Dr. No (1962) - Originally Written 7/11/2012

 

 Author's Note:

In 2012; I set out to watch all the official "Everything or Nothing" (EON) studios James Bond films in preparation for what was the 23rd film in the series; Skyfall (2012). For the sake of  brevity; these are being posted here as originally written, though my opinion in some cases may have changed. I've been tinkering with screening them again under different circumstances. However, as of right now, these are my official thoughts on all the James Bond series.
 
Due to the repeated themes and messaging that appears in series films; especially ones spanning five decades at the time; I chose to use a "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" format. I also ranked all the pressing "lists" that Bond fans tend to on occasion.

Stats:

Bond: Connery (1 of 6)
M: Bernard Lee (1 of 11)
Q: Not Applicable
Moneypenny: Lois Maxwell (1 of 14)
Director: Terence Young (1 of 3)
Theme Song: "James Bond Theme" - Monty Norman and John Barry
The Villian: Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman)
The Girl* - Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress)
The Evil Scheme: Disrupt a Space Shuttle Launch using radio waves.
* - only the girl Bond ends the film with will be considered for the sake of brevity. This is especially important in more recent films.

The Good:

Connery is most people's best Bond, and this is his best Bond performance in my opinion. He toes the line between suave debonair playboy super-spy and license to kill bad-ass perfectly. In his later performances he either goes the super stern route of Dalton and Craig too much or the grinning idiot approach of Brosnan, Lazenby, and Moore too much. Here it's baby bear's porridge; just right.

The Bad:

Everything else. For a super duper evil genius; Dr. No is dispatched WAY too easily, and for someone the viewer is supposed to spend most of the time believing the entire island of Jamaica is terrified of, there really is nothing scary about him. Especially when the first thing Bond sees in this super scary place that nobody dares to go is a beautiful woman in a nude bikini collecting seashells. It really hurts his credibility as a villain. He's like an evil Wizard of Oz; ruling by reputation and threats more so than any real power.

Final Thoughts. 

I really wanted to like Dr. No upon a second viewing. I wanted my initial dislike for it to be because I had no point of reference the first time around, because I was just being told I should admire this James Bond guy because the movie said to (which is NOT valid after viewing other films in the series) or being told I should fear Dr. No because the movie says so (which VERY much is true). Dr. No does a good job of introducing the Bond universe; but overall, it's generally a bad movie. Fortunately, things would get better...much MUCH better.

2.5 out of 5

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