Amazon can't kill James Bond with a bad movie
But it can kill the franchise with a flood of bad content
It’s still sinking in that Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have sold off the creative rights to James Bond to Amazon. They’ve been in charge of the franchise for decades and have ultimately made it what it is today.
Outside of the news, I was surprised by the number of people and outlets commenting on it. Then again, it makes sense that one of the most profitable characters in cinema would be well-known and presumably well-liked.
My gut reaction was that Amazon will ruin the character and his storied history by making a bad movie, or movies.
But that’s not actually the problem. The amount of movies, spin-offs, and content with the 007 branding will probably be the nail in the coffin. The universe-ification will ruin the intrigue and burn us all out.
Most Bond movies aren’t high-class cinema
It won’t be a bad Bond movie or even a series of movies that taints the franchise. I’ve seen all 25 Bond films half a dozen times, and each time, I’m reminded that there are some really corny parts. Some things are of their time, but not everything. Some things are just dumb.
The opening of For Your Eyes Only has Blofeld in a wheelchair remote-controlling a helicopter with James Bond trapped inside. Bond then takes control of it before scooping up the long-time evil mastermind and dumping him into a smoke stack. It’s cringey and corny. Even before that in the movie, the first shot of Roger Moore is of him in a cemetery laying flowers at the tombstone of Bond’s late wife who died six movies earlier—with another actor portraying Bond.
That’s right, the womanizing secret agent was married for a few minutes on-screen before she was shot and killed.
Die Another Day is a pretty universally panned movie with its invisible car and terrible CGI while Bond surfs a tsunami.
A View to a Kill opens with Bond escaping an army of soldiers on skis, from atop a snowy mountain. Near the scene’s intense climax, with his vehicle destroyed, he grabs a single sled and uses it as a snowboard on a halfpipe just as The Beach Boys’ “California Girls” starts playing. It fits Moore’s comedic portrayal of Bond, but it’s hokey.
Roger Moore dressed up as a sad clown in Octopussy. Timothy Dalton sledded across an international border in The Living Daylights. And James Bond dies in No Time to Die.
It’s not that hard to make a lot of the 007 movies sound bad if you want to. Just look at Austin Powers. It’s a whole franchise in its own right spent making fun of James Bond.
The death of Bond will be from the universe
When most people reference James Bond, it feels like they do so with a reverence for the series. I think most of that comes from people not being intimately familiar with a large chunk of the movies, but I also think it speaks to most people not being sick of the franchise.
There have been 25 James Bond movies over the last 60 years. The math says that there’s been a new movie every 2.4 years. Obviously, that hasn’t been the case lately.
The spacing during the Daniel Craig era films was two years, four years, three years, and six years. Before Goldeneye there was another six-year gap.
But there was a long stretch of time where there was a new Bond film every one to two years and it thrived. It’s been done. New Bond movies can be released regularly and it won’t be a death blow.
What we haven’t seen is a diverse universe of spin-offs that muddy the waters. I’m not talking about depriving the world of all Bond-related entertainment.
There have been a lot of James Bond video games over the years. The most notable being Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64. But there have been regular releases with an upcoming Project 007 video game from the maker of the Hitman game series being the latest.
Did you know there are still officially licensed James Bond novels being written? There are several Young Bond books for younger readers and even a recent Double O series.
These things just aren’t pushed down our throats, the way Amazon will (presumably) do when it’s trying to grow and heavily market its large investment.
The sole example of this so far is Amazon Prime Video’s 007: Road to a Million. It’s a generic reality show with the James Bond branding slapped on. It’s the kind of thing I’m terrified of.
I’m not scared of a bad movie or corny scenes. For better or worse that is James Bond. So far, the bad and dumb parts have been able to be evened out by time. Nothing can really save you from a flood of bad content.
I’m most worried that there’s no longer anyone accountable for the character. Just like Steve Jobs was great at saying “no” to things inside Apple, Broccoli and Wilson had been the ones to say “no” on behalf of James Bond. Now that’s gone.