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Having recently watched all the “official” Bond movies as well as the unofficial Connery one “Never Say Never Again” - as one of my summer “fun goals” - let me list the Bond actors in order of my best to worst:

1 Connery
2 Craig
3 Lazenby
4 Dalton
5 Moore
6 Brosnan

However, it’s difficult to separate the quality of the actor from the overall movie, and the overall movies vary so much in terms of their production quality, special effects, storylines, as well as the actual time period in which they were produced. For example, Moore’s version of Bond was campy and corny, but this is true of a lot of the action films produced in the 1970s. The special effects of the 1960s Connery films are laughable compared to what producers could deliver in the Brosnan and Craig eras.

Storylines still matter too - the two Dalton Bond films were hurt by the anachronistic 1980s plot lines - Colombian drug runners and Afghan “freedom fighters”? Ugh!

Similarly, Connery’s Japanese impersonations in You Only Live Twice feels really over the top and frankly pretty racist by today’s standards.

Brosnan’s four Bond films were pretty slick in terms of production values, but they were all sort of the same and undifferentiated and therefore for the most part forgettable. Still, there were some great moments, which is true of most Bond movies. When he dove off the cliff without a parachute and caught up with the falling plane at the beginning of Goldeneye was as exciting a moment as any Bond film ever had.

One thing I noticed about all of the Bonds as I watched them in chronological order was that each actor’s films became more reliant on special effects, corny jokes, campy villains, and sexy “Bond girls” - and then the new Bond actor would come in and the series would “reset” with a different tone and more focus on the Bond character which would set the process off again (except for Lazenby who only made one Bond movie). This has certainly been the case with Craig’s films. HIs latest, Spectre, was a forgettable mess compared to his more low key debut Casino Royale which was excellent. Hopefully the producers can restrain themselves enough that the Craig films don’t devolve into self-parody the way Moore’s did.

Also, I would hate to see the franchise wander off into SJW land or destroy the essence of the original character - which is grounded in the hard-boiled film noire and pulp fiction male archetype of the 1940s and 50s. Frankly, the “green” themes introduced in the recent Quantum of Solace were pretty eye rolling.

Still, I am impressed with how long they have been able to drive this franchise. I think they have made 24 official Bond movies over more than 50 years! And they continue to do well at the box office. Most of the films contain the same theme music, the same plot structures, the same tropes, mostly the same character. There is really no other film franchise that has been able to do anything like this. Pretty amazing.