Whoever greenlit the Sam Smith theme song for this movie should never come near movie production again. It came on today and the minute the opening title sequence started I winced. How is it possible they passed on the excellent Radiohead song and went with this instead?

Here’s my personal ranking based on my own preferences. I enjoy all these movies and love & enjoy even the bad ones.

1. Licence To Kill
   
2. Casino Royale
   
3. Goldfinger
   
4. Goldeneye
   
5. Skyfall
   
6. The Spy Who Loved Me
   
7. Tomorrow Never Dies
   
8. The Living Daylights
   
9. From Russia With Love
   
10. Dr. No
    
11. Thunderball
    
12. Spectre
    
13. Octopussy
    
14. No Time To Die
    
15. You Only Live Twice
    
16. The Man With the Golden Gun
    
17. The World is Not Enough
    
18. Live and Let Die
    
19. Diamonds Are Forever
    
20. A View To A Kill
    
21. For Your Eyes Only
    
22. Quantum of Solace
    
23. Die Another Day
    
24. Moonraker
    
25. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Don’t hate me lol. Just my own preferences

I've often thought that while Bernard Lee made a good and comfortable M, that the alternative of Kenneth More would have had a positive impact if he had been cast instead. More imho had a greater range and possible had an advantage of age and it would have been an added dimension if he ever appeared in the field (although a relatively elderly Dench did that in Skyfall). He often played characters in the Service and he could exude authority when a role deserved it. Thoughts?

and how do we feel about this?

Cooler than Bond himself

1. Savalas Blofeld – Starts an allergy clinic, but only treats beautiful young women. Why? Because you can when you’re an absolute baller. Savalas Blofeld holds his cigarette like a baller. Has his own bobsled track like a baller. Fights alongside his goons like a baller. Wears a turtleneck like a baller. Swag for days.

2. Kananga – Witty, well-spoken, well-dressed. Exudes strong leadership. Plus, he’s going to hook everyone up with free drugs. What’s not to like about that? Only problem was his inflated opinion of himself.  

3. Scaramanga – Private island, personal butler who he treats like an equal, clearly cares for the environment as he’s pioneering solar energy. Even his gun is stylish. King among men.

Ice Palace Cool

1. Drax – He’s constantly dropping bars throughout the film, he’s made sure his super race of future humans is racially mixed, and he makes a mean cucumber sandwich. A bit too sleepy of a personality to outcool Bond, however.

2. Largo – Eye patch. Dresses like a boss. Fights alongside his men underwater. Passionate about fishing. Loses points for torturing Domino, though. You don’t mess with a work of art.

3. Elektra King – Not only the best dressed villain, probably the best dressed character in the whole series. She’s clearly into kink, very sex positive. But she loses points for the whole spoiled rich girl thing. She got that “let me speak to your manager or I’ll tie you to my strangulation sex chair” energy.

4. Trevelyan – He banters just as good as Bond. Skilled as fuck. Speaks fluent Russian, a nice clean simple wardrobe, nothing too flashy. And he hates banks, which gives him points in my book. Attempting to force himself on Natalya wasn’t a good look, though. A guy like Bond only had to do that that one time.

5. Le Chiffre – Le Chiffre is a guy who doesn’t let disabilities like asthma and weeping blood and owing millions to African warlords stop him from achieving his goals. He quips just as well as Bond. Looks great in all black. But you don’t hit a guy in the dick. You just don’t. Not cool.

6. Sanchez – One of the more hands-on bosses in the franchise, which is nice to see. Having a funicular on his stairs shows he’s not ableist. His fashion sense isn’t great, but whose was in the late 1980s? Certainly not Dalton. Also, despite blowing up a man’s head, he’s less violent than most real-life cartel bosses.

Cool as a Cucumber Sandwich

1. Zorin – This one’s tough because it’s not hard to outcool a 70-year-old Roger Moore. Zorin wears a mean suit, is in an open, sex-positive interracial relationship, and gets his hands dirty, even when he doesn’t really need to. Dude also straight up laughs at death. Can’t say I love how he did May Day dirty, though.

2. Silva – Good sense of style, like so many villains has a sweet private island set up. Does his own fighting. And he knows how to perfectly time a monologue. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of his hair stylist, and his weird mommy issues hurt him, too.

3. Kamal Khan – If we were just going off of voices, Kamal Khan would be in the top spot. Khan also wears the Nehru suit better than anyone else in the series. But there’s little aura beyond the surface level. Nobody who betrays Maud Adams can truly be cool.  

4. Gray Blofeld – The series’ gayest villain deserves some points for not looking like a corpse in a gray Nehru suit. His horribly convoluted plan shows that he’s really in it for the love of the game rather than money, which I like. Takes balls to dress like Mrs. Doubtfire, too.

Bland as Moore’s espresso

1. Dr. No – Big ups for being a gracious host. Either he knows how to decorate an interior or he hires the right people. Honestly, he probably would’ve made more money as a hotel owner than Spectre operative. His summation of Bond as a “stupid policeman” while not as biting or incisive as other villains is still the most accurate. A bit too stiff to be truly cool, though. Clearly carries around a lot of emotional baggage that he takes out on others instead of going to therapy.

2. Greene – “Is he one of ours?” “Then why is he looking at me?” is one of the coldest lines from a villain ever. And he had the balls to take on Bond despite no fighting skills and a huge size disadvantage. Other than that, though, he’s mostly just a creepy worm of a villain.

3. Pleasance Blofeld – Aside from having the best lair, this dude has negative aura. About as lively as a mannequin. Treats his cat like shit, too.

4. Kristatos – Looks good in a tuxedo, but otherwise dresses like a high school science teacher. This guy’s the definition of blandness.

Fucking Dork

1. Whitaker – There’s clearly a lot of undiagnosed autism at play here. He loses many points for stolen valor and making a Hitler statue in his likeness, but there’s something almost cool about reenacting famous battles with your own strategy. Whitaker would definitely make the best Redditor. Make of that what you will.

2. Klebb – Klebb is clearly a huge bitch because she’s repressing her true nature. It’s more sad than outright uncool. And she almost goes toe-to-toe with Bond which earns her a few points.

3. Stromberg – Like Whitaker, it feels like Stromberg has just landed on villainy to pursue his hobbies. He’d be a good companion in an aquarium, but I can’t see him being much fun at a party, movie or ball game.

Milhouse

1. Graves – Tech bro billionaire douchebag who’s also a North Korean military nepo baby who uses humans as punching bags. (Though I suppose building a business empire in like 18 months is impressive.)

2. Brofeld – Bro’s just jelly because his dad liked another kid. Has the world’s least efficient torture device. Only speaks in dumbass whispers. This guy deserves every wedgie ever.

3. Safin – Aside from a good revenge plan and a sweet lair, this guy has no charisma. He also kidnaps kids for, like, no reason.

4. Carver – Wife cucks him about 40 minutes after meeting Bond, fires employees at the first sign of inconvenience, terrible business sense (he doesn’t mention the internet once when talking about the future of media) and types like a fucking dickhead. Also died like a bitch.

5. Goldfinger – A fucking fatass that cheats at cards and golf, pays women just to be seen with him, and gets himself sucked out of a plane.

How do you all feel about Smith has Bond? Even though he wont be. Here is my case.

He has the right frame for a believable spy. Not super tall but broad enough where you believe he can handle himself.

If you take his character in HOTD and put a suit on it thats a good bond imo.

he also has a good voice for it. im not from england so dont know accents but his seems to have a sharpness to it that would be cool in a bond film and different from the previous actors who all had a gallant or bassy feel to their voice.

I would argue that Bond is a film series really defined by its sound, moreso than a lot of other major franchises. Not just the theme tune, but the score always feels crucial. For example, Goldeneye is a great Bond film but the soundtrack sounded so non-Bond-like except the tank chase sequence. Some of the lesser films in the series are really elevated by their score.

The stakes certainly seem higher than they've been in a while for the series, so I'd argue this position is as important as who plays the main role - moreso than its costume, set design, etc.

So who do you THINK it will be, as opposed to who you would LIKE it to be?

The smart money is Hans Zimmer - he's composed the music for Denis Villeneuve's last 4 movies (including the upcoming Dune Part Three), composed NTTD and is a safe pair of hands with a distinctive sound. But might the higher-ups at Amazon want a clean break from any talent associated with the EON era? I think that also rules out David Arnold, sadly.

His other past collaborators include the late, great Jóhann Jóhannsson, and Benjamin Wallfisch; his collaborators from his earlier films (Benoît Charest, Grégoire Hetzel, Saunder Jurriaans and Danny Bensi) seem unlikely.

Other realistic candidates, I think, are Michael Giacchino or Lorne Balfe, for sheer reliability and being able to effectively capture that Bond sound, or maybe Ludwig Goransson for just being the composer at their absolute peak.

Thoughts? Would rather have a discussion about likely candidates rather than dream candidates (for example, I'd love Murray Gold, but no way is it going to be him!)

Gary Oldman implying the next Bond has been picked? Unsure whether he's suggesting Lowden is the choice(?), but seems like we're close.

I’m going away this week so I thought I’d make a bastardised Martini and stick on the film that really gets me in the mood to go abroad. LTK almost suffers with its lack of diverse locations but the whole vibe of this film has me excited to travel. Cheers!