I don’t believe the other criticisms I’ve seen of the film hold enough weight to pull it down to the bottom depths of a tiered ranking. Thus I suspect the majority of the ill feeling boils down to this:
NTTD currently holds an 83% critical and 88% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also made $774 million after cinemas had been closed for over a year, with many people not wanting to enter one in the first place. I’d call that respectable showing for a ‘poo sandwich’.
Another thought: if Craig was never Bond in the eyes of his detractors, their strong emotional reaction to his death is something to ponder.
Indeed. Bond never gets to kill Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, book or film, and that’s the point. Bond’s career could have been over before it started (either via death or retirement with Vesper), while also being given a lesson about the nature of evil. As for Greene’s demise, that was cruelty beyond words. Walking through the desert and finally doing the unthinkable out of sheer desperation - drinking motor oil. When the bullets hit him it would’ve been a blessed relief.