I haven’t been a fan of the Bond franchise since… well, I remember hating “Moonraker.” That was in 1979.

“Moonraker” typifies what disinterested me in Bond: the detached gimmickry of an outerspace conflict. It was an extraterrestrial epic in which nothing was grounded.

Much has happened in the series since then, not much of it good. Until now.

It is not just that the new Bond himself is a rehumanized model, although that goes a long way. The gadgets are gone. (This Bond’s most essential spyware? A defibrilator.) Minus the fantastic, something closer to reality reappears. That’s a good thing. While I don’t want my secret agents settling down in the suburbs, I do like to know that they can get cut and bleed and feel betrayed and heartbroken and be driven by ego and rage.
Best Bond yet? It sure felt that way today.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 19th, 2006 at 10:40 am and is filed under On seeing, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.