I have a confession to make. The first Bond movie I ever saw, and incidentally the first one I saw in the theater, was Pierce Brosnan's debut as Bond in GoldenEye. Therefore Pierce was my first Bond, and like someone's first Doctor, one tends to be a bit protective of them. I really liked Pierce Brosnan as Bond and I still do. So, naturally it hurts to hear backlash against him, even from Pierce himself. I mention this just so you know where I'm coming from. I'm hopelessly biased and admit it up front. For me, GoldenEye was a smashing debut for Pierce Brosnan and remains one of my favorite Bond films.
James Bond (played by Pierce Brosnan) is on assignment to destroy a chemical weapons facility in Russia with assistance from his friend and fellow agent Alec Trevelyan (played by Sean Bean). The mission goes south and Alec is shot by General Arkady Ourumov (played by Gottfried John). Bond is able to escape by plane just before the plant is blown up. Nine years later, Bond is on assignment in Monte Carlo to investigate Xenia Onatopp (played by Famke Janssen), a suspected member of the Janus Crime Syndicate who has formed a suspicious relationship with a Royal Canadian Navy Admiral. His suspicions turn out to be well founded as Xenia murders the Admiral and then she and her associate steal prototype Helicopter that can, among other things, withstand an electromagentic pulse.
Meanwhile at a remote satellite base in Russia, two computer programmers, Natalya Simonova (played by Izabella Scorupco) and Boris Grishenko (played by Alan Cumming) are working when General Ourumov and Xenia Onatopp arrive. They steal the GoldenEye satellite control disk and use it to destroy the dish and complex to cover their tracks, massacring everyone there first, except for Natalya who was able to hide, and Boris who was outside smoking during the attack. Upon escaping the wreckage of the satellite base, Natalya is able to locate Boris, who suggests they meet up and immediately betrays her to Janus. Bond is given the assignment to check out the attack by M (played by Judi Dench). Upon arriving in St. Petersburg, Bond arranges a meeting with Janus himself and is shocked to discover that Janus is actually Alec Trevelyan, having faked his death nine years earlier. Left to die in the stolen Helicopter set to self destruct with Natalya (apparently in an attempt to frame them for stealing GoldenEye, I guess), Bond and Natalya are able to escape at the last minute. The two then decide to team up to stop Alec and General Ourumov from deploying the second GoldenEye satellite to cover up a large theft by Alec from the London banks.
As I said before, GoldenEye was my introduction to the James Bond series so there is a lot of nostalgia to deal with when it comes to this film. Luckily for me, it happens to be a genuinely great Bond film and certainly falls in my top ten. Pierce Brosnan, who the producers had wanted to play Bond for years but initially couldn't because of a contractual commitment to the TV series Remington Steele, finally got his chance to play Bond. He does a great job in the role, clearly drawing from both Connery and Moore, while also making the role his own. The film also marks the debut of Judi Dench in the role of M, a role that had previously been traditionally male. Dench makes the role her own, adding some nice depth to the character while also asserting her authority by calling Bond a "sexist misogynistic dinosaur" and a "relic of the cold war," thereby firmly establishing where this new Bond falls. We also see the debut of my personal favorite Moneypenny, Samantha Bond. I loved that while her Moneypenny was more than happy to flirt with James, she was also kind of over him by this point and it's established that she has a life outside of the office that doesn't include endless pining for James. It was a refreshing change of pace for the character (and yes Lois Maxwell was an amazing Moneypenny and will always be the definitive Moneypenny after playing the role for 22 years, okay? That was a preemptive statement for all the Bond fans I can hear screaming at me in my head. You'll have to forgive me, as I said before I'm horribly biased with this review).
Sean Bean makes for a great bad guy and it was a nice touch to have his character be a traitorous former MI-6 agent. The history between Alec and James adds some nice depth to their interactions. I also really liked Izabella Scorupco as Natalya. She's a smart, capable and headstrong woman who has just as important a role to play in saving the day as Bond does, which is a nice change of pace. Also, for whatever reason, I really liked Alan Cumming as the obnoxious and pervy computer hacker Boris. Normally he would be annoying but somehow Alan Cumming's exaggerated overacting made him rather entertaining to me.
The film has plenty of great action moments, from the opening scenes of Bond infiltrating the Russian Chemical plant to Bond stealing a Russian tank to pursue General Ourumov and the kidnapped Natalya through St. Petersburg (while destroying a good chunk of it in the process. The set design is also really well done, with James and Alec's reunion being in a graveyard of sorts filled with old statues and relics of Soviet Russia being a particularly telling moment, seeing two Agents from the Cold War reuniting and neither one seeing much purpose anymore. Bond however has carried on whereas Alec has decided to turn criminal. It's a brilliant touch on the part of director Martin Campbell and his design team. Eric Serra provides a very unique score for the film that was initially criticized for being less like the typical Bond score and closer to Serra's score for the Luc Besson film Leon: The Professional. It's an unconventional score, but I've always kind of dug it myself.
Overall, GoldenEye was another fantastic entry in the Bond series and firmly establishing there was still a place for James Bond in the world after the Cold War. Nowadays, people like to rip on Pierce Brosnan for not being a good Bond, but I couldn't disagree more. I've always really liked him in the role. But, as I said before, he was always my Bond so that may have something to do with it.
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