Nobody’s going to argue with the fact that the James Bond franchise was in dire need of a reinvention at the turn of the millennium, with Pierce Brosnan’s swansong in Die Another Day coming under heavy fire from critics and fans alike, leading many to accuse 007 of becoming a cinematic relic that had overstayed his welcome.
Matters weren’t helped by the elevation of grounded, gritty, and hard-hitting agents of espionage like 24‘s Jack Bauer and Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, either, who helped usher in a brand new era for the spy genre. Thankfully, EON Productions got the message and went back to the drawing board, with Daniel Craig’s debut in Casino Royale not just regarded as top-tier Bond – but one of the finest reboots of all-time.
In the years since, the blockbuster spy genre has been in rude health thanks to the resurgent likes of Bond and Mission: Impossible, with Matthew Vaughn getting in on the act by creating the Kingsman universe. It’s the latter that’s ignited fury on Reddit, though, with a terrible take deeming the three-film series to be superior to the entire onscreen history of MI6’s finest, and you can only imagine some of the heated responses happening in the comments.
What makes it even more egregious is that the original poster admits to only having seen a single James Bond film, so it’s hardly a well-informed opinion when the thought process is based on a whopping four percent of the long-running property’s total output dating back 60 years. If anything sums it up best, it’s the succinct reply stating “Jesus f*cking Christ”.
