I grew up watching classic James Bond movies and particularly loved the campy Roger Moore era. With sci-fi-inspired doomsday weapons, cartoonishly evil villains, and lots of cheesy double entendre, I saw them as pure genre fun and Moore remains my favorite version to this day. In other words, the more serious, realistic, Daniel Craig reboot was the exact opposite of what I wanted from the franchise.
Most James Bond movies exist somewhere between serious drama and campy genre fun, but the Daniel Craig reboot pivoted hard away from the franchise’s campier elements. While Spectre brought in some of those neglected elements, it didn’t lean into them the way movies like The Spy Who Loved Me did. To recalibrate the franchise, the next iteration needs to recenter the campy elements and have fun again.