8. Casino Royale...Because Die Another Day Was Arguably The Worst Bond Ever
The Awesome Movie: Martin Campbell brought James Bond surging back to form with a gritty reboot of the franchise, reinventing 007 as a more psychologically complex, brutish, ice cool character, far away from the camp that dominated the series for years. With stellar action sequences, one of the very best Bond girls and Daniel Craig proving the critics wrong, Casino Royale became an instant classic. How It Got Made: Because the previous film, 2002's Die Another Day, was the last straw for a lot of Bond fans, who had become fed up with the focus on outlandish gadgets and cartoonish visual effects. Despite turning in the highest grosses of the franchise to that point, the movie received heavily mixed reviews and caused Eon to rethink the series, resulting in the brilliantly back-to-basics effort that was Casino Royale.