I defy you Tyler Mirage to name ONE Roger Moore Bond that was as good as any of the Connery's, even that one-not James Bond that was really a James Bond-Never Say Never Again.
Ginger Bond's dont compare. It's sad but true. Moore is better than Craig though. I will say that. The Craig Bonds seemed intent on following the The Bourne Identity formula rather than the superior Connery Bonds. I enjoy the Craig Bonds as their own thing but they all have weak, non-memorable, villains and Craig always looks like he just walked out of an MMA fight ring after getting his ass whooped by Ken Shamrock.
Firstly, I like my Bond to have a sense of fun. Connery was too busy taking himself seriously as the icon of infallible male perfection, while Moore’s was more tongue-in-cheek and leagues closer to an actual human being with a heart, vs. Sean Connery’s ME BIG MACHO MALE MAN NO EMOTIONS mid-20th century caricature of a “man”.
The Spy Who Loved Me is probably the best of Moore’s outings as Bond, and one of the better Bond films in general. There's a great scene where Bond is having to admit to Anya that he killed her lover, and Moore had a few scenes like that in his run where the gravity of the situation is made all the better by Moore's usual chipper attitude being replaced by a grave seriousness. The whole film is also an interesting nod to detente in which the Soviets, British, and Americans are presented as not being all that different, and should pool their resources against a common enemy, in this case the megalomaniacal Stromberg. With Stromberg, it's the first example of having a villain that's not motivated by money or influence (like SPECTRE always was), but someone who actually has a set of ideals and enough dislike of mankind to follow through on them, which opens the door for a lot more frightening scenarios and higher stakes for Bond. And this threat can be seen in how Moore interacts with him; notably at the end when he finally shoots Stromberg: it's one of the only times where he does NOT give a clever quip at the end. He's just happy the SOB is dead.
On the subject of detente, Moore's movies delve into that a couple of times.
Octopussy has flaws, but the overall plot of one Soviet general trying to provoke a war is countered by the minister of Defense and literally every other Russian being like "Dude, that's dumb. Don't do that." It tries to present a more human and multi-faceted view of the Soviets than Connery's films ever really did (though, in fairness, he never really seemed to directly deal with the Russians as much as Moore did)
Another good moment for
The Spy Who Loved Me: when Bond and Anya are doing the usual spy back-and-forth of showing how much they know about the other, Anya starts getting a one-up on Bond when he mentions his marriage to Teresa, and Moore hastily says "You've made your point." It shows that he still has a sore spot on that without dwelling on it too much or giving it an over-acting angry scene like Craig probably would have. Also worth comparing Moore's low-key but still sincere love of Teresa to Connery in
Diamonds Are Forever. Connery starts the movie on a murderous rampage to get revenge for her murder, but the moment he gets (fake) Blofeld, he never refers back to Teresa or shows any real depth towards the subject. His take on the set-up was just to present Bond as a man who always gets his revenge, and cannot/will not show any vulnerabilities, as per the 1960s code of manly male machismo.
But all of that^ pales in comparison to the fact that Roger Moore’s Bond also fought ninjas, defeated a zombie, tamed a tiger and then finally went to space in what is probably the greatest balls-out crazy James Bond adventure of all time:
Moonraker. Things that Connery Bond cannot boast.
And despite my defense of Moore, he’s actually not even my #1 favourite. That honour goes to Brosnan. With all of that said, though, we can at least agree on Craig being at the bottom.
Yeah, we've talked about his little shouting part he has in every movie. It is akin to a Cruise Wilhelm scream in every film. He just shouts dialogue out of nowhere. Annoying. Every.single.film. Did it ridiculously in Jerry McGuire. Did it in The Last Samurai. All the MIs. I like the latest MIs but that is because they finally have more of a team concept than the Cruise-alone like MI2. And Pegg is good in them.
