Zukovsky dies in World Is Not Enough, but not before saving Bond. The elder King dies at the beginning, but technically he's M's friend not Bond's.
Damn, I was so pissed that they threw Zukovsky away I must have blanked on that. King sr. is more of a plot point than a character ... kind of like Felucca (I think that's her name, she gets shot right before Bond takes his tie back from the bald-headed wrestler guy) in SPY, who is probably as close to a sacrificial lamb as you can get there.
I like Craig as Bond. His portrayal in Casino Royale is spot-on compared to the novel, right down to his cold dispassionate attitude. Like or not, that's who Bond of the novels was. I don't like the earlier films over-reliance on gadgetry, and thought there was something rather pleasant about Q handing 007 nothing more than a gun and a radio. The Bond of the novels gets beat up quite frequently, and occasionally loses a fight, but through some stroke of luck makes it out alive, usually through the assistance of the Bond girl.
Sean Connery showed signs of being on autopilot in YOLT, but Lewis Gilbert is right in saying that Sean Connery was at his best in Aki's death scene, showing deep concern and sorrow when seeing Aki slowly die from asphyxiation (and you don't see the rest of his grief when he walks slowly to a window, facing away). The being "cut up about it for all of 2 seconds" is what I mean by the whiplash effect following Aki's death when we move on to more slightly silly Ninja training stuff. And loads of people were genuinely saddened or pissed off by Daniel Craig's pithy remark and stoney face when Severine was shot in the head. And as deeply unpleasant as Tracy and Severine being shot in the head were, at least their deaths weren't as painfully protracted looking as Vesper Lynd's drowning and Aki's dry drowning.
I'm hardly ever disturbed by fictional deaths, especially those not based on fact. (I was totally on the edge of my seat when HBO's John Adams made a big deal out of Adams' three children being vaccinated for smallpox, figuring that with that kind of dramatic emphasis, at least one of em'd bite it. Happily, no.) I managed to see The Bourne Supremacy in theaters with no idea that Marie would bite it in the first act, though, and that was a bit of a bummer. Yeah, I find that sort of RL stuff much more unsettling. Like the scenes of depressed Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers - some of it is played for laughs, but it's not so funny knowing he actually tried offing himself at one point. Also, the Oddjob knockoff from Austin Powers apparently became a raping, murdering psycho. Try laughing at his scenes now...
Well OJ Simpson is another sociopath, but I feel I can still sit through Capricorn One and Naked Gun trilogy. Another Bond actress who recently had a very unfortunate end at a comparatively young age is Angela Scoular, who played one of Blofeld's women at his mountain base in OHMSS. In her last years she was fighting a losing battle against clinical depression and terminal cancer so drunk sulphuric acid solution. She was only 65.
Not just one of Blofeld's women, she was Ruby Bartlett. That was such a shame, hell of a way to kill yourself
I saw the Naked Gun trilogy again recently, and at first was worried about I'd react to him, but then I remembered that I was still watching an innocent man insofar as he hadn't committed the crime yet when they were filmed. Different matter watching something made after the case.
...But only after he shagged her... Rosie was working for the enemy. She might not have been doing it willingly, but she was leading 007 to his death, it was only the fact that her fear of Samedi was greater than her fear of Bond that made her blunder into the trap that had been set for 007. Bond's comment when Severine was killed was harsh, however in context Bond was clearly trying to throw Silva off guard before he made his move. And lest we forget however much Bond was using her, she was using him right back.
I think her death might have already been mentioned, but one of my favorite lines from Casino Royale is when Bond is with Dimitrios' wife, and orders room service: "Can I get a bottle of chilled Bollinger Grande Annee. And the Beluga caviar. Yes, with everything. What? No, for one."
I think Bond was more irresponsible with Solange, Jill Materson, and Corinne Dufour. As disappointing and moderately unexpected as Judi's M dying was, I wasn't as emotionally hurt by it as many other much younger female characters and male side kicks dying (which is sadder on principle). Elektra King being shot by Brosnan's Bond was pretty 'what 'da fuck?!', but I wasn't really that emotionally invested in her, especially when she's a villain and when other villains seem more tragic: Xenia Onatopp (an attractive and intelligent young woman who had lost against her severe mental dysfunctions), Eliot Carver (a very lonely, terminally unsatisfied guy at the top of the corporate ladder who cannot develop meaningful relationships), Silva (suffered unimagined torment in PRC custody), Le Chifre (pushed into a corner by powerful crime syndicates), and Alec Trevelyan (haunted by a historical massacre and family annihilation).
Miranda Frost felt that way for me. It was more of a feeling of "well, if you don't want to die, then you shouldn't have become a villain!"
I don't know if I've ever heard Xenia referred to as tragic before. I mean I love her to bits, but she's a bad, bad girl...Silva suffered at the hands of the PRC but his own arrogance and crossing of the line forced M to have to give him up, and Le Chiffre was only in a corner because he was speculating with his clients money! Carver...well Carver was just a dick. I'll give you 006 though, although I thought it a bit odd that he turned his hatred towards England rather than Russia. TWINE is one of my least favourite Bond films but Elektra is quite a three dimensional villain and Brosnan killing her was a good scene.
Since when is Xenia Onatopp tragic? She was a cold-hearted bitch who literally got off on killing people. Elliot Carver was pretty much the same, really, just by different means. Silva? I'll give you that. He could be construed as tragic. So could Alec Trevelyan. But not Xenia or Carver.
I see where you're coming from but Trevelyan (he may have been more hurt by being lied to by his adopted country), yet his crime syndicate seemed to have been powerful enough to seriously screw over Russia in due time: after the GoldenEye caper, Janus could spread its malignant influence even broader and deeper in the former Eastern Bloc and Soviet states, exacerbate the relative anarchy of 1990s Russia, preventing a lesser evil like Putin taking over, and plunge the former-Soviet states into full blown civil war. And Trevelyan's Janus network would be in a prime position to supply the warring factions with weapons and mercenaries, bloating its wealth and power even more (with the West unable to respond, still reeling from Britain re-entering the Stone Age). I dunno, I just can't put my finger on it. Onatopp and Carver are perhaps more cartoonish in comparison and richly deserved their vaguely ridiculous violent deaths, but I found them more interesting and memorable. And as dynamite as Richard Carlyle is in Once Upon a Time I found him pretty "meh" in TWINE, despite some brave attempts to flesh him out (like him slowly losing his touch sensations and not able to physically enjoy Elektra).
I wouldn't say he was incompetent, he seemed a bit disinterested, with the directing and writing not really there (plus many scenes were cut). Also (IMO) the villainous love interesting in partnership with a male villain (who at first seems to be the sole mastermind) was pulled off better in TDKR. And a bit "blah" as Carlyle was in TWINE he was even more uninspired as that dark wizard in Eragon - I'd like to see that pathetic character run into Carlyle's Rumpelstiltskin...