The Living Daylights (1987)
Every time someone new takes over the role of James Bond it feels like the franchise is resetting to a point. Despite John Glen being overall not a very good Bond director up to this point with the drastic transition of Timothy Dalton taking over for Roger Moore who finally was stepping down as Bond, I was willing to give The Living Daylights a chance. Following James Bond (Timothy Dalton) as he deals with the KGB trying to kill him after helping a Russian General named Georgi Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) escape. Things seem clear but as the movie goes on truths are put into question and it seems the KGB might be playing a bigger game than initially expected.
The main point of interest going into the film was, of course, Timothy Dalton. Where Roger Moore was quite likable as James Bond at first he sadly never really got the iconic movie that he deserved and by the time he got to A View to a Kill he simply was too old for the role. It was time for the franchise to go back to another young and hungry actor but sadly Dalton just didn't deliver here. Where he does give a clear effort to be charismatic and memorable in the role it never truly materializes into the performance. Dalton just feels bland and uncaptivating more so than any other Bond previous to him. To be fair though I also wasn't a massive fan of Roger Moore with his first outing in Live and Let Die but where Moore had multiple films to grow and become comfortable in the role I fear Dalton won't reach the same highs considering he only has 1 other film as Bond. It's not that Dalton is bad per se, but rather is just bland and overall forgettable.
The plot of The Living Daylights also continues to show the weakness of the filmmakers behind these films at least in this era. It is unclear if returning screenwriters Michael G. Wilson & Richard Maibaum are to blame or if it is returning director John Glen but this film reminds me quite a bit of Octopussy when it comes to the plot. Now it is a very different plot pointwise but similar to that movie, this is a film with an actually pretty good and engaging plot. Without giving much away this is a plot with a clear inspiration behind it trying to make it memorable and interesting to the audience. To a point this works, there were some twists and turns that surprised me and felt more effective than nearly any plot point in the past handful of Bond films. Unfortunately again just like with Octopussy the film is not crafted well. Especially with how the film handles some of its reveals and more complicated elements it really starts to feel overly complicated and messy. Where I was able to still keep engaged with the film overall I could see many losing interest simply out of a mix of confusion and unwillingness to put the effort in needed to figure out this plot and fully understand it.
The Living Daylights is probably the best attempt to make a legitimately good film so far in John Glen's history with the franchise but it still isn't there. This is a messy film that really struggles at points to properly explore it's actually interesting and smart plot. Mixed with a bland debut by Timothy Dalton and it's not shocking to see why The Living Daylights doesn't normally come up in many conversations surrounding the Bond franchise. With one more go hopefully John Glen can put all the pieces together and make a legitimately great Bond film leaving with a better sendoff than most get with the franchise.
The Living Daylights is probably the best attempt to make a legitimately good film so far in John Glen's history with the franchise but it still isn't there. This is a messy film that really struggles at points to properly explore it's actually interesting and smart plot. Mixed with a bland debut by Timothy Dalton and it's not shocking to see why The Living Daylights doesn't normally come up in many conversations surrounding the Bond franchise. With one more go hopefully John Glen can put all the pieces together and make a legitimately great Bond film leaving with a better sendoff than most get with the franchise.