the scenes. All his 80s scores have similarities, whether it's Bond, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves, etc. I feel as though Arnold's and Newman's scores have similarities with every other action movie of the modern era. The big difference is when you hear Barry, you know its Barry.  

 

I loathed Eric Serra's score in 1995, mainly because he left out the ubiquitous theme, but it wasn't all bad, most of it is actually quite good, and it's grown on me over the last 18 years. Even so, I'll take a Serra-for-Barry trade any day. 

[Mr_Wint]

Licence To Kill and GoldenEye.

[larrythefatcat]

I can't be the only one, but I most definitely see the pre-title sequence of 'Diamonds Are Forever' as being revenge for killing Tracy... I'm sorry, but that's all we get, ladies and gentlemen!

[AMC Hornet]

You aren't the only one. I'm sure the intention was to bury the public's memory of the previous movie along with Tracy. Just because videophiles like angst-ridden revenge stories now doesn't mean that it's what theatre-goers wanted in 1971. I'll take escapist entertainment over tortured vengeance tales any day, thank you - which is why I rank DAF, TMWTGG and yes, even DAD higher than LTK and QoS.

 

A notable misstep was ending up partnered with MGM (not that it was EON's fault), as it led to two intolerably lengthy hiatuses (sp?).

[ViperSRT87]

The worst thing the Bond franchise ever did was lose Timothy Dalton after just 2 films.

 

I definitely agree with this. Another point that others have mentioned is the changing of Felix Leiter for every movie. I would have loved to see David Hedison for example in many more movies as Felix besides LTK and.....the other movie escapes me. But beyond that having a single Felix could have given dynamic to their relationship and opened up new doors besides "oh Felix is here fun." Similar to monypenny or M having consistent characters at least for multiple films. Also I do feel Lazenby should have at least had DAF even if moore still took over LALD. But again as stated before it was his decision to leave.