It is no secret if you have glanced at some of these posts over the years that my love of movies is quite varied. However, when it comes to a favorite film franchise there is one that stands out above the rest, and that singular series is the heroics of James Bond 007. I became hooked on the superspy when I was in high school.
I had seen Goldeneye in theaters prior to knowing who James Bond was and didn't understand that this movie was a sequel to 16 other movies that had come before it. I simply thought he was a suave, womanizing, hard-drinking secret agent with a plethora of gadgets to help get him in and out of trouble. It wasn't until one day while working at Blockbuster that my co-worker and I decided to put Dr. No in the store-wide TV display VCR on a slow Saturday morning. Despite having to pause two or three times due to customers walking in (because movies were made to be watched in one uninterrupted sitting), I was enthralled. When our shift ended I had promised my co-worker we might continue watching the series another day that our schedules matched up at work, but instead I rented From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and You Only Live Twice and binge-watched (before that was a thing) all four of them at my house that afternoon and evening. It was at that moment I was hooked.
I spent the next three decades viewing all the movies and documentaries, reading the Ian Fleming-written and continuation novels and short stories the films were based on, collecting items of interest from the film series, and following as much news as I could that would scratch the itch that was 007 related.
I've created lists and rankings of everything I can think of related to the franchise. Some of those lists have made their way to this blog, and have been updated multiple times over the years.
So it was with great shock and ultimate sadness that I learned this morning that Amazon MGM Studios has purchased creative control from the Broccoli family for the rights to produce James Bond content. Nobody knows the details right now of how much influence Barbara Broccoli will still have, but she seems to have lost interest in the property since Daniel Craig stepped down from the role, which has resulted in nothing of substance happening since the release of No Time to Die in 2021.
Those who are excited (or maybe just not as dismayed as the majority) see this as an opportunity to get more James Bond content in a quicker turnaround time. When the films first started coming out in the 1960s, they released one every year. That quickly became one movie every two years, and that was the pattern most of the time through the Pierce Brosnan era of the 1990s and early 2000s. That changed drastically when Daniel Craig took on the role and Barbara Broccoli and her stepbrother, Michael G. Wilson, were in full control.
I personally am not interested in a James Bond universe that has movies, TV shows, theme park attractions, and other media content being cranked out. All I really want is a well-made movie every two years. And this is the mentality of a lot of (if not most) 007 fans. With the takeover by Amazon, many of us fear the intellectual property of James Bond is going to be turned into an algorithm-based franchise that has scripts and ideas churned out by AI with the single goal of diluting the character and stories into something that can reach as many people as possible without really pleasing, or offending, anyone.
While this comparison probably isn't fair or the exact same thing, it is the closest thing we have to what is currently going on, so it is unavoidable. However, what most of us are afraid of is what Disney has done with the Star Wars franchise. Honestly, it has been a mixed bag of what Disney has done with the franchise of light saber-wielding Jedi. On the big screen, they created a new trilogy that started off fun and exciting, but ended up angering the masses. However, they also released Rogue One, which is one of the best films in the entire franchise, and Solo, which is ... fine.
The small screen is where they have had the most success, but also some of the biggest flops. They either nailed it with The Mandalorian, Andor, and Ahsoka, or the shows were reviled and the Internet's racist, pitchfork mob mentality really flourished with The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Acolyte. The most recent show, Skeleton Crew, seems to be the only one that hasn't had a visceral reaction from the fanbase so far, but I think the overall consensus is it is fun and enjoyable. There has also been some animated television shows, of which The Bad Batch is the only memorable addition.
Disney has also capitalized on the fantasy world of Jedi, Sith, and the evil Empire in a land far, far away by cashing in on theme park attractions, like Galaxy's Edge and Galactic Starcruiser.
If you look at everything Disney has done with Star Wars objectively, they've had some highs that haven't quite reached the peak of what George Lucas did, and they've had some lows, which have made us take a deep introspection on the prequel trilogy and it turns out they look like masterpieces of cinema compared to what The Acolyte and The Rise of Skywalker did. But the same can be said over the course of 60 years with James Bond. From Russia with Love and Goldfinger were great. So is Casino Royale and Skyfall. However, The Man with the Golden Gun, A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, and Spectre are at the bottom of the barrel for the franchise.
The initial reaction from most of us fans is disbelief that the family business of James Bond is closing down and the big superstore took over. However, that happens with almost every family business, so it isn't really that shocking. I guess what surprised us the most is that after 60 years it is over. We don't know what will be next in the franchise. I'm sure Amazon with make some content that is enjoyable and some that's not so much, but in our hearts and in our minds, we know that it won't be the same. The franchise certainly isn't dead, although I'm sure there are some fans out there that say it is dead to them, but for a lot of us it is a transition that we won't be able to fully embrace.
In The World is not Enough, there was a scene from Desmond Llewelyn as Q that ended up being his final appearance. He told Bond, "I've always tried to teach you two things. First, never let them see you bleed." Bond then asks, "And the second?" Q's reply, "Always have an escape plan."
This might be the escape plan fans needed to gracefully bow out of the franchise they have loved so dearly for more than half a century.