A Complete List of All James Bond 007 Watches | Man of Many

So in April, I decided to watch every Bond film from "From Russia with Love" to "Spectre". I had already seen Dr. No for a english assignment last year and while I enjoyed the film didn't feel the need to rewatch it. So here are my thoughts:
Dr. No - A great start to the Bond franchise that is introduces a lot of the classic elements, including "Bond, James Bond", Girls and cold kills. The film is quite quaint by modern standards but is still fun to watch. I will say the second half of the opening is just plain odd though, why after the James Bidn theme am I hearing bongos?. I will say that I wish we saw more of Dr. No than we do in the actual film, as, but otherwise Jospeh Wiseman gives a great performance. Overall 7.5/10
From Russia with Love - Okay this one just got better as it went along. While the pre-title sequence isn't bad we don't actually get to bond for a bit of the film and it does drag a bit. I also love that in the second movie we're already trying to play with the fact that Bond loves to sleep with women. I also find it funny that Robert Shaw looks awfully similar to Daniel Craig. Even with that though Red Grant still delievrs a codl performance that leads to one of the best fight scenes in cinema Overall 8.5/10
Goldfinger - I love this one so much. From a great villain to the DB5 to the iconic imagery and the brilliant henchman in Oddjob. This film gets nearly everything right and I have very few problems with the film as a whole. My only qualm is the barn scene where it appears that Bond may have raped Pussy galore, but that really didn't hinder my enjoyment very much as all. Where my love for the films was truly cemented for the film was for this quote "Did you expect to me to Live?" "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die".Also my favourite character is introduced in this film: Q. The way Desmond Lleweyn plays this character is perfect and I really did not want anyone to replace him. Goldfinger is almsot flawless 9/10
Thunderball - This is where the franchise really went downhill for me. What really annoys me about this film is the first half hour is a complete waste of time that we didn't need. We could have easily started just at scene where Bond is meeting with leaders of the world and M and it still wouldn't affect your understanding of the film. Even after that, so much of the film just feels like wasted potential. The only good part of the film are probably about half the girls, Sean Connery and the one Q scene. The Underwater scenes are just boring and I didn't care. Altough this film does have on e the best title sequences. This will seem harsh to some but honestly this film gets a 4/10
Casino Royale(1967) - Yes I made sure to watch "every" James Bond film (although that wasn't really worth it in the end). What the fuck happened in this film. Honeslty this film is just random scenes together stuck together with a plotline. I remeber David Niven playing some game with Ursula Andress( If I remember correctly). I remember Bond's daughter stuck in a mze like berlin in the cold war. I remember peter sellers going up against Le Chiffre. But the films comes together like a Sandwhich made of Jello and Glue. It's awful. But it's also hilarious to think about. Honestly the story behind the film is more interesting than the actual film. Oh and how lazy is that ending, my God. 3.5/10
You Only live Twice - Alright I knew going in to this some of the films would be dated but I thought that was going to eb about the attitudes towards Women. I did not expect Sean Connery to be badly put in makeup to make him "look Asian". Also the final "Blofeld" reveal is somewhat disappointing, not necessarily bad just somewhat disappointing considering how he was bulit up in From Russia with Love and Thunderball. Although I honeslty didn't have a problem with Connery's performance that much. While it's not great, it wasn't enough to have an impact on my feelings towards the films. Overall not bad. 7/10
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - Alright this one is hard for me. I didn't enjoy the film very much but it's clearly great. Why is it great? Well it gave me Captain America: Civil War which is a film I sometimes don't enjoy but know it is a great film regardless. I was probably just in the wrong mood for this film. As for Lazenby, he's not bad but I think he might have just needed a bit more direction on what to do. Although while it's a gutpunch I love the ending. I'll just give it a 7 now, but I might come back to this one.
Diamonds are Forever - This one is quite weird. From Blofeld to drag to having scenes set in Vegas to Connery weirdly looking too old depsite only being in his 40s. But it can also be a sort of fun weird as well. But then it's not great either. Also I blame this film for the stupid moon landing conspiracy theories. 6.5/10
Live and Let Die - This is a decent start to the Roger Moore Era. Moore feels like Bond but not like Connery which I think was a slight problem with Lazneby trying to be a little too much like Connery. Dr. Kananga is a good villian and Jane Seymour as Solitaire is one the best bond girls. Also Sherriff J.W Pepper is silly but helps us understand how the Roger Moore Era will feel. Overall 7.5/10
The Man with the Golden Gun - "THAT FUCKING SLIDE WHISTLE". Seriously though the slidew whistle over the car flip represents the whole film. Good Idea that were unfortunately done wrong due to horrid execution. However, this makes the film one of the best to enjoy ironically. Scaramnage and Nick Nack are probably the only things done well in the film. Just for ironic enjoyment I'm willing to give this film a 6/10
The Spy Who Loved Me - For the longest time this was my favourite Bond Film. It had my favourite Bond girl in Anya, One the best henchmen in Jaws, Moore at the top of his game, and one the best ending scenes battles in all of Bond. My only problem comes from Stromberg, who's just a bit one note. Overall 9.5/10
Moonraker - I had bad experience watching this one. I was expecting all of it to be set in Space but only the 3rd act actually is. This meant that during the first 2 acts I was just waiting for them to go to space and when they did, I wanted them back on Earth. I really didn't like the space scenes because the blasters reminded me too much of Star Wars. The film itself is probably the most over the top it's ever been and hell, looking back I realise while it was incredibly stupid it was fun seeing a double taking pigeon and the other nonsensical happenings in this film. Honeslty I'll give this a 6.5.
For Your Eyes Only - What happened in this one? This isn't like Casino Royale '67 where it's incredibly confusing but it's more just boring. I really don't remember much at all. I don't remember many of the stunts or any of the bond girls really. Hell, I have no idea who the villain actually was. The only thing I remember is the brilliant opening sequence. 4/10
Octopussy - This one's similar to FYEO for me only stupider. unfortunately though unlike Moonraker where it jump the shark fairly soon to get you ready for the sillier scenes later on, the clown scene at the end I was completely unprepared for looked and just came off as incredibly dumb. Also Octopussy could've been a great villain but no, it's someone else who I didn't care about. 3/10
Never Say Never Again - The first act is weird in that it can't decide if it wants to be classic Bond or a spoof like CR '67. The second act is classic Bond(although they play videogames at some point. What?). I don't remember the 3rd act at all and I got completely lost which really ruined the film for me. 4.5/10
A View To a Kill - This is like TMTWGG for me. The only real good parts are Mayday and Christopher Walken as Zorin. We really should've had Dalton by this point. In fact I think Dalton should've started with For Your Eyes Only. Moore I don't think gives a bad performance but he was clealry too old for the role by this point. As a film it's one of the sillier ones, but at least it wasn't too boring 5/10
The Living Daylights - What a breath of fresh air. It was nice to have a bond film I enjoyed again after some many I didn't like. I love the 3rd act with the both Bond hanging on for his life with the plane and the end fight (although it could give you a seizure if you're epileptic). Timothy Dalton is James Bond. All the other actors were playing a version of James Bond. Dalton is that character personified to a T. The Living Daylights gets a 7/10
Licence to Kill - This was very different. What is easily the darkest bond film (maybe except, Casino Royale '06) is also one of the better bond films. While I enjoyed TLD dalton's bond fits better in this sort of film. I love the plot is literally Bond on a revenge mission rather than just filling out M's orders. Also Q in more than just one scene, is bliss. I Love Q, not only for Desmons Lleweyn, but also because his warmth helps to say "Yes it's dark, but it's still Bond and we can still have fun with it". However the film does almost crumble under all of the different plotlines but unlike NSNA I was still able to get back into the film despite that. Also, It annoyed me that Felix survived the film. It would've been better and more believable if both Felix and his wife had died. LTK gets a 7.5/10
Goldeneye - I don't have a lot to say about this one. Just a great Bond film in it's own right with a great villain and some of the best Bond girls. Although I wasn't big on Brosnan at first though. To me he seemed too generic and didn't really have his own spin to Bond. But he grew on my over time. Besides Goldeneye is still a great film otherwise. 9/10
Tomorrow Never Dies - Again, not a lot to say about this one. Decent Bond flick, that while not as good as Goldeneye is still worth your time and worth checking out at least once. The best part of this film is the villain by far, being a version of Rupert Murdoch(hate that slimy bugger). 7/10
The World is Not Enough - Man I don't have a lot to say about the Brosnan films. I really don't know what to think of this film. The opening scene is great but otherwise I find the film to be another average Bond flick that is a little worse than TND. 6/10
Die Another Day - This one's similar to TMWTGG and AVTAK for me where's it's incrediby stupid but you can have a laugh at it. John Cleese is decent as Q but not as good as desmond lleyweyn. Unlike otehr silly bond films some of the stupid shit can be seen as downright offensive and taking the piss such as the parasailing on waves scene and the end villain literally being Robocop. But the film is somewhat saved by incredibly silly dialogue that is easy to laugh at. Overall 5/10
Casino Royale - First Act is good. The second act is one the best scenes in cinema I have ever seen. I was just invested in that Poker Scene as I was in the Portals scene in Avengers: Endgame if nor more so in the Poker scene. The torture scene is brutal but works perfectly. However once Mr White shows up the films kind of falls apart. This because you could easily assume that Mr White was CIA(Like I did) and just though that was that. While Mathis still had to be dealt with, (whihc QoS messes with for some reason) the film could've just ended with Bond and Vesper. But no we had to have this silly third act which feels like it was only there to kill Vesper. But since the first two acts are still really good and the third act doesn't ruin the movie I'm still willing to look a the film positively. Overall 8/10
Quantum of Solace - I saw this one fairly recently and I still don't remember what happened. I think Greene was the villain and Bond was on the run from MI6 but honeslty that's about it. I will say that in the first half however, Daniel Craig somehow managed to not be Bond and instead come off as top Gear host. The ending really ruins this film however. Well more the gunbarrel itslef. YOU MAKE WAIT THE ENTRIE MOVIE FOR THE GUNBARREL ONLY FOR IT TO THE BE THE WORST GUNBARREL EVER DONE" Ugh. 4.5/10
Skyfall - What a stroke of genius this film was after QoS. One the best Villians in Bond history,Daniel Craig on top of his game, some stunts that are a bit silly but still keep the realims in check and making M the central focus was brilliant . Also while Desmond Lleweyn Will always be my favourite, Ben Whishaw is a great Q. I know this film has some silly plot holes the film is so damn good you just learn to not care about them. I could gush on and on about this film, but this has gone long enough as it has. 10/10 Best Bond film
Spectre - So I'm listening to Bon Jovi's "You give Love a bad Name" and it has the lyric "You Promised me Heaven and gave me Hell". That sums up my feeling towards the films perfectly so I'll just leave at that. 3/10
TLDR Ranking
1.Skyfall

1. The Spy Who Loved Me
   
2. Goldfinger
   
3. Goldeneye
   
4. From Russia With Love
   
5. Casino Royale
   
6. Live and let die
   
7. Dr. No
   
8. Licence to Kill
   
9. The Living Daylights
   
10. You Only Live twice
    
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
    
12. Tomorrow Never Dies
    
13. Moonraker
    
14. Diamonds are Forever
    
15. The World is Not Enough
    
16. The man with the Golden Gun
    
17. Die Another Day
    
18. A View to A Kill
    
19. Quantum of Solace
    
20. Never say Never Again
    
21. For Your Eyes Only
    
22. Thunderball
    
23. Casino Royale(1967)
    
24. Octopussy
    
25. Spectre
    

Here are my rankings from best to worst of all the James Bond movies. This is completely subjective and just a ranking of which movies I personally enjoyed. I did not include the 1967 Casino Royale parody.

1. Casino Royale- The best Bond movie IMO with the best Bond girl and the best storyline. The #1 movie I'd recommend to anyone who wants to be introduced to the James Bond series.
   
2. Skyfall- This movie has my favorite Bond Villain in Raoul Silva. Great action scenes with a great story.
   
3. FRWL- The best Sean Connery Bond movie for sure. Great movie with a great story, and the best Sean Connery performance. The final fight in the train is simply iconic.
   
4. Goldeneye- I'm a sucker for Pierce Brosnan's Bond and this was one of the first few movies I watched. Just a great story, great villain with actual motivation. Alec Trevelyan is a great villain and Sean Bean was incredible in it. A good Bond girl and great action scenes. This is another movie I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't seen a Bond movie before.
   
5. Goldfinger- A great Bond movie that set the standard for the future movies. A great (Top 3) Bond Villain, my favorite henchman in Oddjob, a fantastic Connery performance, Pussy Galore, gadgets, funny one liners from Bond, and a great action scene in Fort Knox. Definitely a movie I would recommend to someone who has never seen a Bond movie.
   
6. Dr. No- I love this movie so much. While I started with the Brosnan movies as my introduction to James Bond, this movie was one of the earliest Bond movies I remember watching. I love the setting, the Bond girl, the story, and I loved Bond putting the pieces together as the movie progressed to find out what was going on. James Bond's introduction in this movie is iconic and incredible. A great start to the franchise.
   
7. The Living Daylights- Dalton as Bond is incredible and my guilty pleasure Bond. This movie felt like a mix of classic James Bond storyline with a dark and brooding James Bond actor in Dalton. The villain was weak for sure, but the story and action scenes more than made up for it. It felt like a classic espionage cold war spy thriller from the 60s.
   
8. OHMSS- This is the only James Bond movie that made my jaw drop because of the ending. While Lazenby is definitely the weakest link of the movie, I loved the storyline, the action, the setting, the Bond girl (Diana Rigg is in my top 5 Bond girls all time IMO), and that ending. Definitely a must watch for any James Bond fans.
   
9. The World is Not Enough- Probably the most underrated Bond movie that deserves more love. I liked the villainess in Elektra King. I loved the story and I genuinely didn't expect the twist that Elektra was the villainess all this time. The only flaw is the atrocious acting by Denise Richards. Other than her, the movie was great. Pierce gave his best performance as Bond IMO and this movie made me wish we got more Dark Bond movies played by Pierce Brosnan. I'd go as far as to say that James Bond in this movie is as close to perfect as you can get. Pierce displayed all the characteristics a James Bond should have in this movie.
   
10. License to Kill- Timothy Dalton's Bond is my guilty pleasure Bond. LTK has a great simple story with great action scenes and a great villain.
    
11. Tomorrow Never Dies- Probably my pick for one of the most underrated Bond movies. The story is really appropriate for modern times and Pierce gives a great performance.
    
12. TMWTGG- This is the best Roger Moore Bond movie IMO. I love the storyline, I love the villain Scaramanga, I love Nick Nack, and I love the final showdown between Scaramanga and Bond. Great movie all around.
    
13. For Your Eyes Only- I love this movie and IMO this movie is Moore's best performance as Bond. I like that the story was more grounded and down to earth, I actually liked the Bond girl in this and it has a great setting for a Bond movie. This is my second favorite Roger Moore Bond movie for sure.
    
14. YOLT- I really like this movie. Good villain, incredible setting with the Volcano lair, good Sean Connery performance, and good action scenes in the volcano lair. The villain looks kind of cheesy and there are some bad moments (like Sean Connery being Japanese) but for the most part I'd say this is the 4th best Connery Bond movie.
    
15. Octopussy- I actually really enjoyed this movie. Yes it has campy moments (like the Tarzan yell, and the clown getup), but I actually liked the storyline. Moore gives a good performance and I liked the Villain too.
    
16. TSWLM- I think this movie being ranked here will get me a lot of crap but while I liked this movie and I love the idea of Bond falling in love with a rival Spy from the USSR, I just thought it wasn't executed well. The villain in this movie is atrocious. Probably my least liked Bond villain. His plan had already been done before, and was just dumb. The fight between Bond and the villain was the worst in the franchise. The subplot of Bond killing Triple X's former lover was really interesting but in the last 5 minutes of the movie she just...forgives him? While it was a good movie it just wasn't as good as other installments. I just don't know what I'm missing since this is so highly regarded among Bond fans.
    
17. Thunderball- While I liked most of this movie and it has a good Sean Connery performance as Bond, I didn't enjoy the villain as much. The last 30 minutes of the movie with James Bond fighting a bunch of people underwater just didn't work for me. Not a bad movie though, I just think there are better Bond installments.
    
18. Spectre- For the most part I liked Spectre. While this movie doesn't have the best Craig performance, it has a good performance by him. I actually like this version of Blofeld and I think it was a good installment in the franchise. The only issues with this movie is that the twist of Bond and Blofeld being brothers was a bit of a stretch along with the notion that Spectre was behind everything the whole time despite this movie being the first time we hear from them.
    
19. LALD- I liked this movie for the most part. Roger Moore gives a good performance as Bond and I actually liked the setting and the story. I thought the villain was ok but there was too much camp for me to like this movie.
    
20. Moonraker- Honestly even though this movie is low on my list I actually enjoyed 3/4ths of the movie. I liked the story for the most part and the villain Drax was really good. On top of that there was a Jaws redemption story which I didn't expect and really enjoyed. With that said, the last quarter of the movie where they go into space is where I start to dislike it. It's just too cheesy and campy for my taste. If they didn't go into space and stuck to one of Drax's factories somewhere on Earth I would have thought this movie was much better.
    
21. AVTAK- This is the worst performance by Roger Moore as Bond imo. The action scenes felt like it was meant to be done by someone other than a 57 year old Roger Moore. I thought the story was ok at best. I liked the villain and the henchwoman and that's about it. Christopher Walken was really good in this movie. Everything else was just forgettable.
    
22. QoS- I like the Craig movies so I was really disappointed by this one. The editing and camera movements really annoyed me and made me dislike the movie even more. The villain was awful and didn't seem like he was much of a threat. Definitely the worst Craig era movie.
    
23. NSNA - Just bad all around. I was never a fan of Thunderball so a Thunderball remake just didn't appeal to me. The music was off, Sean Connery's performance as Bond wasn't great, some of the scenes in here were straight up awful. Just forgettable all around.
    
24. DAF- My least liked Sean Connery Bond movie. The story is just bland and forgettable, this is IMO Sean Connery's worst performance as Bond, this version of Blofeld is my least favorite, and I wasn't a fan of the setting either.
    
25. Die Another Day- This is the Bond movie I genuinely disliked the most. Too much CGI, the story was dumb, the villain was awful, the action scenes were ok at best, the ice castle setting was dumb, and Pierce gives his worst performance as Bond.
    

Hello! Here are my Bond film ratings. They are grouped together by actor and not year of release (i.e. see Sean Connery). I gave a score out five and a little review of the film.
Some of them are short, some of them are long. Some of them were done long after watching the movie so there wasn’t a lot to say about them.
Enjoy!
Official Sean Connery - 6
Dr. No (1962) Liked 4/5 Nice start to the series. Although it’s not the first book it makes sense for everyone.
From Russia With Love (1963) Liked 4/5 Good sequel. Continues the SPECTRE plot from the first film.
Goldfinger (1964) Liked 4/5 Classic. Found the end to be a little cheesy though.
Thunderball (1965) Liked 4/5 Found it very intriguing, although I thought the beginning was a little confusing at first.
You Only Live Twice (1967) Liked 4/5 This might be my favorite from the official Connery era. I just love seeing his Bond go up against Blofeld.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) Disliked 2/5 I’m not really sure what exactly I didn’t like about this movie. Maybe it was because it felt like there was nothing happening in this imo. Bond goes to Vegas... now what?
George Lazenby - 1
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) Loved 5/5 Very close adaptation. George Lazenby is one of my top 3 Bonds
Roger Moore - 7
Live And Let Die (1973) Loved 5/5 First Moore film and great start to era.
The Man With The Golden Gun (1975) Meh 3/5 Found it be just like the 70s: cheesy. I did like the ending though.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) Liked 4/5 What a dynamic duo James and Anya make. Plus Jaws, who’s probably my favorite henchman. I do hope he makes a return...
Moonraker (1979) 3.5/5 Okay I liked this movie for the most part but the end just really bothered me and I don’t know why... I did like hearing Richard Kiel speak though.
For Your Eyes Only (1981) 3.5/5 Okay I thought this one was just ok. Nothing special. Found Bibi annoying as hell, which I get is the point but she was just too much to take.
Octopussy (1983) 3/5 Meh There were too many characters too keep track of, too many things going on at once.
A View To A Kill (1985) 2/5 Disliked I found this one to be boring. There wasn’t much going on in this movie, especially in the first forty-five minutes or so. Bond goes to a horse race and goes undercover to find out why Zorin is using microchips. Okay.
Timothy Dalton - 2
The Living Daylights (1987) Liked 4/5 Good start to a more serious Bond. Also Dalton looks just like how Bond is described in the books. Didn’t really like the cello chase scene though.
License To Kill (1989) Liked 4/5 I really like that this is the first rogue Bond film. I enjoyed the plot very much, how it centered on the revenge of his friend and his wife and not just on a girl.
Pierce Brosnan - 4
Golden Eye (1995) 5/5 Loved Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as Bond is one for the ages. I liked Sean Bean as the villain and the plot twist was great. Brosnan is Bond in looks and in charisma. Opening theme is now one of my favorites.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) 4/5 Liked For all I’ve heard about how terrible Pierce’s movies get after Goldeneye, I actually think TND wasn’t that bad. I liked it. I found the plot to be a little cliché but it was well-executed. Johnathan Pryce has always been one of my favorite actors to play a villain since I saw him as the High Sparrow in GoT. I laughed at some parts during this film and Michelle Yeoh was great as the Bond girl. I loved the end when she threw a ninja star into some guys neck.
The World Is Not Enough (1999) 3/5 Meh The movie started off great, leading me to wonder if perhaps this was going to take a darker tone, but I was wrong. It was a little campy in some spots but I didn’t mind. What bothered me was that Renard, in my opinion, seemed very under-used. I also knew Elektra was a baddie as soon as M mentioned that she told Robert King to not pay the ransom. You can’t do that and not expect someone to be angry at you.
Die Another Day (2002*) *40th Anniversary 2/5 Disliked I’ve heard a lot about this movie. I’ve heard that it is considered the worst James Bond entry in the franchise. I’ve heard it’s only okay. Well, here’s what I think of it: I thought it started out great! In fact I was actually enjoying it. I like how it started out with a darker tone, with Bond getting captured and tortured by the North Koreans and then being delivered to MI6. I liked the Cuba sequence even though it was a little bit weird with the guy still being alive despite having diamonds embedded in his face. I liked our first introduction to Jinx. Then it all went downhill from the fencing scene onwards. It did not feel like a James Bond film — it felt like a campy spy flick that comes out every few years. Yes, JB has been known for being notoriously campy during its earlier movies, especially during the Roger Moore run, but it wasn’t stupidly campy like this was: all the puns, the CGI tsunami, and the slow motion! Who directed this, Zack Snyder? It felt like the slow motion effect was used too much in this movie. I can forgive it maybe once or twice but this was just too much. I know it’s such a small thing but it still bothered me.
Daniel Craig - 5
Casino Royale (2006) 5/5 Loved Great entry to a fantastic Bond. Got rid of all the gadgets and cgi and took it right back to its core: a man on a mission. The soundtrack was simply stunning; a story told within a story. I’m simply blown away by everything. I can’t believe that this is from the same writers as DAD! Plus Eva Green... ❤️
Quantum of Solace (2008) 4/5 Liked You know for all the crap this movie gets I didn’t think it was that bad. Best watched right after Casino Royale. Works as a direct sequel, and is Bond’s quest for solace in a broken world. And again, David Arnold’s score was superb.
Skyfall (2012*) *50th Anniversary 5/5 Loved Great little references to the older films. The cinematography was just breathtaking. Wonderful casting. I especially loved Ralph Fiennes as Mallory and loved seeing Moneypenny introduced into Craig’s era of Bond. Although the score wasn’t as good as David Arnold’s, I still enjoyed it very much. The pre-title sequence was intense, and the title sequence itself was spectacular. Adele did a great job! Also that little ‘James Bond Will Return’ at the end was fun!
SPECTRE (2015) 4/5 Liked I’ll be completely honest: I did not like this movie when I first watched it. I found it to be boring and and stupid in some parts. However now that I’m done with my complete watch of the 007 series, I must say that I have judged this movie wrong. There are faults, yes, ones that I will talk about, but this movie was actually pretty good on my second rewatch. Let’s get the good out of the way first: the cinematography. Again, like Skyfall, this movie was visually stunning. The skyline shots of London and Tangier were just gorgeous. The score: I found the score to be much better this time around. Though I still prefer David Arnold over Thomas Newman, I must say that he stepped it up this time. It sounded glassy to me — which I know is a weird way of describing a score but it did to me. It sounded glassy in a good way. It sounded delicate and classy. Madeleine’s theme was my favorite! The direction: Sam Mendes does it again! Just a genius in his craft and I love what he’s done with James Bond! Now for the bad. James and Madeleine’s relationship: I know what writers were going for — A second Vesper, someone who makes Bond realize that there’s more to life than just killing. However it felt very rushed to me compared to Vesper and Bond’s relationship in Casino Royale. One minute she was telling him to get away and the next moment she’s kissing and having sex with him. I think it could’ve been better. The brother relationship between Blofeld and Bond: it was ripped straight out of Austin Powers and that was very disappointing. I expected more from the writers of Skyfall. Also the whole “author of your pain” and “cuckoo” made me roll my eyes. Monica Belluci: before this movie hit theaters it was said that Monica would be in this film as a Bond girl. I remember everyone was very excited, everyone said that she would be the best Bond girl ever. She was barely in the movie for twenty minutes, maybe fifteen tops, and she was only there to have sex with Bond and give him information. What wasted potential...
All in all, I enjoyed my watch of James Bond. I can’t wait for Bond 25 and my hope is that it’s good. I have faith in Cary. I’m also eagerly awaiting the new James Bond actor to be picked.
Now all I have to do is finish the books!

The character of Kylo Ren, especially among Reylo meta'ists, theorists, and Star Wars speculators, has been compared to many archetypal figures throughout classical lierature and mythology: Hades, God of the Underworld (see Lindsay Ellis's video here); Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera (also see Lindsay Ellis's videos here and here); and even Lord George Gordon Byron, by way of Byron setting the standard for the Byronic hero, as well as other Romantic-era ideals (see video here).
However, in this post today, I wanted to draw up another archetypal, classical character to comparison, and one that I feel has been vastly overlooked...Kylo Ren as a "modern-day Frankenstein's monster", drawing from Mary Shelley's classic novel, Frankenstein: Or, the Modern Prometheus (1818).
Frankenstein, in turn, was authored by Mary Shelley, wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and a friend and associate of Lord Byron. Shelley's novel also draws heavily from another classical work of literature, John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost, as well as Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Lord Byron, originator of the Byronic hero, was also fascinated with the Greek myths of the great Titan, and supposed creator of mankind, Prometheus. So, too, was Mary's husband and frequent creative collaborator, Percy Shelley.

Byron was particularly attached to the play Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, and Percy Shelley would soon write his own Prometheus Unbound (1820). The term "Modern Prometheus" was actually coined by Immanuel Kant in reference to Benjamin Franklin and his experiments with electricity.
[...] Percy [Shelley] and [Lord] Byron's discussion on life and death surrounded many scientific geniuses of the time. They discussed ideas from Erasmus Darwin, and the experiments from Luigi Galvani. Mary [Shelley] joined these conversations, and the ideas of Darwin and Galvani were both present in her novel.
The horrors of not being able to write a story for the contest, and her hard life, also influenced the themes within Frankenstein. The themes of loss, guilt, and the consequences of defying nature present in the novel all developed from Mary Shelley's own life.
The loss of her mother, the relationship with her father, and the death of her first child created the monster, and his separation from parental guidance. (Wikipedia)

The same year that Frankenstein was published (1818), Percy Shelley, in turn, was writing Prometheus Unbound.
However, Frankenstein, in particular, is highly relevant to Star Wars in two ways. The first is that is is one of the earliest examples, and forebears, of the sci-fi genre, to which Star Wars belongs, as a whole. It speculates about technology's effect on the body and society, and asks the question, "What is human?"

Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. At the same time, it is an early example of science fiction.
Brian Aldiss has argued that [Frankenstein] should be considered the first true science fiction story because, in contrast to previous stories with fantastical elements resembling those of later science fiction, the central character "makes a deliberate decision" and "turns to modern experiments in the laboratory" to achieve fantastic results. (Wikipedia)

The second is that Frankenstein also largely influenced the original trilogy of Star Wars films, particularly with the character of Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker), the grandfather (and predecessor) of Kylo Ren.
British bodybuilder and actor David Prowse, who physically portrayed Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, also originally began his career by playing Frankenstein's monster in three films: Casino Royale (1967, first film) and the Hammer horrors The Horror of Frankenstein (1970, third film) and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974).
Prowse had even particularly starred alongside Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) in Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), billed as "the most terrifying experiment in horror ever filmed". Cushing, of course, played his signature role of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, while Prowse played the monster — types they wouldn’t stray too far from as Tarkin and Darth Vader in Star Wars. Indeed, it's quite likely that both Prowse and Cushing were hired precisely due to their previous roles in that film. (Source)
Later on, Vader's connection to Frankenstein's monster, and the Emperor or Darth Sidious's to the "creator", Doctor Frankenstein, were further cemented by the scene where Vader is placed inside his iconic suit in Revenge of the Sith (2005). This scene in particular is commonly regarded as a "homage to Frankenstein" by many fans and viewers, where Anakin Skywalker "dies", only to be "rebuilt" or "recreated" into the Emperor's Dark enforcer and servant, Darth Vader.
In Star Wars: Rebels, Vader also states to Ahsoka Tano during their confrontation:

"Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed (killed) him."

The man he was before is "dead", or so Vader believes. Instead, in his place, we have "the monster", the creation of Palpatine, or Darth Sidious. There are also many more references to Shelley's Frankenstein related to the character of Darth Vader within the prequel trilogy films, which are explored more in-depth in the article "Unnatural Births: Star Wars and Frankenstein" by Clone Corridor.
However, for the purposes of this post, I wanted to more so focus on the character of Kylo Ren, who is connected to Vader not only through his "mighty Skywalker blood", but also through similar characterization, theming, metaphors, and symbolism. Particularly, as his actor, Adam Driver, has said before, whereas Vader's character revolves around "the monster", or the "monstrosity" aspect of Frankenstein, Kylo's centers more on the theme of "humanity" posed by the same novel.
After all, compare this scene from The Force Awakens to Vader's from Rebels, with one echoing the other.

"Your son [Ben Solo] is gone. He was weak and foolish like his father, so I destroyed (killed) him."

According to Clone Corridor:

"Frankenstein is one of my favourite novels. Not only is the story of its origin beautifully sensational, it has a brilliant female author, and its plot is one which continues to be relevant, and which goes very deeply into what it means to be human, what decides good or evil, and whether we are doomed by our own birth.
At the heart of the novel lies the Creature (or Monster, as some like to call it, but I find that too judgemental). It lies there both thematically and structurally, since the novel has a framework structure. This means that each story encapsulates another, i.e. we start with the story of Captain Walton who, upon finding Victor Frankenstein, makes way as narrator for Frankenstein who himself eventually makes way for the Creature to speak.
This is then repeated backwards, as after the Creature it is once again Frankenstein’s words we get, and the novel closes with Captain Walton’s narrative. This convoluted structure is part of the appeal of the novel, since it allows for a lot of cross-comparisons between the different narrators, in the same way that the inverted structure of Star Wars (VI,V,IV – I, II, III) allows for certain parallels to be more obvious."

It is certainly worth mentioning that Rey literally refers to Kylo Ren as "Creature" and "Monster".

Rey: Where am I?
Kylo Ren: You're my guest.
Rey: Where are the others?
Kylo Ren: Do you mean the murderers, traitors, and thieves you call friends? You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea. (pauses) You still want to kill me.
Rey: That happens when you're being hunted by a (C)reature in a mask.
[Kylo Ren removes his helmet, revealing himself to be a human man to Rey.]
[...]
Kylo Ren: We're not done yet.
Rey: You're a monster.
Kylo Ren: It's just us now. Han Solo can't save you.
[...]
Ren: Why is the Force connecting us? You and I?
Rey: Murderous snake! You're too late! You've lost! I've found Skywalker!
Ren: Did he tell you what happened? The night I destroyed his temple, did he tell you why?
Rey: I know everything I need to know about you!
Kylo Ren: You do? Ah, you do. You have that look in your eyes. From the forest. You called me a monster.
Rey: You are a monster.
Kylo Ren: (pauses) Yes, I am.

As it relates to Frankenstein:

"But it is true that, [yes], I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept, and grasped to death his throat who never injured me, or any other living thing." - The Monster, Frankenstein (Clone Corridor: "The Creature is hit by remorse and anguish over his own life. The Creature [feels he has no choice but to] accept the horrid impression Captain Walton has of him [as a Monster], and sees himself as such.")
In the novel, Frankenstein's creation is identified by words such as "creature", "monster", "vile insect", "daemon", "wretch", "abortion", "fiend" and "it". Speaking to Victor Frankenstein, the monster says, "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel" (which ties to Lucifer in Paradise Lost, which the monster reads, and which relates to the disobedience of Prometheus in the book's subtitle).
[...] Part of Frankenstein's rejection of his creation is the fact that he does not give it a name, which causes a lack of identity. (Wikipedia)
"The monster conceives of himself as a tragic figure, comparing himself to both Adam and Satan. Like Adam, he is shunned by his creator [God], though he strives to be good. These rhetorical questions epitomize the monster’s ill will toward Victor for abandoning him in a world relentlessly hostile to him, and foist responsibility for his ugliness and eventual evil upon Victor, [his creator]." - SparkNotes

"Murderous snake", another quip by Rey, is, too, likely a reference to Lucifer from Paradise Lost, or Satan, who takes the guise of a snake in the Garden of Eden to tempt Eve into eating the fruit of the Tree of [Forbidden] Knowledge. One could also argue that, as Ben Solo "ought to be thy Adam" (pun intended), and given the yonic and sexual awakening symbolism scattered throughout The Last Jedi, Rey could be considered "Eve". Perhaps, even, with Luke Skywalker as "God".
Eventually, however, as Rey sees the "humanity" in "the Monster" (Kylo Ren), by the time she is brought before Snoke by Kylo, she has given him his name: "Ben". This is meant to remind the "Monster" of his "humanity", and his human identity.
There is the very real question, too, that the sequel trilogy poses in regard to the character of Kylo Ren, and Ben Solo: "Was he doomed by his own birth as a Skywalker?"
More recently, we have seen this addressed in several new canon novels as well, including Chuck Wendig's Aftermath series, which heavily implies a yet-unborn Ben Solo was targeted by a "Dark and powerful Force presence" in Leia's womb; Claudia Gray's Master and Apprentice ("She who was born to Darkness, will give birth to Darkness"); and various novels which chronicle Leia's own estranged, negative relationship with Darth Vader as her biological father.
In The Last Jedi, we also see Luke Skywalker's fear of Ben Solo's powerful Force presence, which he admits to Rey. Here, too, Luke even compares Kylo Ren to Darth Vader, and echoes the themes of Frankenstein in relation to the creator (Victor Frankenstein) "failing" his creation (Frankenstein's monster), creating him in his "hubris".

Luke Skywalker: Lesson two. Now that they're extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified. But if your strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy of the Jedi is failure. Hypocrisy, hubris.
Rey: That's not true!
Luke Skywalker: At the height of their powers, they allowed Darth Sidious to rise, create the Empire, and wipe them out. It was a Jedi Master who was responsible for the training and creation of Darth Vader.
Rey: And a Jedi who saved him. Yes. Your father was the most hated man in the galaxy. He caused so much death and destruction for many years. But you saw there was conflict inside him. You believed that he wasn't gone. That he could be turned.
Luke Skywalker: And I became a legend. For many years, there was balance and then I saw... Ben. My nephew with that mighty Skywalker blood. And in my hubris, I thought I could train him, I could pass on my strengths. Han was... Han was about it, but... Leia trusted me with her son. I took him, and a dozen students, and began a training temple. By the time I realized I was no match for the darkness rising in him, it was too late...

Rey and Luke also have this exchange, after Rey and Kylo Ren touch hands through the Force-bond:

Luke Skywalker: [yells] STOP!
[Rey and Kylo Ren look at him angrily and she looks for Kylo Ren who has vanished. She turns to Luke]
Rey: Is it true? Did you try to murder him?
Luke Skywalker: Leave this island, now!
[Luke leaves. But, Rey followed him]
Rey: Stop... STOP!
[Rey slugs Luke with her quarterstaff. He turns to her]
Rey: Did you do it? Did you create Kylo Ren?
[the two proceed to fight each other along the cliffside until she gets the upper hand, forcing Luke into submission with Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber]
Rey: Tell me the truth!
Luke Skywalker: I saw darkness. I sensed it building in him. I'd seen it in moments during his training. But then I looked inside, and it was beyond what I ever imagined. Snoke had already turned his heart. He would bring destruction and pain and death, and the end of everything I love because of what he will become, and for the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it. It passed like a fleeting shadow, and I was left with shame and with consequence. And the last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose Master had failed him.
Rey: You failed him by thinking his choice was made. It wasn't! There's still conflict in him. If he would turn from the Dark Side, that could shift the tide! This could be how we win!

Another major aspect of Frankenstein, which also surfaces in The Last Jedi, is the presentation of different characters' narratives, or perspectives, to provide different facets of the same story. While director Rian Johnson claims that this was inspired by the works of Akira Kurosawa, including Rashomon and The Hidden Fortress, the different views of Kylo Ren and Luke Skywalker also mirror those presented for Frankenstein's monster and Doctor Frankenstein.
Frankenstein, which is a frame story, involves Frankenstein informing Captain Walton, the original narrator, of his own tale, and warning Walton against searching for "the Creature" he has created. The Creature, much like Kylo Ren, is tall, bound with muscle, and has fearsome power and strength; naturally, Frankenstein fears "it". Despite this, the Creature finds Frankenstein, and pleads for his creator to hear his case.

Intelligent and articulate, the Creature relates his first days of life, living alone in the wilderness and finding that people were afraid of, and hated him, due to his appearance, which led him to fear and hide from them.
[...] When he saw his reflection in a pool, he realized his physical appearance was hideous, and it terrified him as it terrifies normal humans. Nevertheless, he approached [a] family [he had grown fond of] in hopes of becoming their friend. Initially, he was able to befriend the blind father figure of the family, but the rest of them were frightened, and they all fled their home, resulting in the Creature leaving, disappointed. [In his anger], he traveled to Victor's family estate using details from Victor's journal, murdered William, and framed Justine.
The Creature demands that Victor create a female companion like himself. He argues that as a living being, he has a right to happiness. The Creature promises that he and his mate will vanish into the South American wilderness, never to reappear, if Victor grants his request. Should Victor refuse his request, The Creature also threatens to kill Victor's remaining friends and loved ones, and not stop until he completely ruins him.
[...] Working on the female creature on the Orkney Islands, he is plagued by premonitions of disaster, such as the female hating the Creature, or becoming more evil than him, but more particularly the two creatures might lead to the breeding of a race that could plague mankind.
He tears apart the unfinished female creature after he sees the Creature, watching through a window. The Creature later confronts and tries to threaten Victor into working again, but Victor is convinced that the Creature is evil, and that its mate would be evil as well, and the pair would threaten all humanity.

We see this, too, echoed in The Last Jedi, particularly with how Luke Skywalker sees Rey, and how she reminds him of the "Creature" now known as Kylo Ren.

Luke Skywalker: You went straight to the dark!
Rey: That place was trying to show me something.
Luke Skywalker: It offered something you needed, and you didn't even try to stop yourself!
Rey: But I didn't see you. Nothing from you. You've closed yourself off from the Force. Of course you have.
Luke Skywalker: I've seen this raw strength only once before. It didn't scare me enough then. It does now...

So, too, do we have "the Creature" (Kylo Ren) angrily confronting his "creator" (Luke Skywalker):

Kylo Ren: Did you come back to say you forgive me? To save my soul?
Luke Skywalker: No.
[they draw their lightsabers and fight]
Luke Skywalker: I failed you, Ben. I'm sorry.
Kylo Ren: I'm sure you are! The Resistance is dead, the war is over, and when I kill you, I will have killed the last Jedi!
Luke Skywalker: Amazing. Every word of what you just said was wrong. The Rebellion is reborn today. The war is just beginning. And I will not be the last Jedi.
Kylo Ren: I'll destroy her. And you. And all of it.
Luke Skywalker: No. Strike me down in anger, and I'll always be with you. Just like your father.

In Frankenstein, "the Creature" also mourns his creator's death, something which we may see Kylo Ren do in Episode IX.

Victor dies shortly thereafter, telling Walton, with his last words, to seek "happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition". Walton discovers the Creature on his ship, mourning over Victor's body. The Creature tells Walton that Victor's death has not brought him peace; rather, his crimes have left him completely alone. (Wikipedia)
"[The Monster] exclaims his desire for death [after his creator's passing], and even mentions a funeral pyre, before jumping out the cabin window, and disappearing into darkness and towards death. Having killed his Maker, who so wronged him, brings the Creature no pleasure, because there was nothing he had to live for, no one who will remember him." - Clone Corridors

Yet, even in spite of all of the above, and both the "Monster" from Frankenstein and Vader's tales ending tragically in demise and death, Kylo Ren's story deviates in a major way from his predecessor's stories in one, major way: focusing on the character's humanity, and the theme of redemption. YouTuber Jenny Nicholson covers all of the evidence for redemption for Kylo Ren in her video here, but I will also share my own opinion on the topic.
While Kylo Ren's story, much like that of Darth Vader's, mirrors the story of "the Monster" from Frankenstein, there are also changes to the original tale, updating and "modernizing" it. If anything, the sequel trilogy almost reads as a "fix-it" fictional story to the original Frankenstein, albeit with the inclusion of a female figure, and potential mate, that "the Monster" (Kylo Ren) can relate to: Rey. Through Rey's inclusion, we also see her as the catalyst for "the creator" - Luke Skywalker, in this case - eventually changing his views on his "creation", believing that "the Creature" can be redeemed.
Furthermore, whereas Frankenstein ended with Victor Frankenstein dying because of "the Creature" he created, The Last Jedi, which ends with Luke Skywalker dying indirectly at the hands of Kylo Ren, is merely the second installment out of a three-part series. Likewise, just as Frankenstein was largely based off of John Milton's Paradise Lost, there is also an aptly-named follow-up by Milton titled Paradise Regained.

One major concept emphasized throughout Paradise Regained is the idea of reversals. As implied by its title, Milton sets out to reverse the "loss" of Paradise. Thus, antonyms are often found next to each other, reinforcing the idea that everything that was lost in the first epic will be regained by the end of this "brief epic".
An interesting anecdote, recounted by a Quaker named Thomas Ellwood, provides some insight into Paradise Regained's development. After studying Latin with Milton, and reading the poet's epic Paradise Lost, Ellwood remarked, "Thou hast said much here of Paradise lost, but what hast thou to say of Paradise found?"

The updated "Frankenstein's monster", in the form of Star Wars' Kylo Ren, also comes on the heels of a revival of Frankenstein as a property in recent years in pop culture. From 2004 to 2015, there have been numerous TV, theater, and movie "revivals", and adaptations, on the Frankenstein story, including Benedict Cumberbatch playing both Frankenstein and "the Monster" in a 2011 production; Victor Frankenstein, a 2015 film starring James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe; I, Frankenstein, a 2014 film starring Aaron Eckhart as "the Monster"; and more.
All of these stories also have something in common with Star Wars' take: their own "twist" on the traditional tale. In the case of movies like I, Frankenstein - which came out a year prior to The Force Awakens in theaters - there has also been much more focus on the themes of the "Creature"'s humanity, as well as religious themes like salvation and redemption.
To quote Clone Corridors' article:

"Finally, I want to focus on a major contrast between the two characters [of the Monster and Vader], and that is the idea of redemption. The Creature never truly gets it in Frankenstein. Once his Maker dies of exhaustion after chasing him all over the globe, the Creature is hit by remorse and anguish over his own life. Pushed forward by Frankenstein’s hate for him, the Creature’s heart was filled with evil, and not until Frankenstein dies, does he seem to realize there could have been another choice."

This is something that Rey echoes in The Last Jedi about Kylo Ren:

Rey: You failed him by thinking his choice was made. It wasn't! There's still conflict in him. If he would turn from the Dark Side, that could shift the tide! This could be how we win!

Following up even further on the Frankenstein story revival is Guillermo del Toro's critically-acclaimed film, The Shape of Water (2017). Primarily inspired by del Toro's childhood memories of seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), and wanting to see the Gill-man and Kay Lawrence (played by Julie Adams) succeed in their romance, the film, too, echoes Frankenstein, and "the Monster" desiring romantic love with a mate. Specifically, del Toro produced an adaptation of the story, focused more on the creature's perspective, where "the Creature" ended up together with the female lead.
According to the article "Love and Monsters: Guillermo del Toro's 'The Shape of Water' and its Horror Influences" by Amy S. Li, a doctoral candidate in the Emory University Department of English:

'In many interviews, del Toro has spoken of the impact that classic horror films, such as James Whales’ Frankenstein (1931) and Jack Arnold’s Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), have had on him since childhood. The influence of the latter seems widely self-evident in the visual similarities between the Gill-man and del Toro’s fish man, but del Toro has also spoken explicitly about how a particular scene inspired the story which eventually became The Shape of Water.
He reveals how, at the age of six, he watched Creature from the Black Lagoon with the expectation that the Gill-man would end up with Kay, the female love interest (portrayed by Julia Adams). “What a great love story!” he says of the creature swimming underneath Kay. “I was six; I thought, I’m sure it’s gonna end well!”
The film, of course, did not end well for the creature, who sinks back into the water riddled with bullets, left to die. Del Toro concludes his anecdote by saying that though it took 46 years in the making, he “corrected it,” giving the creature the love story he thought it always deserved.
[...] Del Toro’s love for Frankenstein is well-chronicled, and while the conversation usually hinges on the 1931 film adaptation, or its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, we do know that del Toro loves Mary Shelley’s novel, as he has written in an introduction to The New Annotated Frankenstein, and he even hopes to adapt it for a television miniseries in the future.
[...] Del Toro declares this fish man, a god, “one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever committed to film.” It is his love and empathy for monsters that transforms this moment of creation—which recalls the moment of Frankenstein bringing his creature to life—into one of beauty, rather than fear or disgust. Octavia Spencer calls del Toro an “alchemist; he makes everyday things seem so otherworldly;” yet on the other hand, he manages to make the otherworldly also seem human.
Del Toro’s work is thus transformative; though visually his films may resemble horror, he “rephrases” and “reconstructs” the genre. If horror is a “cathedral” or altar at which he worships, then his project is of making that space habitable. Unlike Frankenstein, he seeks not to be God, but instead to be more human.'

Furthermore, in the case of Star Wars and Lucasfilm, there is also the case of Strange Magic (2015). While based on Beauty and the Beast, according to George Lucas, it was also centered around a take on the traditional tale "where the Beast doesn't change". In this regards, it could also be seen as reminiscent of Frankenstein, especially as the film's "villain", the Bog King, laments, much like Frankenstein's monster, that he is unable to connect with, or have the love of, another.
In the case of Lucas's take on the story, however, the Bog King ("the Beast / Monster") does eventually find love, and a mate, in a beautiful fairy princess, Marianne. Thus, Strange Magic ends with a happy ending, and according to Lucas, "Star Wars was for 12-year-old boys; I figured I'd make one for 12-year-old girls." (Source)
To quote Clone Corridor once more:

"The story of [Frankenstein] goes very deeply into what it means to be human, what decides good or evil, and whether we are doomed by our own birth. At the heart of the novel lies the Creature (or Monster, as some like to call it, but I find that too judgemental)..."

And to quote Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) himself...

"I'm leery of big movies - a lot of them sacrifice character for spectacle. When they're bad, it pisses me off - you can just tell it's made by a bunch of executives somewhere. It was all about story and character and playing someone who doesn't have it all together. Making [Kylo Ren / Ben Solo] as human as possible seemed dangerous and exciting to me." (Sources)
[...] “I think maybe this is such a general answer but you know, humanity. Even though it’s very much a blockbuster movie, and I’m aware of that, there was no taking that for granted and that we were forced to be general [in The Force Awakens]. There was a lot of plot points that we knew were operating in the first one, that we get to explain more in the second one, that kind of make both of them make sense...a lot of what I remember talking about with [Force Awakens director] J.J. [Abrams] and [The Last Jedi director] Rian [Johnson] was this idea of...two sides being morally justified to behave however they wanted to, to get whatever they thought was absolutely correct.” (Source)

And, on a final note, to quote Clone Corridors:

"Both Frankenstein and Star Wars lend themselves to analysing the grey matter between the absolutes of black and white. Both [Vader and Frankenstein's monster] are characters created wrongfully, and yet in one story ,we get a way in which even a villain can be redeemed. Not by becoming a hero anew, but by saving that which represents his goodness and kindness [and compassion, his human identity]."

Or, in the words of Rose Tico in The Last Jedi:

“That's how we're gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, [but by] saving what we love."

The following gives you an overview of relevant movies. There are 138 categories. You can use this as a challenge: make sure that you have watched at least one film from each category.
(1) 80s action First Blood (1982) Conan the Barbarian (1982) The Terminator (1984) Commando (1985) Top Gun (1986) Predator (1987) RoboCop (1987) Die Hard (1988) Bloodsport (1988) The Killer (1989)
(2) Black comedy Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Withnail & I (1987) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) Man Bites Dog (1992) Happiness (1998) Snatch (2000) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) In Bruges (2008) Wild Tales (2014) Ingrid Goes West (2017)
(3) Coen brothers Blood Simple. (1984) Raising Arizona (1987) Miller's Crossing (1990) Barton Fink (1991) Fargo (1996) The Big Lebowski (1998) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) A Serious Man (2009) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
(4) Film noir The Maltese Falcon (1941) Double Indemnity (1944) Laura (1944) Mildred Pierce (1945) The Lost Weekend (1945) The Big Sleep (1946) Out of the Past (1947) They Live by Night (1948) The Third Man (1949) In a Lonely Place (1950) Night and the City (1950) Ace in the Hole (1951) Rififi (1955) Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
(5) French New Wave The 400 Blows (1959) Breathless (1960) A Woman Is a Woman (1961) Léon Morin, Priest (1961) Jules and Jim (1962) Vivre Sa Vie (1962) Contempt (1963) Band of Outsiders (1964) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) Pierrot le Fou (1965) Two or Three Things I Know About Her... (1967) Weekend (1967) My Night at Maud's (1969)
(6) Left Bank Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) Last Year at Marienbad (1961) La Jetée (1962) Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) Le Bonheur (1965)
(7) Richard Linklater Dazed and Confused (1993) Before Sunrise (1995) Waking Life (2001) Before Sunset (2004) A Scanner Darkly (2006) Before Midnight (2013)
(8) Serial killer Henry (1986) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Se7en (1995) Zodiac (2007)
(9) Screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934) The Awful Truth (1937) Bringing Up Baby (1938) His Girl Friday (1940) The Philadelphia Story (1940) The Lady Eve (1941)
(10) Vigilante films Dirty Harry (1971) Straw Dogs (1971) Death Wish (1974) Falling Down (1993) Walking Tall (2004) John Wick (2014)
(11) Terrence Malick Badlands (1973) Days of Heaven (1978) The Thin Red Line (1998) The New World (2005) The Tree of Life (2011) Knight of Cups (2015)
(12) Drugs Trainspotting (1996) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) Requiem for a Dream (2000) Traffic (2000) Blow (2001) Maria Full of Grace (2004)
(13) Buster Keaton Sherlock Jr. (1924) The General (1926) Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) The Cameraman (1928) Our Hospitality (1928)
(14) Disaster Airport (1970) Apollo 13 (1995) Twister (1996) Deep Impact (1998) The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Deepwater Horizon (2016)
(15) Neo-noir Point Blank (1967) Chinatown (1974) Thief (1981) L.A. Confidential (1997) Sin City (2005) Drive (2011) Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
(16) Cars & Racing Vanishing Point (1971) Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) Death Race 2000 (1975) Rush (2013) The Fast and the Furious (2001) Days of Thunder (1990) Speed Racer (2008)
(17) 1920s Greed (1924) Battleship Potemkin (1925) Metropolis (1927) Sunrise (1927) Napoleon (1927) The Crowd (1928)
(18) Adventure The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Deliverance (1972) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) Master and Commander (2003) Apocalypto (2006) Life of Pi (2012) Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
(19) Genius Rain Man (1988) Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) Good Will Hunting (1997) A Beautiful Mind (2001)
(20) South Korea Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003) Oldboy (2003) 3-Iron (2004) Mother (2009) I Saw the Devil (2010)
(21) Ingmar Bergman The Seventh Seal (1957) Wild Strawberries (1957) Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Winter Light (1963) Persona (1966) Cries & Whispers (1972) Scenes from a Marriage (1973) Autumn Sonata (1978) Fanny and Alexander (1982)
(22) Billy Wilder Sunset Boulevard (1950) Some Like It Hot (1959) The Apartment (1960) One, Two, Three (1961) Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
(23) Comedy-drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Being There (1979) My Dinner with Andre (1981) The Breakfast Club (1985) The Fisher King (1991) Groundhog Day (1993) Forrest Gump (1994) Buffalo '66 (1998) The Truman Show (1998) The Man Without a Past (2002) Lost in Translation (2003) Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Frances Ha (2012) Toni Erdmann (2016)
(24) Drama Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Gone with the Wind (1939) The Grapes of Wrath (1940) All About Eve (1950) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) From Here to Eternity (1953) On the Waterfront (1954) Splendor in the Grass (1961) Midnight Cowboy (1969) À Nos Amours (1983) Vagabond (1985) The Piano (1993) La Haine (1995) Secrets & Lies (1996) The Ice Storm (1997) The Celebration (1998) All About My Mother (1999) Ratcatcher (1999) Amores Perros (2000) La Ciénaga (2001) Morvern Callar (2002) 25th Hour (2002) Elephant (2003) Mysterious Skin (2004) Babel (2006) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) Wendy and Lucy (2008) The Social Network (2010) Incendies (2010) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) Shame (2011) The Hunt (2012) The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) Winter Sleep (2014) Mommy (2014) Son of Saul (2015) Room (2015) Spotlight (2015) Manchester by the Sea (2016) Paterson (2016) Columbus (2017) The Florida Project (2017)
(25) James Bond Dr. No (1962) Goldfinger (1964) Casino Royale (2006) Skyfall (2012) The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) GoldenEye (1995)
(26) Romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) The Princess Bride (1987) When Harry Met Sally... (1989) There’s Something About Mary (1998) Amélie (2001) Punch-Drunk Love (2002) Sideways (2004) The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) 500 Days of Summer (2009)
(27) Robert Bresson Diary of a Country Priest (1951) A Man Escaped (1956) Pickpocket (1959) Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) Mouchette (1967) The Devil, Probably (1977) L'Argent (1983)
(28) Political thriller Z (1969) Three Days of the Condor (1975) All the President's Men (1976) Blow Out (1981) Patriot Games (1992) The Lives of Others (2006) The Ides of March (2011) The Post (2017)
(29) Parody/spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Dark Star (1974) Airplane! (1980) The Princess Bride (1987) Spaceballs (1987) The Naked Gun (1988) Hot Shots! (1991) Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Austin Powers (1997) Galaxy Quest (1999) Black Dynamite (2009)
(30) Orson Welles Citizen Kane (1941) Touch of Evil (1958) The Trial (1962) Chimes at Midnight (1965) F for Fake (1973)
(31) Pixar Toy Story (1995) Finding Nemo (2003) Ratatouille (2007) WALL·E (2008) Up (2009) Inside Out (2015) Coco (2017)
(32) Pre-Code Hollywood The Blue Angel (1930) Frankenstein (1931) Freaks (1932) King Kong (1933) Duck Soup (1933) The Thin Man (1934)
(33) Superhero Superman (1978) X-Men (2000) Spider-Man (2002) The Dark Knight (2008) Iron Man (2008) The Avengers (2012) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Logan (2017)
(34) War All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) The Longest Day (1962) The Train (1964) The Deer Hunter (1978) Apocalypse Now (1979) Das Boot (1981) Platoon (1986) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Black Hawk Down (2001) Dunkirk (2017)
(35) Stanley Kubrick Paths of Glory (1957) Lolita (1962) Dr. Strangelove (1964) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Barry Lyndon (1975) The Shining (1980) Full Metal Jacket (1987) Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
(36) Surrealism Entr'acte (1924) The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) L'Étoile de Mer (1928) An Andalusian Dog (1929) L'Age d'Or (1930) The Blood of a Poet (1930) Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
(37) Western Stagecoach (1939) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) My Darling Clementine (1946) High Noon (1952) Shane (1953) The Searchers (1956) Rio Bravo (1959) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) The Wild Bunch (1969) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Dances with Wolves (1990) Unforgiven (1992) Meek's Cutoff (2010)
(38) Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars (1964) For a Few Dollars More (1965) Django (1966) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) The Great Silence (1968) Duck, You Sucker! (1971)
(39) Swashbuckler Captain Blood (1935) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) The Sea Hawk (1940) The Four Musketeers (1974) The Three Musketeers (1993) The Mask of Zorro (1998)
(40) Werner Herzog Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) Stroszek (1977) La Soufrière (1977) Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) Fitzcarraldo (1982) Grizzly Man (2005)
(41) Nunsploitation The Devils (1971) School of the Holy Beast (1974) Killer Nun (1979) Nuns on the Run (1990) Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010) The Little Hours (2017)
(42) Psycho-Thriller Peeping Tom (1960) The Innocents (1961) Repulsion (1965) Bad Timing (1980) Possession (1981) Misery (1990) Jacob's Ladder (1990) Memento (2000) Martyrs (2008) Shutter Island (2010) Black Swan (2010) Only God Forgives (2013) Gone Girl (2014) Room (2015) The Neon Demon (2016)
(43) Krzysztof Kieślowski Dekalog (1989) The Double Life of Veronique (1991) Three Colors Trilogy (1993)
(44) Akira Kurosawa Rashomon (1950) Ikiru (1952) Seven Samurai (1954) Throne of Blood (1957) The Hidden Fortress (1958) Yojimbo (1961) Sanjuro (1962) High and Low (1963) Red Beard (1965) Kagemusha (1980) Ran (1985) Dreams (1990)
(45) LGBT Girls in Uniform (1931) Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) Je, tu, il, elle (1974) Paris Is Burning (1990) My Own Private Idaho (1991) All about My Mother (1999) Beau travail (1999) Tropical Malady (2004) Brokeback Mountain (2005) Shortbus (2006) Weekend (2011) Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) Carol (2015) Moonlight (2016) Call Me by Your Name (2017)
(46) Yasujirô Ozu Late Spring (1949) Early Summer (1951) Tokyo Story (1953) Good Morning (1959) Floating Weeds (1959) An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
(47) Wuxia Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Hero (2002) House of Flying Daggers (2004) The Assassin (2015)
(48) Woody Allen Annie Hall (1977) Manhattan (1979) The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Match Point (2005) Midnight in Paris (2011)
(49) Survival Walkabout (1971) The Edge (1997) Cast Away (2000) Shackleton (2002) Touching the Void (2003) Into the Wild (2007) 127 Hours (2010) All Is Lost (2013) The Revenant (2015)
(50) Robert Altman MAS*H (1970) McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) The Long Goodbye (1973) Nashville (1975) The Player (1992) Short Cuts (1993) Gosford Park (2001)
(51) Aliens Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Alien (1979) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) The Thing (1982) Aliens (1986) They Live (1988) The Abyss (1989) Independence Day (1996) District 9 (2009) Arrival (2016) Annihilation (2018)
(52) Rainer Werner Fassbinder The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1973) In a Year with 13 Moons (1978) Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) Veronika Voss (1982)
(53) Michelangelo Antonioni L'Avventura (1960) La Notte (1961) L'Eclisse (1962) Red Desert (1964) Blow-Up (1966)
(54) Martial Arts Fist of Fury (1972) Enter the Dragon (1973) The Street Fighter (1974) Drunken Master (1978) The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) Wheels on Meals (1984) Police Story (1985) Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) Ong Bak (2003) Ip Man (2008)
(55) Lars von Trier Breaking the Waves (1996) The Idiots (1998) Dancer in the Dark (2000) Dogville (2003) The Five Obstructions (2003) Antichrist (2009) Melancholia (2011)
(56) Horror Cat People (1942) Rosemary's Baby (1968) Night of the Living Dead (1968) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Halloween (1978) Dawn of the Dead (1978) Friday the 13th (1980) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Scream (1996) The Village (2004) The Descent (2005) Let the Right One In (2008) The Witch (2015) It Follows (2015) The Wailing (2016) It (2017)
(57) Supernatural horror The Exorcist (1973) Poltergeist (1982) The Devil's Advocate (1997) The Blair Witch Project (1999) The Sixth Sense (1999) The Others (2001) The Babadook (2014)
(58) Romantic drama Casablanca (1942) Brief Encounter (1945) Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) All That Heaven Allows (1955) Imitation of Life (1959) Doctor Zhivago (1965) Romeo and Juliet (1968) The Remains of the Day (1993) Sense and Sensibility (1995) Titanic (1997) The Notebook (2004) Atonement (2007) Blue Valentine (2010) Laurence Anyways (2012)
(59) Wes Anderson Rushmore (1998) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Moonrise Kingdom (2012) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
(60) Thriller M (1931) The Night of the Hunter (1955) The French Connection (1971) The Conversation (1974) Sorcerer (1977) The Vanishing (1988) Jurassic Park (1993) Speed (1994) Run Lola Run (1998) The Bourne Identity (2002) Infernal Affairs (2002) Collateral (2004) Miami Vice (2006) No Country for Old Men (2007) Prisoners (2013) Nightcrawler (2014) Green Room (2015)
(61) Michael Haneke The Seventh Continent (1989) Funny Games (1997) Code Unknown (2000) The Piano Teacher (2001) Caché (2005) The White Ribbon (2009) Amour (2012)
(62) Giallo The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) Deep Red (1975) Suspiria (1977) Tenebrae (1982) The New York Ripper (1982)
(63) Musical Top Hat (1935) The Wizard of Oz (1939) Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) Singin' in the Rain (1952) A Star Is Born (1954) West Side Story (1961) Mary Poppins (1964) The Sound of Music (1965) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) Cabaret (1972) Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) Phantom of the Paradise (1974) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Saturday Night Fever (1977) Grease (1978) All That Jazz (1979) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Moulin Rouge! (2001) Les Misérables (2012) La La Land (2016)
(64) Racism To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) In the Heat of the Night (1967) The Color Purple (1985) Do the Right Thing (1989) American History X (1998) This Is England (2006) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Selma (2014) Get Out (2017)
(65) Federico Fellini I Vitelloni (1953) La Strada (1954) The Nights of Cabiria (1957) La Dolce Vita (1960) 8½ (1963) Juliet of the Spirits (1965) Satyricon (1969) Amarcord (1973)
(66) Early cinema The Arrival of a Train (1896) The Kiss (1896) The Man with the Rubber Head (1901) A Trip to the Moon (1902) The Great Train Robbery (1903) Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) The Birth of a Nation (1915) Intolerance (1916)
(67) David Lynch Eraserhead (1977) The Elephant Man (1980) Blue Velvet (1986) Wild at Heart (1990) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) Lost Highway (1997) Mulholland Drive (2001) Inland Empire (2006)
(68) Crime Le Samouraï (1967) The Godfather (1972) The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) Scarface (1983) Once Upon a Time in America (1984) The Untouchables (1987) The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) Heat (1995) City of God (2002) Catch Me If You Can (2002) Memories of Murder (2003) Lord of War (2005) The Town (2010) Victoria (2015) Sicario (2015) Baby Driver (2017) Good Time (2017)
(69) Heist The Sting (1973) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) The First Great Train Robbery (1978) Ocean's Eleven (2001) Heist (2001) The Italian Job (2003) Inside Man (2006) Inception (2010) The Town (2010)
(70) Paul Thomas Anderson Boogie Nights (1997) Magnolia (1999) There Will Be Blood (2007) The Master (2012) Phantom Thread (2017)
(71) Action comedy 48 Hrs. (1982) Lethal Weapon (1987) Maverick (1994) True Lies (1994) Bad Boys (1995) Men in Black (1997) Starship Troopers (1997) Three Kings (1999) Kung Fu Hustle (2004) Hot Fuzz (2007) 21 Jump Street (2012) Spy (2015) Deadpool (2016)
(72) Anime Angel's Egg (1985) Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Akira (1988) Ghost in the Shell (1995) Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997) Perfect Blue (1997) Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999) Millennium Actress (2001) Mind Game (2004) Paprika (2006) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) Your Name. (2016)
(73) David Cronenberg Videodrome (1983) The Fly (1986) Naked Lunch (1991) A History of Violence (2005) Eastern Promises (2007)
(74) Docufiction Nanook of the North (1922) On the Bowery (1956) In Vanda's Room (2000) Colossal Youth (2006) My Winnipeg (2007)
(75) Edward Yang Taipei Story (1985) A Brighter Summer Day (1991) Yi Yi (2000)
(76) Fantasy The Dark Crystal (1982) The NeverEnding Story (1984) Delicatessen (1991) Being John Malkovich (1999) The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Pan's Labyrinth (2006) The Fall (2006) Avatar (2009) Holy Motors (2012) A Ghost Story (2017) The Shape of Water (2017)
(77) Sharks Jaws (1975) Deep Blue Sea (1999) Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009) Shark Night (2011) Sharknado (2013) The Shallows (2016)
(78) Quentin Tarantino Reservoir Dogs (1992) Pulp Fiction (1994) Jackie Brown (1997) Kill Bill (2003) Inglourious Basterds (2009) Django Unchained (2012) The Hateful Eight (2015)
(79) Japan Ugetsu (1953) Sansho the Bailiff (1954) Harakiri (1962) Woman in the Dunes (1964) Kwaidan (1964) Onibaba (1964) The Face of Another (1966) Eros + Massacre (1969) Maborosi (1995) Cure (1997) All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) Happiness of the Katakuris (2002) Nobody Knows (2004) Strange Circus (2005) The Calamari Wrestler (2005) Big Man Japan (2007) Love Exposure (2008) Confessions (2010) Like Father, Like Son (2013)
(80) Jacques Tati Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) Mon Oncle (1958) Playtime (1967)
(81) Alfred Hitchcock Rebecca (1940) Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Notorious (1946) Rope (1948) Strangers on a Train (1951) Dial M for Murder (1954) Rear Window (1954) Vertigo (1958) North by Northwest (1959) Psycho (1960) The Birds (1963)
(82) Animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Pinocchio (1940) Fantasia (1940) Dumbo (1941) Bambi (1942) Fantastic Planet (1973) The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976) Only Yesterday (1991) Beauty and the Beast (1991) The Lion King (1994) The Prince of Egypt (1998) The Iron Giant (1999) The Triplets of Belleville (2003) The Incredibles (2004) Persepolis (2007) Waltz with Bashir (2008) How to Train Your Dragon (2010) It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) The Red Turtle (2016)
(83) Iran Where is the Friend's Home? (1987) Close-Up (1990) A Moment of Innocence (1996) Taste of Cherry (1997) Certified Copy (2010) A Separation (2011) The Salesman (2015)
(84) Jean Renoir A Day in the Country (1936) La Grande Illusion (1937) The Rules of the Game (1939) French Cancan (1955)
(85) Monster The Blob (1953) Godzilla (1954) Tarantula (1955) Cloverfield (2008) Trollhunter (2010)
(86) Wim Wenders Alice in the Cities (1974) Kings of the Road (1976) The American Friend (1977) Paris, Texas (1984) Wings of Desire (1987)
(87) Teen American Graffiti (1973) Over the Edge (1979) The Warriors (1979) Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) Rumble Fish (1983) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Stand by Me (1986) Boyz n the Hood (1991) Kids (1995) Fucking Åmål (1998) Heathers (1988) Ken Park (2002) Mean Girls (2004) Superbad (2007) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) Spring Breakers (2012) The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) Boyhood (2014) Lady Bird (2017)
(88) Buster Keaton Our Hospitality (1923) Sherlock Jr. (1924) The General (1926) Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) The Cameraman (1928)
(89) Cannibal films Cannibal Holocaust (1980) Eaten Alive! (1980) Cannibal Ferox (1981) Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989) Cannibal! The Musical (1993)
(90) Carl Theodor Dreyer The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Vampyr (1932) Day of Wrath (1943) Ordet (1955) Gertrud (1964)
(91) Hippie The Love-Ins (1967) Psych-Out (1968) Zabriskie Point (1970) Hair (1979)
(92) Martin Scorsese Mean Streets (1973) Taxi Driver (1976) Raging Bull (1980) The King of Comedy (1982) After Hours (1985) Goodfellas (1990) The Age of Innocence (1993) Casino (1995) The Departed (2006) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
(93) Mystery Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Clue (1985) The Usual Suspects (1995) The Game (1997) Donnie Darko (2001) The Prestige (2006) The Man from Earth (2007)
(94) Pier Paolo Pasolini The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) Teorema (1968) Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
(95) Prison The Great Escape (1963) Cool Hand Luke (1967) Escape from Alcatraz (1979) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) A Prophet (2009)
(96) Yakuza Tokyo Drifter (1966) Branded to Kill (1967) Ichi the Killer (2001) Zatōichi (2003) Outrage (2010)
(97) War drama The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Die Brücke (1959) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) The Battle of Algiers (1966) The Cranes Are Flying (1957) Come and See (1985) Schindler's List (1993) The Pianist (2002) Downfall (2004) The Hurt Locker (2008) Beasts of No Nation (2015)
(98) German expressionism The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) The Golem (1920) Nosferatu (1922) The Last Laugh (1924)
(99) Comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) Divorce, Italian Style (1962) The Pink Panther (1963) The Great Race (1965) The Odd Couple (1968) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Life of Brian (1979) The Jerk (1979) The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) Tampopo (1985) A Fish Called Wanda (1988) My Cousin Vinny (1992) Office Space (1999) Jackass: The Movie (2002) Anchorman (2004) Borat (2006) The Hangover (2009)
(100) 90s action Total Recall (1990) Terminator 2 (1991) Point Break (1991) El Mariachi (1992) The Fugitive (1993) The Rock (1996) Mission: Impossible (1996) Con Air (1997) Face/Off (1997) The Matrix (1999)
(101) Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Rublev (1966) Solaris (1971) The Mirror (1974) Stalker (1979) Nostalgia (1983) The Sacrifice (1986)
(102) Satire Sullivan's Travels (1941) The Producers (1967) If.... (1968) Blazing Saddles (1974) Network (1976) American Beauty (1999) Fight Club (1999) American Psycho (2000) Thank You for Smoking (2005) Idiocracy (2006) In the Loop (2009)
(103) Music A Hard Day's Night (1964) The Blues Brothers (1980) Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982) This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Stop Making Sense (1984) Amadeus (1984) Sister Act (1992) Buena Vista Social Club (1999) Almost Famous (2000) 8 Mile (2002) Ray (2004) Whiplash (2014)
(104) Alejandro Jodorowsky El Topo (1970) The Holy Mountain (1973) Santa Sangre (1989)
(105) Avant-garde documentary Man With a Movie Camera (1929) Blow Job (1964) News from Home (1977) Koyaanisqatsi (1982) Baraka (1992) La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000) I was moving ahead … (2000) Habitat (2012)
(106) Ernst Lubitsch I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918) Trouble in Paradise (1932) Ninotchka (1939) The Shop Around the Corner (1940) To Be or Not to Be (1942)
(107) Erotic Last Tango in Paris (1972) In the Realm of the Senses (1976) Body Double (1984) Basic Instinct (1992) The Handmaiden (2016)
(108) Sci-fi The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Planet of the Apes (1968) THX 1138 (1971) Star Wars (1977) Blade Runner (1982) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) On the Silver Globe (1988) Twelve Monkeys (1995) Star Trek: First Contact (1996) The Fifth Element (1997) Gattaca (1997) The Matrix (1999) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Minority Report (2002) Primer (2004) Moon (2009) Cloud Atlas (2012) Her (2013) Gravity (2013) Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Ex Machina (2014) Interstellar (2014) The Martian (2015)
(109) Tim Burton Edward Scissorhands (1990) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Ed Wood (1994) Mars Attacks! (1996) Big Fish (2003) Sweeney Todd (2007)
(110) Stoner films Up in Smoke (1978) Half Baked (1998) How High (2001) Pineapple Express (2008)
(111) Sports drama The Hustler (1961) Rocky (1976) Remember the Titans (2000) Million Dollar Baby (2004) The Wrestler (2008) The Fighter (2010) Moneyball (2011) Creed (2015)
(112) Powell & Pressburger The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) The Red Shoes (1948) Black Narcissus (1947)
(113) Dystopia Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) Brazil (1985) Dark City (1998) Battle Royale (2000) 28 Days Later... (2002) V for Vendetta (2005) Children of Men (2006) The Road (2009) Snowpiercer (2013) The Maze Runner (2014)
(114) Luis Buñuel The Young and the Damned (1950) Viridiana (1961) The Exterminating Angel (1962) Simon of the Desert (1965) Belle de Jour (1967) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
(115) Documentary Night and Fog (1956) Shoah (1985) The Thin Blue Line (1988) Hoop Dreams (1994) Man on Wire (2008) Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) Leviathan (2012) The Act of Killing (2012) Tim's Vermeer (2013)
(116) Modern action 300 (2006) The Raid: Redemption (2011) Dredd (2012) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Hardcore Henry (2016)
(118) Rape revenge The Virgin Spring (1960) I Spit on Your Grave (1978) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) Irreversible (2002) I Saw the Devil (2010)
(119) Wong Kar-wai Chungking Express (1994) Fallen Angels (1995) Happy Together (1997) In the Mood for Love (2000) 2046 (2004)
(120) Horror comedy Young Frankenstein (1974) House (1977) An American Werewolf in London (1981) Dead Alive (1992) Shaun of the Dead (2004) The Cabin in the Woods (2012) What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
(121) Courtroom drama 12 Angry Men (1957) Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) The Verdict (1982) A Few Good Men (1992) The Rainmaker (1997)
(122) Charlie Chaplin The Tramp (1915) The Kid (1921) The Circus (1928) City Lights (1931) The Great Dictator (1940) Limelight (1952)
(123) Yakuza Tokyo Drifter (1966) Branded to Kill (1967) Ichi the Killer (2001) Zatōichi (2003) Outrage (2010)
(124) Splatter Blood Feast (1963) The Wizard of Gore (1970) The Evil Dead (1981) Bad Taste (1987)
(125) Africa Black Girl (1966) Touki Bouki (1973) Hotel Rwanda (2004) Moolaadé (2004) Timbuktu (2014)
(126) Ancient Rome Quo Vadis (1951) Ben-Hur (1959) Spartacus (1960) Cleopatra (1963) Caligula (1979) Gladiator (2000)
(127) Biography The Life of Emile Zola (1937) Patton (1970) Gandhi (1982) Malcolm X (1992) Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) Schindler's List (1993) Monster (2003) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) Lincoln (2012)
(128) John Cassavetes Shadows (1958) Faces (1968) A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
(129) Eastern Europe Ashes and Diamonds (1958) Daisies (1966) Cremator (1969) Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) Damnation (1988) Satantango (1994) Underground (1995) Black Cat, White Cat (1998) Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) No Man's Land (2001) The Turin Horse (2011) Ida (2013)
(130) Russia Brother (1997) Russian Ark (2002) The Return (2003) The Sun (2005) Hard to Be a God (2013) Leviathan (2014)
(131) Religion The Ten Commandments (1956) The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) The Mission (1986) The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) The Passion of the Christ (2004) Silence (2016)
(132) Cult films Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) Barbarella (1968) Pink Flamingos (1972) Tron (1982) Ghostbusters (1984) Repo Man (1984) The Toxic Avenger (1984) Back to the Future (1985) Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Surf Nazis Must Die (1987) Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Army of Darkness (1992) Wayne’s World (1992) Clerks (1994) Bad Boy Bubby (1994) Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000) Donnie Darko (2001) Freddy Got Fingered (2001) The Brown Bunny (2003) The Room (2003) Fateful Findings (2013)
(133) Unsorted L'Atalante (1934) Children of Paradise (1945) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Pather Panchali (1955) Marketa Lazarová (1967) The Conformist (1970) Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) Cinema Paradiso (1988) Dead Man (1995) Life Is Beautiful (1997) Pi (1998) Being John Malkovich (1999) Adaptation. (2002) The Illusionist (2006) Synecdoche, New York (2008) Dogtooth (2009) Enter the Void (2009) Inception (2010) Rubber (2010) The Great Beauty (2013) Birdman (2014) A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014) Inherent Vice (2014) Chef (2014) The Lobster (2015) The Big Short (2015) Swiss Army Man (2016)
(134) Home Invasion Home Alone (1990) Panic Room (2002) Borgman (2013) The Gift (2015) Don't Breathe (2016)
(135) Historical The Leopard (1963) A Man for All Seasons (1966) Quest for Fire (1981) The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Braveheart (1995)
(136) New Hollywood Bonnie and Clyde (1967) The Graduate (1967) Five Easy Pieces (1970) The Last Picture Show (1971) Harold and Maude (1971) Easy Rider (1969)
(137) Hayao Miyazaki Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Castle in the Sky (1986) My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) Porco Rosso (1992) Princess Mononoke (1997) Spirited Away (2001) Howl's Moving Castle (2004) The Wind Rises (2013)
(138) Italian neorealism Rome, Open City (1945) Paisan (1946) Bicycle Thieves (1948) Stromboli (1950)

Greetings all! Many thanks to the countless people who contributed to 10 months of fantastic discussions about one of the most iconic (and one of my favorite) film franchises of all time. This is just a little recap/debrief/wrap up article where I'd love to get everyone's thoughts on the series as a whole. Additionally, I've done some more ranking and list making because it's fun and, let's be honest, there just aren't enough lists in the world! So let's open the discussion up and air out any final thoughts on the ongoing adventures of 007 & Co. Fair warning, I will use spoiler tags throughout my article for those of you who might not yet have seen Spectre, however be mindful of the comments.

Ranking the Movies

First thing's first. Here are all of my reviews and their assigned objective rankings.

Film	Score
Casino Royale	94
GoldenEye	86
Skyfall	86
Goldfinger	85
On Her Majesty's Secret Service	82
The Spy Who Loved Me	80
The World is Not Enough	79
From Russia With Love	76
The Living Daylights	75
You Only Live Twice	73
Spectre (spoilers)	73
License to Kill	72
Dr. No	70
The Man with the Golden Gun	68
Quantum of Solace	68
Tomorrow Never Dies	68
Live and Let Die	66
Thunderball	61
A View to a Kill	59
Moonraker	59
For Your Eyes Only	55
Octopussy	48
Diamonds Are Forever	37
Die Another Day	30

For a fun little experiment, I wanted to see how I ranked them in comparison to other "Rank the Bond Film" lists. My sources included Rotten Tomatoes (based on their freshness rankings), IMDb (based on their user scores), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Forbes, Timeout New York, E! Online, Moviefone, AMC Filmsite, BuzzFeed, an /JamesBond thread, and MRQE. Here are the results.

First, I've organized them by release date and shown what their scores are on the various websites.

Second, I figured out the average score for each film with the highest and lowest score for each film thrown out to eliminate outliers (my scores are not included in this calculation) as well as determine the standard deviation for each film (i.e., how consistently each film was ranked).

Finally, here is a visualization of how each site ranked the films.

Some observations:

• No real surprises in the rankings. Casino Royale, Goldfinger, From Russia, and Skyfall all nabbed top spots. The World is Not Enough, Moonraker, and A View to a Kill took the dubious honor of bottom feeders.

• Skyfall was the most consistently ranked film (averaging spot #4 on most lists). License to Kill was the most inconsistently ranked film. No surprise either. Dalton's films split opinions upon release and have aged just well enough to be considered decent but still stand out in such a way as to turn some viewers off entirely. Without it's highest (3) and lowest (22) scores, LTK still ranked as high as 8 and as low as 22. So it was either a top-10 film or the second-worst.

• I still just don't get the hate for The World is Not Enough. Truth be told, this was the one film that actually inspired me to do all of this. I saw one or two lists that had it ranked so low. I had to see if there was anyone that agreed with me that it is actually a top 10 Bond film. Turns out there isn't. In fact, the closet I got was Moviefone who ranked it as #13.

• I don't know what Forbes is smoking. There is no way that For Your Eyes Only is the second greatest Bond film of all time. Lunacy. Similarly, I am shocked at Peter Travers' ranking for GoldenEye at 18 -- especially considering he then put Die Another Day at 10!!

• And speaking of DAD, I was legitimately surprised that it was generally considered to be a more middling film, rather than a universally hated one.

• This only confirms my belief that the Bond movies are some of the most divisive films of all time. This must surely be due to a variety of factors, not least of which is that a film series that spans 50+ years and that varies so greatly in tone from film to film will allow for people to have wildly diverse opinions of each era of film. It can all depend on which films they saw first or which ones they grew up with. I mean that sounds obvious, but just look at how much deviation there is from list to list. I mean no film came even close to receiving unanimous rankings across any of these platforms -- even Skyfall varied from 1 to 6.

Ranking the Songs

I also decided to take a look at one of the most fun aspects of the 007 franchise: the theme songs. I will be very up front about the fact that I am not a musician, I know nothing about musical theory, etc. I am just a layman, listening to these songs a few times over and making my general observations. Oh and it's worth noting that I did not include Dr. No on this list. The opening titles begin with the standard Bond Theme song, which since it was adopted into every other film I didn't feel like that really counted, and then transitions into a rendition of Three Blind Mice, which also doesn't count.

Ranking	Song	Artist	Comments
23	For Your Eyes Only	Sheena Easton	Overly synth-y. Just another sappy love ballad. I just don't understand how this kind of songs was thought to be a spectacular start to a Bond film. Ugh.
22	All Time High	Rita Coolidge	Awful, schmaltzy saxophone intro. Same garbage as the previous three films (Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only).
21	Nobody Does it Better	Carly Simon	Sounds like something you'd hear at 3am in a piano bar. Not sure what it's doing in a Bond film. Can't stand the vocals. At least this song has a decent band swell that picks it up a bit. The gentle cymbal tapping just reinforces the late night smooth jazz vibe.
20	Moonraker	Shirley Bassey	Starts small, stays small, never builds. Bassey's vocals are totally wasted here. She has the ability to be fierce and biting. Here, she's lackadaisical and boring.
19	Die Another Day	Madonna	Starts strong with tense strings and immediately dive bombs the second Madonna's disgustingly auto-tuned vocals kick in. Terrible lyrics ("Sigmund Freud" wtf?). A pandering piece of overproduced bubblegum crap.
18	Writing's on the Wall	Sam Smith	So disappointing. Following such a strong entry in Skyfall, the producers completely dropped the ball with Smith's "Writing." His vocals don't remotely fit with the tone of a proper Bond song. Cannot stand his breathy, whiny chorus. Ugh.
17	A View to a Kill	Duran Duran	If you can't tell, I'm not a huge fan of '80s music, so the heavy presence of synths in this song are tough for me to swallow, but at least this song has some life! Especially following the era of the lousy love ballads, AVTAK was a breath of fresh air. As a song by itself, not bad. As a Bond song, not the greatest.
16	The Living Daylights	A-ha	Another entry just dripping in '80s production. Still, it's got lots of energy. It's got some great builds and uses some awesome big band/brass elements that are reminiscent of the classic Bond songs.
15	License to Kill	Gladys Knight	Love Knight's vocals. She's got a great classic Bond feel. Love the intro. It feels sleuth-y, epic. Could definitely do without those breathy backup singers.
14	Live and Let Die	Paul McCartney	Great song. Terrible Bond song. McCartney is second to none, don't get me wrong. This song just isn't a great fit for the series. The reason it's not lower is that is has lots of promise until the 1:22 mark. And that damn fishing reel SFX is just so damn weird… Picks back up again, however it falters again at the 1:51 mark. The good aspects of this song are great. The bad are real bad.
13	You Only Live Twice	Nancy Sinatra	Exotic with great vocals. It's a bit sappy but it's got a nice use of strings to keep the song from getting too schmaltzy.
12	From Russia With Love	Matt Monroe	I'm rather conflicted about this one. It has a great exotic feel, it's got a good crooner, and the lyrics match the globetrotting feel. I just feel that there are stronger entries that offer a bit more energy.
11	You Know My Name	Chris Cornell	Hard to judge this one. Great piece of rock but again, I don't know if it really feels like a true "Bond song". At least it never devolves into a weird place like Live and Let Die. This one gets major props for incorporating the Bond theme heavily throughout and having a decent set of lyrics.
10	The Man with the Golden Gun	Lulu	I know I'm probably going to get some hate for this one, but hear me out. Great use of electric guitar and big brass band. The lyrics are rightfully criticized for being way too literal and silly (and the chorus is very weak) but Lulu's vocals are wonderfully dry, yet full of character. I especially love the swell at 1:38.
9	Another Way to Die	Alicia Keys and Jack White	Another entry that might get some criticism for being this high, but I truly feel that with one minor tweak, this song could have been considered one of the best. I love the piano and crunchy guitar intro. What I don't like is the duet. If this had been a Keys solo (with White handling the instrumentals), this could have been even stronger. I also really love the lyrics' discussion of paranoia and mistrust.
8	The World is Not Enough	Garbage	Another very strong entry. Shirley Manson's vocals are incredibly sultry. I positively love how striking the twanging guitar chords cut right through this hazy song.
7	Thunderball	Tom Jones	Take note Matt Monroe, this is how to croon during a Bond song. The song kicks in with a great use of the Bond theme at 0:35. The lyrics are total nonsense, however it all comes together and sounds so excellent. Jones' killer note at the end of the song is spectacular.
6	Tomorrow Never Dies	Sheryl Crow	This was a huge surprise for me. As I went through these songs, I never would have thought of putting TND this high, but listening to it, I can't get enough. Throws everything in from the thundering opening, to the big drums, the bell, the jangling guitar, and the piano. Crows vocals are positively electric. Her performance is every bit sultry, sexy, and scorned. Excellent!
5	Diamonds Are Forever	Shirley Bassey	Forget the movie, I could just listen to this song for 2 hours instead. The opening notes are mysterious, the big band is perfect (with plenty of classic Bond brass). The drop at the 1:21 mark is fantastic. And of course, Bassey's vocals are as iconic as they get.
4	On Her Majesty's Secret Service Theme	John Barry (composer)	Okay so this one isn't really a theme song in the sense that these other songs were but how could I pass on it? This is perhaps one of the single greatest musical compositions of the series outside of the Bond Theme. The buzzing guitar and deep, thumping bass are totally badass.
3	GoldenEye	Tina Turner	Almost perfect. Sexy, mysterious, lurking, with excellent vocals and brilliant lyrics. Little moments like the Bond theme slinking in at 1:40 are just perfect.
2	Skyfall	Adele	I absolutely, positively adore the chilling piano intro. Adele's vocals are exquisite. I love the slow, warbling guitar (1:00), the somber strings, the huge builds, and the use of the brassy Bond theme at 1:51. The whole thing gives me chills, especially as it starts and ends on that beautiful brass note.
1	Goldfinger	Shirley Bassey	Surprise, surprise. It just simply does not get better than Goldfinger. This is the quintessential Bond song, the standard to which all other songs are held. The big brass band, the strings, and the vocals are all just a bit silly, just a bit sexy, totally iconic, and catchy as all hell.

Ranking the Villains

I came up with a little system for ranking the Bond villains. I determined that a good villain should have a proper plan, should be generally villainous (cruel, mad, etc.), intimidating, competent, and charismatic (or at least have a decent, definable personality). Regarding one of the series’ few recurring villains, I elected to rank Blofeld several times, one for each appearance in a different film. With that in mind, here are the Bottom 5 and Top 5 Bond villains. The full list including the scores for each category can be found here (Spectre spoilers in slot #21).

Worst Bond Villains

Rank	Villain	Film	Plot	Comments
27	Gustav Graves / Col. Moon	Die Another Day	Destroy S. Korea via space laser	Written as if a 12 year old came up with a Bond villain. Terrible plan, never truly intimidating, and the whole DNA replacement and "I modeled him after you" bit is completely stupid.
26	Aristotle Kristatos	For Your Eyes Only	Retrieve the ATAC device in order to control Soviet missiles, trick 007 into assassinating Colombo	Bland, boring, forgettable.
25	Brad Whitaker	The Living Daylights	Sell opium as a means to finance his arms trading	I applaud the realism of his plot, however the character is just so damned annoying. Baker plays the American General as a complete buffoon. And the whole wargame angle is weird.
24	General Orlov	Octopussy	Destroy NATO relations by detonating a bomb in a foreign Air Force base	Another fairly forgettable character. Berkoff portrays the General as an almost Dr. Strangelove-esque wacko.
23	Ernst Stavro Blofeld	Diamonds Are Forever	Destroy nations' nuclear missiles with a space laser if they refuse to give in to his ransom demands	The weakest of all of Blofeld’s various plots. Mostly, this iteration is ranked so low on account of Charles Grey’s portrayal. He’s insufferable, lacks any real intimidation, and the whole army of clones and voice changing devices are all just too campy for my taste.

Best Bond Villains

Rank	Villain	Film	Plot	Comments
5	Ernst Stavro Blofeld	On Her Majesty’s Secret Service	Brainwash women (Angels of Death) and use them as pawns in bacterialogical warfare	Okay so the plan is a little bizarre and Savalas’ portrayal might not be as iconic as the one in YOLT, however this is Blofeld at his peak. He is menacing, sinister, and intimidating. The whole lineage angle is unique and gives a little bit of humanity to what has been an otherwise flat character.
4	Alex Trevelyan (Agent 006)	GoldenEye	Exact revenge on England by robbing the national bank just before destroying digital records (via electromagnetic pulse from satellite)	Sean Bean performs beautifully as the MI6-agent-gone-rogue. His revenge mission plot is a wonderful balance of maniacal, villainous, and realistic.
3	Auric Goldfinger	Goldfinger	Devalue US gold stock by detonating a bomb inside Fort Knox gold reserve	Bond himself remarks how brilliant Goldfinger’s plan is upon hearing it. I’m going to refrain from making any “gold standard” jokes, but Goldfinger is seriously one of the best. Cunning, proud, coy, greedy, and downright evil.
2	Le Chiffre	Casino Royale	Make money by shorting airline stocks through planned terrorist attacks	Le Chiffre is one of the most fascinating villains in that he is a man driven by desperation and fear more than a god complex or a desire to destroy humanity.
1	Francisco Scaramanga	The Man with the Golden Gun	Steal solex agitator, assassinate 007	Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga is the perfect blend of flamboyant charisma, fierce intellect, and pure skill. The dinner scene between Scaramanga and Bond remains one of my all time favorites.

Honorable mentions go to Skyfall’s freakishly relentless Raoul Silva, Spy Who Loved Me’s megalomaniac Karl Stromberg, World is Not Enough’s coldly calculating Elektra King, Dr. No’s Dr. No for setting the template, and Moonraker’s surprisingly enjoyable Hugo Drax.

Ranking the Bond Girls

I came up with a similar method of ranking one of the other pillars of any good 007 film: the Bond Girls. For this category, I rated each Bond Girl by their intellect (general intelligence), competence (how skillful they were at their profession or tasks), initiative (do they just sit around and wait for Bond to tell them what to do or not), utility (do they have a direct impact on the story or are they just sort of there for show), and (yes I am aware of the hypocrisy here) beauty. This was a somewhat difficult list to assess, as the concept of a Bond Girl is rather loose. For example, in Skyfall, Bond seduces Severine, however she is in the film for such a brief period of time and her impact on the story is so minimal, that it didn’t even seem right to try and rank her based on these categories. Then of course there are any number of throwaway characters that Bond simply sleeps with or converses with briefly that are occasionally viewed as “Bond Girls”. Think of the iconic gilded Jill Masterson from Goldfinger. You might be aghast that she isn’t on the list, but she is such a small portion of that film (especially compared to her sister, Tilly), that it didn’t even seem worth it to place her on here, despite her image being plastered on every piece of promotional material for Goldfinger. So this is my best attempt at determining who is a Bond Girl and how they rank. The full list including category rankings can be found here.

Worst Bond Girls

Rank	Girl	Film	Comments
33	Rosie Carver	Live and Let Die	Perhaps the most miserable character in the series. I couldn’t help but give her the only 0 of this entire exercise for Competence. She whines and cries to a man she just met because she isn't a good CIA agent. She’s not useful, not talented, and utterly annoying. And the one time she finally acts proactively, she is condescendingly mocked for misreading Quarrel Jr.’s allegiance.
32	Mary Goodnight	The Man with the Golden Gun	Vapid, irritating, pathetic, almost entirely useless. She’s easily captured and even chastised for her one contribution: killing a guard. And of course there’s the infamous scene in which any dignity she might’ve had evaporates as she’s shoved in a closet while Bond and Andrea Anders have sex.
31	Tiffany Case	Diamonds Are Forever	Another worthless character who adds little to the plot. She is given a rare instance of initiative at the end of the film and it turns out that in doing so, she completely screws up Bond’s plan. Oh also, her dialogue is completely insufferable.
30	“Dr.” Christmas Jones	The World is Not Enough	Another character written to be skilled and intelligent, but portrayed by a woman who cannot convincingly pull off either. Her role in the film becomes little more than a tagalong with weak excuses being provided for why she’s still around. She also turns into the second instance of Bond’s magical ability to turn lesbians straight.
29	Stacey Sutton	A View to a Kill	Same deal as Jones, the character is written to be intelligent, but the actress doesn't sell it one bit. She tends to fail at everything she attempts, and Bond completely disregards her and forces her to become a damsel in distress throughout their time together. She becomes a complete tagalong after a while.

Best Bond Girls

Rank	Girl	Film	Comments
5	Elektra King	The World is Not Enough	Cunning, fierce, intelligent (though blinded by rage), she is absolutely integral to the plot, her actions are her own and she even acts as the puppetmaster for a wide range of people.
4	Camille Montes	Quantum of Solace	Not necessarily particularly intelligent per se, but highly skilled and motivated by her well formed backstory. QoS actually provides a rare instance of Bond screwing up her plans, though she bounds back quickly. Extra points for killing one of the film’s villains.
3	Pussy Galore	Goldfinger	The biggest downfall for Galore is her lack of integrity during the scene in which Bond apparently rapes her straight. Aside from that terrible scene, she is a fantastic character. She gets the drop on Bond multiple times, verbally spars with the best of them, and orchestrates a hugely important aspect of the film’s ending.
2	Teresa di Vicenzo	On Her Majesty’s Secret Service	It pains me not to be able to give her a perfect score, however she does have her downfalls. She really ultimately is just sort of going along with her father’s plans and when she’s captured, she reverts into a fairly standard damsel in distress. Aside from that though, her beauty and intelligence are almost without parallel.
1	Vesper Lynd	Casino Royale	The only character in this whole exercise to receive a perfect score. The single most well-rounded character of the entire series. Highly intelligent, witty, sharp, sly, plays her own game, acts of her own accord with her own motivations, integral to the plot — oh and stunningly gorgeous.

Honorable mentions go to Spy Who Loves Me’s crafty and skilled Anya Amasova, Die Another Day’s coldly independent Miranda Frost, You Only Twice’s Aki who saves Bond’s butt on more than one occasion, Tomorrow Never Die’s devil may care Wai Lin, and License to Kill’s rough and rowdy Pam Bouvier.

Ranking the Bonds

And of course there’s the ranking of the Bond actors. Everyone has an opinion that varies greatly from the last. Heck, I’ve already changes my mind three times as I’ve sat here writing this. Each actor is so wildly different and they all come from such unique times that it’s almost impossible to try and fairly compare them. And then of course there’s the struggle of trying to give each actor a fair shake when their films have varied so greatly in quality and number. But I will try to do my best.

Rank	Actor	Films	Years Active	Comments
6	Roger Moore	7	1973 - 1985	Easily the worst in my opinion. I never bought him as an assassin. I never bought him as a seductive gentleman. His humor was mostly lost on me. When they tried to get him to be rough and tumble in TMWTGG when he’s interrogating Anders, he just seems abusive. He also had the worst string of films to deal with and was kept on as Bond for far too long. Too few upsides.
5	George Lazenby	1	1969	This ranking is really misleading, as I actually LOVED Lazenby as Bond. I felt that he completely captured the crass attitude and unbridled swagger. I would frankly consider putting him as high as #3, however Lazenby’s biggest downfall is his lack of clout. He just wasn’t Bond long enough to get a decent gauge of how he really fit into Bond’s shoes.
4	Sean Connery	6	1962 - 1967, 1971	Blasphemy! Just because he was first doesn’t mean he was the best. He laid the groundwork and managed the suave nature and action better than some, however his characters never really felt like they had any depth to them. Mostly he is severely handicapped by his lackluster performances in YOLT and DAF.
3	Timothy Dalton	2	1987 - 1989	Ah Dalton, the Bond we needed but didn’t deserve. Dalton’s career was similarly too short. I considered giving him the #4 spot under Connery for this purpose alone, but I really feel like he did enough in his two films to establish what kind of Bond he was and would have continued to be. The dark, brooding exterior occasionally gave in to flashes of real charm and even caring. The humor could have used some work, but the action and especially the suave, high-class nature fit him perfectly.
2	Daniel Craig	4	2006 - present	Craig’s performance in Casino alone would have been enough to push him into first place, however he’s had kind of a bizarre run of films since then. The stories have set him up to just be continually cantankerous and sullen. I have him in the #2 spot temporarily, depending on how the rest of his run as Bond goes. If he is able to do more films and is able to continue to regain his wit from Casino and to continue his arc from brutish thug to refined gentleman assassin, I feel the #2 or even #1 spot could be his.
1	Pierce Brosnan	4	1995 - 2002	It was equally difficult to call Brosnan the unequivocal best. His run is sadly marred by a series of mediocre and downright bad films. That said, his performance in GoldenEye is probably one of the best in the series. Brosnan is able to pull off every aspect of what makes Bond Bond with ease. He nails the humor, he looks like he belongs in a tux, and he appears entirely at ease when in the midst of a tense shootout or car chase. He even totally sells a few small moments throughout the series that required him to appear frightened, surprised, and vulnerable.

Naturally there is so much more I could discuss (favorite gadgets, favorite moments, favorite henchmen), but I suppose I should save something for the lead up to Bond 25, eh? A sincere thanks once more to everyone who joined me for the discussions over the past several months. Cheers!

What I've attempted to create is a movie viewing list for a new fan who is interested in James Bond. I don't think starting at Dr. No and working forward towards Craig's films is the best way to do this. Instead, this list is intented to give an overview of the most significant Bond films and actors before getting into the deeper cuts. I've also attempted to keep this as objective as possible and not base it on personal taste (though taste will always be a factor in some way). Feedback welcome :)
Watch these first:
Goldfinger (Connery)
The Spy Who Loved Me (Moore)
Goldeneye (Brosnan)
​
If you liked Connery, watch these until you want a change in Bond actors, then proceed to Moore:
Dr. No
From Russia, With Love
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
​
If you liked Moore, watch one or both of these, then proceed to Brosnan:
Live and Let Die
Octopussy
​
If you liked Brosnan, watch:
Tomorrow Never Dies
​
If you liked Connery but switched actors before watching Thunderball, watch it now. Then watch the less prolific Bonds:
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (Lazenby)
The Living Daylights (Dalton)
​
If you liked Dalton and want to watch an 80s action movie that deserved an R rating, watch…
License to Kill
If you liked Connery and/or Moore but did not finish their lists above, do so now. If you still want more Moore before watching the Craig reboot, watch one or both of the following:
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
​
If you want more Brosnan before watching the Craig reboot, watch one or both of the following:
The World is Not Enough
Die Another Day
​
At minimum, you have now seen all of the pre reboot Bond actors, and have possibly watched most of the films. Now watch the reboot:
Casino Royale (2006, Craig)
If you like it, also watch:
Skyfall
Spectre
​
If you have watched at least 15 of the films above and have decided that you want to watch every Bond movie, you may watch these (binge watching not recommended as they are not good):
The Man with the Golden Gun (Moore)
View to a Kill (Moore)
Quantum of Solace (Craig)
Diamonds are Forever (Connery)
If you have watched at least 20 of the films above and want to delve into non-canon Bond films, you may watch these in any order, but they are not required to have seen every Bond movie.
Casino Royale (TV adaptation aired as an episode of Climax! In 1954)
Casino Royale (1967)
Never Say Never Again

Doing yet another marathon of Archer, and every time I watch it, I pick up something new. For example, just in 'Jeu Monégasque' alone,

• The paint job of the F1 car Lana steals is clearly taken from Herbie.
• When arguing why she can't get a room, Malory says "this isn't my first Grand Prix you know" - this is a reference to Grand Prix, a film Jessica Walter has appeared in.
• The F1 car Archer steals has a strikingly similar paint job and design to the F1 car used in the 60's by Lotus - another reference to the unknown timeline of Archer.
• Archer loses almost all of the stolen 401k money playing Chemin de Fer. In the James Bond novel 'Casino Royale', Bond beats the villain in the same game, one of many James Bond references.
• The man who has the disk with unknown data on it, Le Chuffre, has an almost identical name to one of the villains in the novel Casino Royale - Le Chiffre.

Such an amazing show for little jokes. Another post on this sub said it well - if you go a few minutes without catching any references, you've probably missed them. What's your favourite one?

I knew this would be long but boy. My apologies.
Recently Foxtel had a pop-up channel showing every one of the Bond films (except SPECTRE for some reason but they have that playing fairly regularly including today when I caught the second half). So I recorded every movie including the "unofficial" Never Say Never Again but not Die Another Day which I'll touch on later. That's 23 films that I've watched over the last 2-3 weeks.
As I watched I also listened along with the James Bonding podcast with Matt Mira and Matt Gourley. Now the way they worked their way through the movies, because of the nature of the franchise and to not get bored with a certain era, they started from either end chronologically. So they began with (naturally) Dr No (1962) then Skyfall (2012) then From Russia With Love (1963) then Quantum of Solace (2008) and so on towards the middle ending with For Your Eyes Only (1981).
I had attempted this a couple of years ago but because the movies weren't readily available I kind of fell off it somewhere around Goldeneye.
Now being that this sub is about old movies and the vast majority of these would be considered old I will preface this by saying that I generally have no interest in most movies you'd call "old". The pacing, the acting, the sound, the ADR, the effects, the style, the humour, the film-making in general etc and that's not even touching on the misogyny, racism, homophobia and such. Being 24 there's no nostalgia to colour it for me so for the most part I really can't say which of Goldfinger or Goldeneye is the better movie per se because they're so different. But I know what I find more watchable and doesn't have me wishing they'd hurry the fuck up with the scene.
In saying all that it's not like I hated everything prior to The Living Daylights or something, there's plenty of genuinely good stuff. It's just that with how things were done, the limitations at the time and the fact that a lot of things that were once original in these movies have been done a million times since means getting through some parts were chore like.
So anyway here are my truncated thoughts on each movie.
Dr No (1962) - Like I said, old movies aren't my wheelhouse so watching a 55 year old one is a trip. Unfamiliar with Fleming's books so don't know how much of the formula is set with those or with this movie. A lot of iconic stuff. Can't really reference it to other stuff of the time but I get the idea why it was such a big deal.
From Russia With Love (1963) - A good one. Maybe Connery's best. Red Grant's a great villain/henchman. I kinda like how low the stakes are. Surprisingly good fight scene on the train which is referenced in at least 3 of the others. Dunno how they got it right here but forgot how to do them for the best part of 25 years.
Goldfinger (1964) - Gold painted woman, "I expect you to die!". Good stuff. I like Goldfinger's plan even though it's expositioned straight from him to Bond and us, a trope I guess these movies started. The misogyny is strong with this one and the borderline rape scene with Pussy Galore is pretty rough. Remember what I said about fight scenes? The one between Bond and Oddjob basically consists of Connery getting thrown onto a marble floor 17 times.
Thunderball (1964) - Ridiculous cold open. Some more rapey Connery. Real boring this one. They were obviously very excited about shooting underwater and thus some incredibly slow scenes.
You Only Live Twice (1965) - Bond in Japan. Why stop there? Bond is Japanese now. Pretty insane. For some reason he gets married so he can train to be a ninja for 20 minutes which he puts to zero use. We see Blofeld for the first time; a volcano lair.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1967) - So Connery (rightfully) felt he wasn't getting a fair cut and he's out. There's this Australian (yew) model who looks just the part but can he play the part? Eh, he can pull off the fights but fairly stiff overall, doesn't hide the accent too well so it's not even his voice for a large chunk of the movie. Despite hypnotised sleepercell women with allergies and a quite racist scene they're involved in the plot of this isn't as nuts as others. Bond gets married and what an ending.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - Lazenby is convinced this franchise is done so he grows a beard and he's out. So the last one didn't do so great, let's give Sean $1m and crank the crazy back up. Convoluted plot. Tiffany Case starts as a seemingly capable diamond smuggler and by the end she's almost a drooling idiot. Mr Wint and Mr Kidd and the last scene are worth the price of admission.
Live and Let Die (1973) - Moore's first. Bond in a blaxploitation movie. The attitudes towards black people overall seem a bit questionable. Yaphet Kotto was a good villain. A very long boat chase sequence featuring the introduction of Sheriff JW Pepper "A SECRET AGGEEENT?!?! ON WHOOO'S SIiIiIiiiIIDE?!?!". Kananga balloon!
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974) - Christopher Lee as Scaramanga is good. You wanted him, you got him, everybody's favourite racist, tobacco munching, redneck, squealing pig JW Pepper joins James for a corkscrew car jump accompanied by a slide whistle. And who can forget Knick Knack.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) - Quite forgettable. Forgettable plot, forgettable villain, fairly forgettable girl. But the cold open ski jump really is excellent. Also Jaws.
Moonraker (1979) - Obviously trying to jump on the Star Wars hype. Otherwise it rehashes so many things from the movie right before it and really goes off the rails sense wise. Did not care for Drax as a villain. Features a scene that was jarringly dark for not only the movie that also has a pigeon double-take but for the franchise as a whole.
For Your Eyes Only (1981) - One of the better Moores I reckon. Maybe has the most concentrated amount of convoluted attempts to kill 007. Feels like promotional material for adventure sports at times with the longest sequences of skiing and rock climbing ever committed to film. Not as silly as the others except for the Thatcheparrot bit at the end.
Octopussy (1983) - Thought the first half or so was good but then it delves back into the madness. A plot that I just gave up on trying to understand. Ends with Bond disarming a nuclear bomb dressed as a clown in the middle of a circus tent.
Never Say Never Again (1983) - The unofficial McClory version of Thunderball. Better than Thunderball. Connery's back as a bit of a fuck you to the Brocolli's. Obviously missing a lot of what we recognise as a 007 movie but not bad. Brandauer is a much more interesting Largo. Features an absolutely bonkers scene with VR type videogame thing.
A View To A Kill (1985) - Heard a lot about this one. Moore's last at 57 years old and boy if he doesn't look perhaps even older. A good hour of the film revolves around horses for no real reason. Christopher Walken surprisingly wasn't as nuts as I expected. Silly as fuck.
The Living Daylights (1987) - Not sure how much you put the tonal change down to Dalton or to a conscious decision by Eon. I like Dalton, a much more serious take, clearly very talented based on the two other things I've seen him in: Hot Fuzz and Penny Dreadful. Again, too many moving parts in the plot and the end drags on needlessly.
Licence To Kill (1989) - The franchise again tries to do what other movies were doing at the time. Doesn't feel quite like a Bond film, very much an 80s action movie. End sequence with the tankers is pretty cool. Features a young Benicio Del Toro "we gave her a nice honeymoooooon".
Goldeneye (1995) - 6 year gap due to legal stuff with McClory I think. So Brosnan finally gets his shot and it's a really good Bond movie I reckon. Good performances from the cast, great set pieces. Natalia's a great Bond girl, actually capable and affects the plot, also real hot. Horrid music throughout though.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - Pretty interesting villainous plan but also ridiculous. Jonathan Pryce is having a lot of fun. The bike/helicopter set piece is good. Maybe the worst reverse engineered gadget in the entire franchise with the BMW hood badge rope saw thing.
The World Is Not Enough (1999) - Sophie Marceau is probably the best thing about this, she's a great girl/villain. Carlyle's not bad either. Then you have Denise Richards playing Christmas Jones which ultimately leads to what is the best worst Bond line ever to end it.
Die Another Day (2002) - As I mentioned I didn't record this one because I think I figured it's so bad I won't bother. But I should have because it's so bad it's worth watching. It's utterly insane and manages to include the worst Bond things in almost every category.
Casino Royale (2006) - Gotta be my favourite movie. Funny how the worst Bond movie and the best are right next to each other. Haven't seen it in a couple years but holy shit it's so good. Craig's brutish, cold take. The Madagascar sequence. The set pieces in general. The tension filled plot. The cinematography. Le Chiffre. The relationship between James and Vesper. Eva Green...
Quantum of Solace (2008) - What's this? A sequel? This really isn't as bad as some suggest. I did watch it as recommended, right after Casino Royale which might make all the difference but I doubt it. There's plenty of good stuff here. A perfectly good Bond film.
Skyfall (2012) - Didn't actually watch this one because I've seen it a number of times since it came out. Plus it's not old enough for this sub anyway. We've all seen it. Great movie. Great song too.
So I would perhaps touch on each actor or some other things but this is already long af.

I recently decided to start watching every single Bond movie leading up to SPECTRE - which I just saw today. During the last 13 days I have watched all 24 official Bond movies and Sean Connery's Never Say Never Again. I couldn't seem to find any way to view the version of Casino Royale from 1967, but perhaps that's for the best as I have only heard negative things about it. Here are my thoughts on the new movie (very short and NO spoilers) and some thoughts about the franchise in general:
SPECTRE is a very different Bond film and seems to be a sort of mix between the serious Bond from the latest movies and a more witty and superhero-like Bond. All in all i really liked SPECTRE, but I might in the minority, and I really think it will divide audiences as it does some pretty unconventional things with the Bond character and other beloved characters.
In general it has been very interesting to see the evolution of Bond - or lack there off - when viewing every single movie in succession. It is very clear that the two first movies haven't really established how Bond movies are supposed to be, what works, and what doesn't. However, after Goldfinger the recipe for a successful James Bond movie had been created, and the next 10 movies or so seem to follow the same standard formula: After an intense opening action sequence Bond gets called in and is briefed by M. Bond then goes to one exotic location after the other where he meets the Bond-babe and then ends up in the villain's lair, where the talking villain explains himself. Then a great battle breaks out in the lair and Bond somehow manages to stop the villain. The victorious Bond then gets the girl - The end.
The formula becomes very tiring during the Roger Moore era. It's not that it doesn't work - it just doesn't work 20 times in a row. And when Timothy Dalton finally replaced Roger Moore, it was a breath of fresh air. He was a more dark and vulnerable Bond and that really seemed to work (I think so at least), but The Living Daylights was still very formulaic. It wasn't until Licence to Kill that we seemed to get a Bond-portrayal where Bond actually seemed to be a human instead of a superhero. Then Pierce Brosnan came along and we got Goldeneye which was a brilliant Bond. But the three movies with Bronan that followed it weren't very good in my opinion. This was no fault of Pierce Brosnan but more a problem with increasingly absurd plots.
Casino Royale really revived Bond and made him a mortal again and we have now gotten a string of good Bonds (there are some things I don't really like in Quantum of Solace, but it's not a bad movie). All in all it seems to me as if there are two types of James Bond movies; There are the silly and gadget-heavy ones and then there are the more dark and serious ones.
Finally, I want to point out that I love James Bond. I was brought up with James Bond and they are some of the first movies I remember watching as a child. I do have a preference for the darker Bond movies, but I will say that I do not dislike the last few Sean Connery movies or the Roger Moore movies. They are just an entirely different take on the character, and the formula became very tiring - especially when watching them back to back.
I have been rambling on for too long now. What are your thoughts on Bond as a whole?

BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA
Every now and then a Giallo film hits the spot. I don't think I could watch them too closely together, though, it would be like eating too much rich desert at once. These movies are so lush visually, with their bright saturated colors (mostly red and blue), the lingering looks at mansions and beautiful buildings in Rome, all the lavish furniture and fashions that the camera studies. There are always several gorgeous women (this film in particular has Barbara Bouchet, Claudine Auger and a very young Barbara Bach) in various stages of nudity. Everything is glossy and stylish, you don't see Giallo films about a bunch of middle-aged waitresses from a seedy diner in a small town.
But the flip side to all the upper class beauty is that Giallo movies always center around a series of murders. These are not sedate Agathie Christie-style poisonings in the vicarage either, but brutal killings that are more violent than they really need to be. The splashing of blood and gasping and desperate cries for help are kind of punishing to watch. Often the killer is a sort of mystery man figure in a trenchcoat, with a fedora, gloves and a full-face mask to conceal his (or often her) identity.
BLACK BELLY OF THE TARANTULA was directed by Paolo Cavara, not by Mario Bava or Dario Argento (the two artists whose work I'm most familiar with), and it has some unexpected humanizing touches. We spend more time than usual getting to know Police Inspector Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini), who is becoming burned out by his job and ready to resign because he feels he's just not tough enough emotionally to handle it. At first, I wondered why we see him so much of him at home with his wife, and it does lead up to the climax of the film, but mostly it's so we get to know him better. Most of the characters in Giallo films are (let's face it) just good-looking cardboard figures set up for the slaughter, but Tellini is someone with feelings and doubts. Giancarlo Giannini does a nice understated portrayal here. I last saw him in CASINO ROYALE and QUANTUM OF SOLACE, and it's a jolt that he's so young and vulnerable looking here. He goes through the investigation rather depressed and unsure of himself, quite a change from the usual hard-boiled tough detectives in films.
The title of the movie comes from the way the killer has an unusual technique. He inserts an acupunture needle in a specific spot in the back of the neck. The needle is coated with wasp venom extract so that the victim is instantly paralyzed, still conscious but unable to move. Then, while the victim is fully aware of what's happening, the killers cuts open her abdomen. Ack. That's about as gruesome as it gets. This is based on the way a real species of wasp preys on tarantulas and normally tarantulas don't get much sympathy but you have to feel bad for them the way Nature has set them up for the benefit of wasps. (We get to see some footage of a wasp and spider to illustrate the point, thanks fellas.)
The murders involve a posh spa and seem to be motivated by blackmail or someone trying to stop a blackmailer. The exact plots in these movies are often a little murky and convoluted, so it's best to just go along for the ride. The place where I think BLACK BELLY falls short a little is the ending. Usually there's a big surprising revelation about the killer's identity or motives and we really don't have that here. I was also uncertain whether the final victim survived or not, although a doctor does come into the hospital waiting room to say she's going to be fine, so it's as close to a happy ending as one of the flicks can have. Also, and this is just my reaction, the score by Ennio Morricone is too slack and the constant sighing as part of the music seems silly instead of sensual (as I guess it's supposed to be). So that takes away from the mood of the film for me.
We should mention the James Bond connection. The star himself was in the first two Daniel Craig 007 movies (where he added a lot to the world-weary atmosphere), Barbara Bouchet was in the 1967 CASINO ROYALE, Claudine Auger was in THUNDERBALL and Barbara Bach in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, so this movie gives you a little Cinema Trivia question. I have to wonder why Claudine Auger doesn't look her best here or in TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVES. Maybe it was the lighting or the make-up on the Bond films that brought out her best, but in the two European films I've seen her in, Auger looks beaky and rather plain. The barely visible eyebrows don't help. Maybe the fact that she's playing cold, distant characters is part of it.