License To Kill (James Bond 007)

A misfire. And by a pretty wide margin too.

I think the movie sets up two interesting premises. And it doesn't bother properly exploring either.

The first premise is taking away Bond's License To Kill. That was always a big deal, and sort of the way the audience could stay on Bond's side, despite how many people he kills in the course of his duties. If he's authorized to do it, it makes what he does much different than the Punisher.

And I thought it might be fun to see Bond having to navigate succeeding in an unauthorized mission without being allowed to kill anybody! That not only could have set up some interesting ethical dilemmas, it could have produced some great comedy. Instead Bond is as lethal as ever, and what he's doing is criminal, and he is never held to account for that. The ending pretends like the license was never revoked to begin with, and Bond never went rogue.

The other interesting premise the movie failed is the fact that Sanchez values loyalty over money. That is outside of almost ALL totally rotten Bond villains with no redeeming qualities. What the movie should have done is made the film into a Donnie Brasco-type story. It would have helped things if Sanchez was personally hurt by Bond's betrayal and that was a major plot point by the end. I would also have loved it if that fact made me extend actual sympathy to him.

The only really interesting about the movie to me is that without real back-up, Bond sucks at his job. The film didn't explore a TON of issue regarding ethics, but the idea that Bond puts parallel investigations into jeopardy by rashly rushing into situations is something that probably should have come up before this.

I'd feel worse for Felix Leiter if they had gotten an actor to reprise the role even ONCE. He's been recast even more than Blofeld, and I only gave a crap about him once Jeffrey Wright played him multiple times in the reboot for that reason. Really, I can't believe NONE of the previous actors EVER wanted to come back. It makes no sense why it's a different actor each time.

I like that Pam feels double-crossed over the fact that Bond is sleeping with another woman. Q can claim it's part of the job, but she's right that it's b.s. instead. After all, he's not even technically ON the job.

I see why the franchise felt the need to course-correct after this. Although frankly, Timothy Dalton wasn't the problem. **.