"You can see that dissonance in each Brosnan-Bond film: while he's playing every beat completely straight, his adventures are almost unbearably silly by contrast. That his time as Bond culminated with what many regard as the most ridiculous film in the franchise's history, Die Another Day, only sinks his reputation further. But things didn't start off on such an unserious note. Before the diminishing returns of Die Another Day, there was GoldenEye, a franchise reboot that teased a much more promising future."
"A perfect balance between the gruffer side of 007 and its heightened gags, GoldenEye should have been the blueprint for Bond's new era. It borrows from the grounded tone of the Timothy Dalton era - probably because, before Brosnan took on the role, it was meant to be Dalton's third and final film - without sacrificing any campier elements. GoldenEye' s main antagonist is the archetypal post-modern villain, a mirror image of our hero who also served in MI6 before growing disillusioned with the institution."
"But the film also throws in a few textbook Bond villains, like Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), a femme fatale who gets off by crushing men between her legs. What's great about Brosnan's Bond is that he treats each threat with the same grave, steely severity. Unlike Moore, nothing is a joke to him. Brosnan reportedly struggled to set himself apart from the Bonds that came before, but his willingness to take everything seriously goes a long way in estab"
Pierce Brosnan embodied James Bond's suavity and was offered the role multiple times before securing it. He often found himself caught between Sean Connery's defining portrayal and Roger Moore's sillier stylings. Brosnan adopted a grave, serious approach to every threat, which contrasted with increasingly campy film scripts. The tenure peaked with Die Another Day, which many regard as the franchise's most ridiculous entry and which harmed his reputation. GoldenEye provided a stronger blueprint by balancing gruffer realism with heightened gags, featuring a post-modern villain who mirrored Bond and classic antagonists like Xenia Onatopp.
Read at Inverse
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