Daniel Craig definitely is one of the biggest names with one of the finest records ever. After Sean Connery and Sir Roger Moore, the only man who made James Bond a complex and amicable and yet deadly and an agent extraordinary is legendary. So here are 007 Craig’s films ranked accordingly.
1.Casino Royale
The film that brought James Bond back and introduced viewers to Craig’s version, Casino Royale remains fresh even today, with a whole new take on Bond that set the template and standard for much of what was to come, and will likely still be helping to define the franchise in James Bond 26’s reboot and beyond. There was a lot going against Casino Royale: Craig wasn’t the most popular pick, the franchise was stuck in the past, and new-spies-on-the-block like the Jason Bourne movies had raised the game. Casino Royale, then, proved not only that Bond could still compete, but that on its day it could be better than anyone
2. Skyfall
Casino Royale brought James Bond films back and gave Daniel Craig the platform to build upon, but it was Skyfall that truly perfected the form. Released in 2012, marking the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, Skyfall is an even greater feat than the 2006 film. Because of its unique position, then this is an entry that has to somehow celebrate the past – one that much of Craig’s 007 era had been happy leaving behind – while still embracing the future, setting up further installments, and connecting to the ongoing story arc, and delivering its own satisfying narrative. Somehow, it delivers on all of that. What is interesting is it provides some serious introspection of who Bond is and where he fits into an ever-changing world, ultimately providing the satisfying answer that it still needs 007.
3. No Time To Die
Daniel Craig’s final James Bond film is a middle-of-the-road entry for his run, going out not quite with a bang nor a whimper. Craig, knowing it’s his final entry, feels more invigorated here than he did in Spectre, and the fact it is his ending gives him more notes to play; No Time To Die is one of his best, most fully-rounded performances as Bond, because it encompasses his entire arc and runs the full gamut from cold, ruthless killer to the spy who learned to love. A messy plot with a churlish supervillain, a predictable plot not so much of a Spy-thriller. Nevertheless, it’s a good watch to pass your time.
4. Quantum Of Solace
Following on from Daniel Craig’s thrilling debut as James Bond, Quantum of Solace always had a tricky task on its hands to maintain that level. That was only made harder by the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike, which resulted in an unfinished screenplay that director Marc Forster and even Craig himself ended up working on to get things finished. Unfortunately, those issues end up being evident in the film itself. The story, unsurprisingly, is messy and incohesive: it jumbles together a story of a revenge-driven Bond alongside his relationship with M (Judi Dench), an environmentalist villain plot, and setting up grander plans for Quantum to become overarching franchise villains (which would later be scrapped in favor of SPECTRE), nonetheless, it was a good film, and Craig’s performance was undoubtedly superb.
5. Spectre
Continuing the trend of “one good, one bad” that marks Daniel Craig’s James Bond films, Spectre is once again a movie that perhaps suffers from too many ideas and attempts to continue pushing the franchise forward while connecting to its past. With the rights to SPECTRE regained, that means the narrative of Spectre has to do a convoluted job of retconning Quantum into the organization and introducing Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) as the overarching big bad. These elements show both issues with such a long-running series and with giving Bond an arc, as the web begins to feel unnecessarily convoluted and the ideas don’t tie together, with Blofeld in particular something of a letdown, never becoming the iconic villain he deserves to be and with reveals about his and Bond’s pasts that is best simply forgotten about but it was indeed a treat to watch.
