On many levels Venom: Let There Be Carnage is exactly what you expect it to be: a giant CGI mess of monsters getting up to all sorts of violent, incomprehensible mischief. However unlike it’s 2018 predecessor, Let There Be Carnage is unable to capitalise on the odd-couple energy of Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and Venom learning to inhabit a body together, instead bombarding you with constant, terribly unfunny dialogue whilst Woody Harrelson is vaguely menacing in the background. The story is practically non-existent, the characters paper-thin and it all culminates in the usual CGI showdown; making for one of the most dull superhero experiences of the year.
Now co-inhabiting one body, Venom and Eddie Brock (Hardy) struggle to find a balance between one’s desire to live a normal life with the other constantly craving human brains. Having re-established himself as a respectable journalist thanks to a series of interviews with notorious serial killer Cletus Kassady (Harrelson), Eddie decides it is time to give Venom the boot, forcing the Symbiote to search for a new host. Bad timing it seems, as Cletus finds himself in possession of a similar Symbiote; the red, ravenous Carnage, with the duo on the hunt for Eddie and Venom in an effort to cement themselves as the most powerful duo in town. But first there’s Cletus’ vocally super-powered girlfriend Shriek (Naomie Harris) to contend with, an obligatory damsel-in-distress appearance from Eddie’s ex Anne (Michelle Williams) and a nosy detective (Stephen Graham) to avoid before the predictably bombastic final battle.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), 2021
The first Venom wasn’t great. A fairly stock standard superhero origin story, it was held together thanks to a pretty charming interplay between Eddie and Venom as they felt out a situation foreign to both of them, managing to change each others lives for the better (mostly) in the process. Here that relationship takes centre stage, confirming that too much of a good thing can indeed be bad. The “banter”, if you want to call it that, is incessant; constant bickering which inevitably leads to drawn out sequences of violence inflicted on Eddie by Venom. When you realise that Tom Hardy himself had a hand in the script, this shift in focus becomes more understandable and admittedly, it is pretty funny the first time Venom slaps Eddie around, less so the third time it happens.
This is also the only time that the film seems to have an actual story, with the pair bickering whilst trying to uncover the reason Cletus has taken such an interest in a down-on-his-luck Eddie. Once Eddie gives Venom the boot this story thread is simply never mentioned again. Cletus busts out of jail, bonds with Carnage and goes on a spree of mindless violence while we are treated to an extended montage of Venom at a rave, snatching the microphone from rapper Little Simz (who also has a hit single named, you guessed it “Venom”). It’s a strange ode to the wackiness of early 2000’s superhero films; a brief flash of stupid fun that would never find its way into the MCU, that is quickly swept away when you realise that this cute little side story is actually the main event; the film almost over at barely an hour long.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), 2021
Thus begins the descent into the usual CGI nonsense: Venom and Carnage tussle, leaving Michelle Williams with nothing to do whilst Naomie Harris’ painful villain skulks around, firing off bad one-liners in an annoyingly, needlessly raspy voice. It’s hard to believe that the film was directed by Andy Serkis, a veteran of performance capture known for his precision and dedication to the craft, with nary a personal touch in sight. In fact Let There Be Carnage is one of the most generic, obviously studio-mandated superhero films in years; a pointless sequel designed only to cash in on the success of the first and set things up for inevitable crossovers going forward. When the most exciting aspect of your film is the post-credits scene teasing more films that will almost surely be handled by a better creative team in the future, it cheapens what was already a bad experience.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is not so much a film as it is a montage of painfully unfunny Three Stooges-esque slapstick comedy and over-the-top, generic CGI action. Tom Hardy is solid in the role and this is clearly a character close to his heart but the sequel functions as little more than a vehicle to move Venom into more exciting territory in the future, unfortunately wasting one of his most famous adversaries in the process. There’s only one type of carnage on-screen here and it isn’t the big, red one.
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE), 2021
Venom: Let There Be Carnage stars Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Stephen Graham, Reid Scott & Woody Harrelson – In Australian cinemas now and available on-demand in the US.
The seventh actor to play the iconic 007, Daniel Craig has cemented himself as one of the greatest over the course of 5 films. Borne of a post-Bourne era of action films, Craig’s contributions to the franchise feel completely different from what has come before; less focused on the gadgetry and gaudy cars and more so on no-holds-barred action and a deconstruction of what makes James Bond tick as a person, rather than the mythical, infallible spy of decades prior. With his final turn as the super spy No Time to Die hitting cinemas, we’ve assembled the definitive ranking of Craig’s Bond films, as well as a little something about each film’s theme song, arguably as important to the franchise as a shaken, not stirred martini. Let’s get into it.
5. Quantum of Solace (2008)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2008
Quantum of Solace is a perfect example of why you don’t make a movie without a script. Notoriously rewritten as shooting was underway, Craig’s second outing as 007 is for the most part a confusing mess. Picking up straight after Casino Royale and following Bond as he attempts to unearth the organisation responsible for Vesper’s (Eva Green) death – Quantum – the film struggles to find a story worth telling; constantly referencing Vesper and Bond’s attachment to her but never furthering that exploration of character.
There’s a vaguely investing storyline involving Olga Kurylenko’s Camille exacting revenge on a corrupt colonel that wronged her family and the film sets the board effectively for Quantum to eventually morph into the iconic Bond organisation Spectre, but nothing that invests you in Craig’s portrayal of Bond any more than the phenomenal groundwork laid by Casino Royale. Still that opening fifteen minutes is something else; a visceral, pulse-pounding spectacle that the film never manages to top.
Theme Song: Another Way to Die – Jack White and Alicia Keys is a pairing almost as confusing as the film’s script, but somehow the warring sounds of White’s grungy guitar and Key’s silky piano come together to form a theme song that is incredibly rousing and energetic, even if it isn’t the most memorable.
4. Spectre (2015)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2015
Sam Mendes’ second Bond outing, Spectre marked a shift in the Craig films, embracing the franchises storied history where it had previously been largely ignored in favour of a gritty realism. That meant more gadgets, a more cocksure, smarmier Bond than ever and the introduction of Christoph Waltz’ Blofeld, leader of Spectre. When it works it works well, but more often than not Spectre crumbles under the weight of everything it is trying to accomplish, unsure of the tone it is trying to establish and resulting in the rare Bond film that feels strangely anaemic and bereft of excitement, even during huge set-pieces.
The way Mendes ties Spectre into Bond’s history – all 3 previous film’s villains were on his payroll – is interesting and certainly adds instant weight to the threat of Blofeld, but doesn’t do much to change the fact that Bond is still carving his way through an endless supply of henchmen, none of whom feel particularly more dangerous thanks to the Spectre moniker. The exception here is Dave Bautista’s Hinx; a physically imposing mountain of a man that is easily the best right-hand man of any of Craig era villain and who makes for some downright brutal hand-to-hand fight scenes.
Theme: Writing’s on the Wall – The sweeping orchestral hook in Sam Smith’s Bond contribution is incredible, rightly forming a major backbone of the rest of the film’s score. The rest of the song is an appropriately smokey, hazy trip through elements of Bond’s character that hint at the spectre (see what I did there?) of death looming large in the form of Blofeld.
3. No Time to Die (2021)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2021
Craig’s final outing as Bond might not send him out on as high a note as he deserves but it is nonetheless a thrilling, emotionally compelling ending to James’ story. After a failed attempt on his life leaves James questioning the loyalty of lover Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), he retreats from the world for 5 years, only reentering for a chance at eradicate Spectre once and for all. The pivot from Spectre – the be all and end all of Bond foes and throughout Spectre very much built up as the end of the road – to an underwhelming new villain, Rami Malek’s Safin, doesn’t exactly feel organic, but given the (at one time) finality of Spectre, you can’t give director Cary Joji Fukunaga too much trouble for the attempt.
Other than that and a few hiccups in the humour department, everything else about the film is peak Bond. Chunky, hard-hitting fist fights bring the action back to the intimate level of Casino Royale and the relationship between Swann and Bond gives the film an unexpectedly emotional core; one that allows Fukunaga to reflect on the character of Bond and just how much he has changed from machismo cliché to a flawed, fully formed person craving an exit from his life of loneliness under Craig’s guidance.
Theme: No Time to Die – Like Adele before her, Billie Eilish’s skyrocketing career perfectly intersected with Bond, and her talents are put to good use here with an ominous, sombre piece that feels appropriate to wind down Craig’s tenure as 007. Like the film, it isn’t the best song to come out of Craig’s run but it is a solid addition to the playlist nevertheless.
2. Skyfall (2012)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2012
Skyfall is neck and neck for the number one spot here, a beautifully shot deconstruction of the character of Bond and the loyalty he holds for his country and M (Judi Dench). After a mission goes awry and Bond is presumed dead, MI6 is thrust into chaos when the identities of all undercover agents are threatened to be leaked by Silva (Javier Bardem), a former agent himself with close ties to M. Forced to reenter the fray, Bond more than meets his match in Silva – a spy of the same vintage from a different time – forcing him to confront his own demons in order to come out on top.
Sam Mendes brings such a rollicking pace to proceedings – beginning with a white-knuckle chase that moves from foot to motorcycle to train – and doesn’t stop until the credits roll; always beautifully shot (the Shanghai fight) and laser focused on Bond in a way that Spectre isn’t, favouring spectacle over how the action affects the character. And that character is a far cry from his youthful, energetic debut. This is a beaten down, ageing Bond that struggles to get back into the swing of things. The charming taste for vodka martini’s has turned into an almost crippling alcohol addiction and the swagger and bravado has turned to world-weariness. This is where Skyfall truly earns its place; in going beyond those surface level Bond tropes and looking at the man beneath, what is important to him and why he does what he does. The result is a touching, breakneck rollercoaster only narrowly beaten out by…
Theme: Skyfall – The undisputed best theme of Craig’s Bond filmography, Skyfall is a throwback to classic Bond songs; a grand, foreboding opus that slowly builds to a catchy, instantly recognisable hook that has yet to be passed since. It says a lot that the song also ranks among Adele’s best, a superstar performer who has an extensive body of fantastic work behind her.
1. Casino Royale (2006)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2006
It’s hard to imagine a time when Daniel Craig wasn’t universally praised as 007, but back in 2006 he was anything but the favourite choice to take on the role. That might be that little extra push that nudges Casino Royale past Skyfall into the number one position: how massively it overcomes the hurdle of audience expectations. Within minutes you’re sucked into this grounded, post-Bourne retelling of Bond’s rise to 00 status. Gone are the shiny trinkets and cheesy ice cap melting plots of Pierce Brosnan’s heyday, replaced with brutal bare-knuckle brawls and a not confident, but cocky Bond, eager to prove himself and earn respect. It’s a refreshing lens through which to view a cinematic hero as storied as Bond, especially the fresh take on his romantic relationship with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), the result of which inches him that little bit further towards becoming the James Bond we know.
Chronicling his first mission with the infamous licence to kill, freshly instated 007 finds himself hot on the trail of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) – a financier for terrorist cells around the world – leading him to a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro, where Bond must keep his wits sharp if he is to survive the game and its deadly outcome. Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre is the series’ best villain, a conniving, unscrupulous weasel of a man who plays the part of arch-villain well, but is really on the hook to those more frightening men financing his lifestyle. A Bond villain doesn’t get more menacing than a man who cries blood, yet Le Chiffre isn’t defined by this scary idiosyncrasy; a snivelling, scared man who has bitten off more than he can chew but must act the part if he hopes to survive his predicament.
The action similarly feels layered, only there where it furthers the story of Bond. Luckily for audiences, Bond is a particularly violent man and that means the action flows steadily throughout; a flurry of close-quarters encounters that Bond scrapes through by the skin of his teeth more often than not. That inexperience creates for some fascinating interactions between Bond and series staples like M (Judi Dench); unusually terse and tense scoldings that perfectly stage the adoptive mother-son relationship so brilliantly built upon in Skyfall. The poker scenes drip with tension; full of long, drawn out shots that have the audience looking for tells in the same way as Bond, before director Martin Campbell whips us away to a brutal staircase fight-scene and back to the table; exhausted and overstimulated in the same way as Bond. This is all after Campbell and Craig had silenced the doubters with the most thrilling action sequence of all 25 films: a frantic scramble through construction yards and up cranes that firmly established Daniel Craig as a new kind of Bond. James Bond.
Theme: You Know My Name – What better way to signal a shift in direction for the franchise than with the deafening guitar riffs from Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell. The veteran rocker goes all out, with a soaring orchestral support backing up an already exhilarating hook. The perfect introduction musically to a totally different kind of Bond.
It’s hard to hear the name James Bond and not think of Daniel Craig at this point. The longest serving Bond at 15 years in the role, Craig’s entrance into the role ushered in a new era of gritty, post-Bourne action; less focused on gadgets and more focused on beating his target into submission. What really set his 007 apart from the rest was Craig’s willingness to play with the machismo of the role, creating a Bond that felt familiar in the ways he needed to while adding a vulnerability and emotional rawness that previous iterations of the character lacked. Bloated and convoluted at times, No Time to Die is nevertheless a worthy send-off to Craig’s Bond; a visceral, action filled romp that, despite a lacklustre villain, strikes a perfect balance between Bond old and new.
Following his capture of Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), Bond (Craig) has now left MI6 to start a life with psychiatrist Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux). When their travels lead them to Italy and an ambush laid by Spectre, Bond suspects Swann of a double cross, abandoning her and seeking out a life of isolation in Jamaica. After five years of this simple life, Bond is thrust back into the swing of things with the arrival of CIA operative and longtime friend Felix (Jeffrey Wright), who offers him a chance to take down Spectre once and for all. When things inevitably go awry, Bond and new 007 Nomi (Lashana Lynch) – along with usual allies Q (Ben Whishaw), M (Ralph Fiennes) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) – find themselves embroiled in the plot of a new villain; one with a particular link to Bond and Madeleine’s pasts: Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek).
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2021
Where the previous film Spectre struggled to maintain a serious tone while introducing classic Bond elements – the gadgets, the smarminess – into the grounded world of Craig, new director Cary Joji Fukunaga has better luck, albeit not without its problems. It is well known now that wunderkind writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (of Fleabag fame) was brought in late in production to punch up series scribes Neal Purvis and Robert Wade’s (along with Fukunaga) script. While we can’t be sure what her contributions were specifically, there is a good amount of humour here that feels tonally jarring compared to previous entries, particularly in regards to David Dencik’s Russian scientist, who plays like every bad joke from a Marvel film roles into one character.
For the most part however, this humour works well to emphasise the “fish out of water” scenario Bond now finds himself in. Five years removed from his time in MI6, things have continued to move forward, even if he hasn’t, and nowhere is this more evident in the brilliant back and forth pissing match between Bond and newly instated 007 Nomi. Lashana Lynch is great as the sneering new 007 who does things by the books, ripping into James about his infamous charm with women and constant consumption of alcohol, but also delivering when it comes to the action; a legitimately strong candidate for Craig’s replacement should the series go that route. Ana de Armas also shines as Paloma, a CIA operative assisting Bond over the course of a mission. Despite only being present for one scene, she absolutely steals every frame; a wide-eyed, fresh-faced newbie who is more than capable of holding her own in an electric fight scene.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2021
If Spectre was Sam Mendes pushing the franchise into bigger and bigger set-pieces, then No Time to Die is Fukunaga bringing it back to the basics that began with Casino Royale in 2006. That means a lot more close-quarters, bone-crunchingly violent fight scenes that shake the camera with the impact of each punch. Every fight feels life-or-death in stakes, and despite Bond’s pedigree as the action hero to end all action heroes, Fukunaga dials the intensity up so high that you forget this and become completely enthralled in the chaos unfolding, always on edge that one stray bullet or punch could bring Craig’s tenure as Bond to an abrupt end. When the action does stray into larger spectacle, the camera is always focused on Bond and his positioning within it and these sequences always serve to further the story rather than existing to justify blockbuster status.
In a film this massive (clocking in at close to a whopping 3 hours) there are bound to be weak links and unfortunately for No Time to Die that comes in the form of Rami Malek’s villain Safin. Fukunaga is given the unenviable task of wrapping up five film’s worth of story and in doing so finds little time to focus on the character of Safin; a facially scarred, creepy man with a shared history with a particular interest in Madeleine Swann and a clichéd plan for world domination. Malek gets by on his trademark blank stares and an uncomfortably softly spoken voice but lacks the quiet fury of Javier Bardem’s Silva or the cunning of Mads Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre from previous films.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2021
Thankfully Craig more than makes up for any of the film’s shortcomings in his final outing. After the notoriously difficult shoot of Spectre, he seems rejuvenated here, relishing the chance to flesh out Bond as a human rather than through his violent work. He comes to the action scenes with the intensity you would expect but it is the more humorous elements this time around that go a long way toward showing Bond’s development over the years. After all that time as the self-serious, suave spy he is finally softening into a man that wants more from his life and who is ready to tackle that with Madeleine.
No Time to Die is an appropriately epic end to Daniel Craig’s tenure as 007; a sprawling, globe-trotting adventure with the intense action and debonair charm that you would come to expect, but with a surprisingly emotional, reflective centre that wraps things up for Craig in a cathartic, impactful way. Rami Malek might get short-changed in his role as the villainous Safin and some narrative bloat slows things down at times but the good far outweighs the bad; not even to mention the terrifically moody theme song from Billie Eilish. A bittersweet end to a fantastic run as Bond, it’s understandably hard to swallow the fact that there will be no more time spent watching Craig cheat death as the super-spy.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), 2021
No Time to Die stars Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ana de Armas, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Christoph Waltz, Jeffrey Wright, Rory Kinnear, Billy Magnussen, David Dencik, Dali Benssalah & Ralph Fiennes – In cinemas now.
