With more than 20 films since 1962, there is something reassuringly unchanging about the appeal of James Bond. But with Spectre, the latest movie, being released here on November 6, one has to wonder whether the notion of the lone-wolf spy can still be relevant.
Unlike the early films starring the likes of Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Roger Moore, which always ended happily with the evil criminal mastermind being vanquished, the Bond movies since Daniel Craig took over have had a distinctly darker timbre.
Is that because the rise of groups like ISIL and Al Qaeda makes the idea that the world’s problems being solved by a daring loner seem distinctly far-fetched? And this from a movie franchise that once involved 007 escaping from certain death via an alligator footbridge? James Bond has been updated for his latest incarnation, but one wonders whether it is time for his foes to undergo a similar transformation.
