James Bond is probably one of the best known characters in any entertainment medium. Besides Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Superman, Mickey Mouse, Luke Skywalker and Mr. Spock that is. Dr. No is the first movie produced by Albert R. Broccoli, based on Sir Ian Fleming's James Bond series of spy novels, and in my opinion it is one of the best. I didn't see a James Bond movie until 1998, when the third film starring Pierce Brosnan as Bond, The World Is Not Enough, was out on home video, but I was hooked. Between my dad and I, I think we own every main, original (1962-2002) Bond film on DVD, and I own three of them on VHS.
The thing that I liked the most about Dr. No is that the plot is simple. While later Bond films have super complicated plots, particularly the more recent ones starring Daniel Craig, these early ones are easy to follow and are relatively unpredictable. I've only seen Dr. No twice in my life, the first time was on DVD a few years ago, and the second was on VHS last night. And because I hadn't seen it in several years, I felt like I was watching it for the first time last night. Which is kind of cool. So not really knowing what was coming as the movie went on was neat. Though there were two things I knew weren't going to happen. Bond wasn't going to die, and Dr. No wasn't going to win. I mean it's pretty much a given that Bond wasn't going to die since he's the main protagonist of this franchise, and killing him off in the first movie would've been stupid if they wanted to make a series of movies out of the books. And I knew Dr. No wasn't going to win, because the early Bond films are very black and white, where the hero always wins and the villain always loses.
One of the things that I found ridiculous about this movie is how many women are wanting to kill Bond. Normally there's only one of them, but in this movie there's two. Mind you the number of women he sleeps with is also higher as well, so I guess it evens out.
The cast is pretty great. Sean Connery is of course my second favourite Bond aside from Pierce Brosnan. Yeah, Connery was the first actor to play Bond. In the Eon films anyway, as Barry Nelson had played Bond in a one hour special that aired on CBS in 1954. That's why I like Connery in the role so much. He was the first and so every other actor who played Bond in subsequent movies had to follow his performance, while trying to make the role their own. Kind of like how every actor to play Batman in the movies had to follow the previous one while making the role their own. Same with the Doctor on Doctor Who. I also like Ursula Andress as Honey Ryder. However I don't really have an opinion on the actor who plays M or the actress who plays Miss Moneypenny as they're only in the first act of the film and then aren't seen again at all in the movie. Which is a different approach to Judi Dench's performance in the Brosnan and Craig films, where she's heavily involved in the plot of each film. Here though, M is really just there to give Bond his missions, much like how Chief Quimby gives Gadget his assignments in Inspector Gadget, Basil gives Austin his assignments in the Austin Powers films, and the Chief gives Maxwell Smart his assignments in Get Smart. He's also there to be the source of the plot because he gives Bond a lot of information. Moneypenny is just there to be M's secretary.
Dr. No is probably the lamest Bond villain of them all. He really doesn't do much. Mind you he leaves his henchmen to kill Bond and doesn't witness the murder himself, thinking it unnecessary. Which results in Bond not being killed, and is something that is brought up in the Austin Powers films as being the reason why the villains never win in this kind of movie. It's also something the 1966 Batman TV series took as the supervillains would always leave Batman and Robin alone in whatever death trap they're in for the cliffhanger at the end of the first episode of the week. It's probably a trope that goes all the way back to the movie serials of the '30s and '40s. I don't know, maybe I just like Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger, Blofeld in You Only Live Twice and Diamonds Are Forever, Alec Trevelyn in GoldenEye and Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough better. Either way I don't think Dr. No is a very good Bond villain. Though I do appreciate that they gave us a reason for him being a criminal with SPECTRE. Many Bond villains don't have that, so it's cool here.
Overall, I really enjoyed Dr. No. Is it the best Bond movie ever? No. Is it in my top 3? Absolutely. There's humour, intrigue and it's just a fun movie to watch. It's also the first Bond movie ever, so that adds to my enjoyment of this movie. I'm going to give Dr. No 9/10 stars because not all of the Bond elements are in place yet, and I really do feel like some of the later Bond movies are better than this one is. I'd definitely recommend checking this movie out though if you're a James Bond fan and haven't seen it yet.
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