I hope one day we'll get a Bond film that delivers on every level like CR does, but I think it will be a long time before that happens. it's just a masterpiece from beginning to end.

that's basically the premise of the Ian Fleming miniseries that starred Dominic Cooper from a few years ago, if you haven't checked that out.

when the personal relationship at the core of the story works (Bond/Vesper, Bond/Leiter, Bond/M), I don't mind the action taking a backseat to the drama. it's when it doesn't work, notably with Bond/Madeleine though they did improve it a bit in NTTD, that it feels like a step in the wrong direction.

>The experiment with Craig and his decades-long lusting for Vesper was... interesting? But ultimately not worth dedicating 6 (?) movies to.

five movies - and I have no proof, but I would bet a lot of money that the plan back in the Casino Royale days was NOT to have Bond mourning the girlfriend he knew for a month, for fifteen years. the movie even ends in a way that would seemingly lend itself to Bond becoming the character we know from the first 20 movies.

it just so happens that they struck gold with the Bond/Vesper relationship (and with Craig and Green's chemistry) and decided, unwisely, to keep bringing it up in the subsequent movies as part of the emphasis on making everything a Personal Vendetta™ to Bond.

and The Foreigner is also directed by Martin Campbell, who gave us two of the greatest "modern" Bond films. (he also gave us Green Lantern and his two films since The Foreigner are pretty bad, but I love him all the same.)

Lazenby could have done more if he wanted to, he just chose not to because he predicted the character and the series would be short-lived.