Royale (2006), Quantum (2008), Skyfall (2012)
it's funny, because the impression i get from reading about these movies online is that most people liked Quantum of Solace the least, and out of the three i think that was probably my favorite. In comparison to Casino Royale it just felt like a smoother movie throughout with no dialogue or transition issues despite having a more confusing plot, and it was a bit sleeker overall. In comparison to Skyfall, Quantum was pretty great, and Skyfall was, well, just not.
When they were deciding what sort of costume that Matt Smith's Doctor from Doctor Who was going to wear, one of the final candidates was some sort of swashbuckling pirate-y sort of thing that Matt Smith expressed concern over, saying, "this looks more like how someone else would dress the Doctor as opposed to how the Doctor would choose to dress himself." This was running through my head after the credits for Skyfall started rolling. While the plot itself wasn't terrible, the execution of said plot and the transitions that got from one place to the next felt like fan-fiction, and the dialogue was terrible. No film should ever ever have someone say before the big action is supposed to start, "are you ready?" I mean, the response wasn't precisely "i was born ready!", but it was damned close enough and that almost spoiled the entire movie right there.
The distinction between how to make a Bond film that stays true to a Bond film intent versus a fan fiction effort was the biggest problem with Skyfall overall. It couldn't figure out whether or not it was supposed to be an over the top cheesy classic Bond film or if it was supposed to be a serious action drama. With Royale, there's no doubt that it was supposed to be a cheesy over the top Bond film, introducing Craig with an absolute bang. Quantum was similar. I only watched the film two days ago and the thing that sticks in my mind is that it went from a car chase scene to a car/motorcycle chase scene to a boat chase scene to a frickin airplane chase scene to a gradually exploding hotel scene. That's absolutely ridiculous, but it's fun, and the way it got from point A to point B didn't bother me, and the dialogue felt exactly right.
Not that those two films were issue free, and not to say that Skyfall was bad exactly. It had redeeming qualities that made it enjoyable. I liked the new Quartermaster. The main antag was pretty awesome. Daniel Craig is still an awesome Bond character, and I'm pretty fond of Dench's M. The action scenes weren't quite as 45-minute roller coast ride was the previous, but that's not a bad thing. So i'd say it was still a fun film, it was worth watching it in the theater last night as opposed to waiting for it to come out on DVD somewhere, but it had some big britches to live up to and it just failed to do so.
One of the most bizarre things about these series of movies is the weirdness in which the reboot is approached. Royale is supposed to be a reboot of Bond - the plot takes place at a time when Bond has just earned his double-oh status, yet Judi Dench played M for quite a few movies before Craig. So when Skyfall transitions from Dench who steps down from the M role to the new guy, along with the introduction of a new Q and a new Moneypenny, particularly since we're introduced to Moneypenny as if she was a fresh new character and not related to the Moneypenny that we've seen in previous films - with Dench as M, no less - i can't help but think that there's some weird time vortex thing going on.