The first James Bond film is Dr. No. I had no idea what it was about before watching it, just that it featured Sean Connery. I wasn’t sure if he went all the way back to the roots of what became the canon Bond films but he sure does.
I thought the movie was pretty small scale, really. Interesting that it all took place in Jamaica. I thought the early movies would be mostly European-focused since the Cold War was going on and all. I guess more of that comes into the series later (starting with the very next Bond film!).
The stuff that stood out? Quarrel, the subservient local sidekick who believes in dragons and wears a loud red shirt. He looks like a black, chubby Gilligan almost. He must be one of the originators of the old filmic standby of black side character who lives only to help the white protagonist and then die horribly. In this case, the idiot stands directly in front of a fire-spewing amphibious vehicle and gets burnt alive. Then of course there’s the random Honey Ryder who is just dropped into the movie past the halfway point. She’s fucking hot though. And I actually laughed out loud over the name, which must be one of the few I haven’t heard before in jokes or casual reference to the films. The Asian beauty Bond beds then burns was a great inclusion and great character moment.
It wasn’t a bad movie. I kind of expected it to be a lot worse than it was, just in terms of cheesiness. I also thought it would have taken them a few more films to so firmly solidify the character but I guess there were a lot of novels to draw from. It was hilarious seeing Dr. No and his evil base which obviously influenced the first Austin Powers to a considerable degree. Dr. No himself was a weak villain, I hope the Bond villains get more impressive.