By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)
4K Collector’s Edition available to purchase on Amazon USA
Everybody has their preferred actor for James Bond. When he has No Time to Die, just who can play him next depends. There’s no formal announcement yet, but the producers promises there’ll be more in the coming years. I firmly believe just why he’s so long lived is because he’s not just one person. The sixty year franchise isn’t a proper passage of time. When one mission puts a version into retirement in the span of a handful of adventures–Never Say Never Again included–another takes his place.
Yes, James Bond is code name, much like 007, rather than the identity of a specific person.
The latest looks at Daniel Craig‘s time as the titular superspy. This time, he is being used. Spectre is a threat and the good guys have a nanotech virus to wipe them out. But there’s a catch. It’s possible to subvert the programming and have it destroy anyone with a specific genetic marker. The game Bond’s involved in has high stakes; he can decide on who can live or who to let die because he’s been infected. It’s a terrific espionage thriller to end off this actor’s legacy with the character, and it’s a tearjerker as we’re led to believe he’s dead, much like in Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy.
With the home video release, the tribute to Daniel Craig is a very worthwhile watch. I jumped to watching this full-length documentary rather than to see the film again. The other featurettes are fairly standard, so I quickly looked over those before diving into how the studio and producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are closing off this actor’s legacy. He brings a type of true grit to the role and it’s nicely reflected in the archive and behind the scenes footage presented. Instead of including a lot of talking head moments, it’s simply voice overs through an excellent highlight reel of this actor’s past five films.
Craig brought a different type of depth to the role that his predecessors didn’t, and that’s what I enjoyed the most since his debut in Casino Royale.
It’s not fair for me to say who’s the best James Bond of them all; each actor brought a unique take to a character Ian Fleming developed. And to see how Craig has embraced the role and made it his own, hurdles included, is a terrific way to close off his legacy.
