We’ve already had Deathmatches about the songs (albeit I obviously recognise not all of those in that round of Deathmatches were played over the titles), so for this one lead with your impression of the visuals rather than the vocals / da tune – although obviously how those visuals play out alongside the music is an entirely justifiable consideration and it would be madness to deny it. Madness, I say.
Live And Let Die - I think it’s the best of this bunch, it’s colorful, the voodoo stuff, the flames, women’s face turning into skulls, the way it plays perfectly with music, it’s just purely art, fantastical and classic.
Goldeneye - What I liked in this one was the statues, the Janus one, greatly crafted effects, the two headed women with one smoking and the other one released a gun from her mouth before smoking, then those women with hammers smashing down the marble stones, it’s really great, it also mixed well with Music.
Goldfinger - The Quintessential one, the design is timeless and iconic, the scenes projecting through the Golden Girl, it’s haunting especially combined with Shirley Bassey’s vocals "He Loves Gold! He loves only Gold! Only Gold! He loves Gooold!!! It’s great.
No Time To Die - Not much of a fan of this one, as much as beautiful the design, it’s very much like Animations, the guns firing before the bullets formed a DNA shape design, it looked a bit fake, it goes well with the song though, it’s decent (the CGIs here made the ones in DAD looked great ).
License To Kill - so that leaves me with one, LTK, for me, it’s cheap, it didn’t fit well with the song, mostly photographies, not much any color, it’s not much on design, and yes again, the 007 Logo coming out of a gun, then the most distracting for me was the woman dancing turning around and it consumed minutes.
GoldenEye – Great visuals featuring the collapse of the Soviet Union. Miles better than the previous film’s entry. Simply a work of art. My second favorite main titles sequence.
Live And Let Die – Again, great visuals and imagery with the voodoo motif. No doubt enhanced by the song, but even without it, the sequence is a solid effort.
No Time To Die – I wasn’t wild about this main titles sequence initially, but it’s grown on me–a little. However, it will never be more than a middle of the pack entry for me.
Goldfinger – I’ve never been overly wild about this one. I think it’s because they show/spoil scenes of the movie (and even a shot or two from From Russia With Love!) on the golden girl which I’d rather they didn’t. But I have to admit it is iconic, however, not one of my favorites.
Licence To Kill – Sadly, the great Maurice Binder was running on empty for this one. It is the most tame and boring of all the main titles sequences in the series, and it is my least favorite.
Biggest Surprise: GOLDFINGER–liked it so much I popped the Blu-ray in, and watched the whole movie.
GOLDENEYE: Woman’s mouth opens, and out comes a gun that fires–wrong in more ways than there are sands of the Ganges.
LALD: 1973–Martin and Malcolm assassinated–so let’s open the credits with a pop-eyed Negro (just to prepare the audience for the racial stereotypes that await), and end with a woman with long, flowing blond hair. Greatest quality disparity between song and title sequence in the series.
NTTD: maybe the best first 2/3’s of any sequence–seems to possess its own narrative–then it inexplicably goes off the rails.
NTTD’s transition to the London skyline is seamless and genius. Kleinman hasn’t done a bad sequence in my opinion and I’m hoping he’s retained going forward. Of the others on this list I pay tribute to Goldfinger - it’s a cinematic work of art.
I re-watched the NTTD title sequence with your analysis in mind, and it is excellent. My objection is withdrawn. Thank you.
Agreed. The critic Fernando Croce wrote of the sequence:
"The eyeball gag that so beguiled Bresson sets up the famous credits, the modernist body as gilded screen for brutal projections. (‘His lies can’t disguise what you fear,’ thunders Shirley Bassey over a honeyed Dalí installation.) "
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