Redeemed #1: James Bond
No franchise better exemplifies the cycle of disgrace-redemption-disgrace of cinema better than the Bond franchise. With a grand total of 25 Bond films to date (including 1967's Casino Royale & 1983's Never Say Never Again) the franchise has seen its ups and its downs. And while nearly everyone has an opinion about Bond, there's at least one thing that everyone can agree on: James Bond has been in some terrible movies. Ever since the introduction of Sean Connery in the 60s, the Bond series has exemplified excess. The film that started it all, Dr. No, was relatively tame in comparison to its sequels. A rather straightforward plot in which Dr. Julius No attempts to disrupt an early space shuttle launch using
radio waves of all things. "Radio waves!" he remarked sarcastically as he typed this sentence out on his iPhone. Though it would set the stage for a ridiculous conspiracy surrounding SPECTRE and early Dr. Evil parody, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The film itself felt grittier than its sequels, almost carrying a sense of danger for Sean Connery. If not from henchmen then at least venereal disease. The sequels would see Bond in increasingly lavish settings, but the nonsensical nature of James Bond would not reach fever pitch until the Roger Moore years in which James Bond would punch both women and minorities in space. Also, during this time, James Bond would fight a man with a gun that shoots gold bullets. Because that isn't stupid at all. After the departure of Moore, the James Bond franchise would take on a schizophrenic feel, ebbing from Timothy Dalton to Pierce Brosnan who would have the poor fortune of being one of the best James Bonds in 1 good and 3 terrible James Bond movies. However, it was around this time that Eon decided the series had become "idiotic" and cast Daniel Craig in 2006's reboot Casino Royale (2006) and despite the minor mishap that was Quantum of Solace (2008), things got back on track in a big way with Skyfall (2012).