Dalton was simply awful

I don't know how anyone could say Timothy Dalton was an awful James Bond. In a world where there was George Lazenby, calling Dalton awful is simply ludicrous. And I don't even think Lazenby was awful. He was wooden, but alright. He's still the weakest of the Bond actors however.

Dalton brought intensity and danger to a role that was sorely lacking. I like the Roger Moore Bond films, but they'd slipped into camp. For God's sake, they dubbed in a Tarzan yell and The Beach Boys for God's sake. Towards the end, it looked like Moore was doing everything in his power not to look at the camera and wink.

Dalton, from the moment we first see him, is totally in the role. It takes him no time to become the character. Even when I first saw the movies, that was the first impression I got. There was no stutter step. He was there and I forgot about Roger Moore from the start of his entrance to the very end.

There's two key sequences that totally cement Dalton's Bond as, IMO, the best of the bunch. The first is the scene where it seems he's going to kill Pushkin. The whole sequence is suspenseful, and REAL. Ripping off the robe of Pushkin's wife to distract the guard is totally brutal, but it's what you'd expect from Her Majesty's greatest agent.

The second is Dalton in the scene after Saunders has been killed. The look on his face right before he pops that balloon is pure rage. The bitter delivery of "I got the message." is flawless.

Roger Moore's Bond sometimes seemed like if he didn't have gadgets, he'd be dead. You never got that vibe with Dalton. Sure he drove the tricked out Aston Martin and whistled with the keychain, but Dalton's version didn't seem to have to rely solely on them for survival. Dalton's Bond was presented as the Queen's best agent because he was. He could win with or without gadgets.

Also, we got to see Bond be an AGENT again. His gut instinct tells him not to kill Kara. Then he pieces together the plot from there. First and foremost, Bond is a spy. Sometimes in Moore's efforts, you wouldn't know it. It was, bed a woman, get intel, bed a woman, get intel. The pieces just fell his way. Dalton believably had to work at it.

Another gripe I hear is that he's weak when it comes to the ladies. I challenge anyone with that complaint to find a more spontaneous love scene than the one where Bond and Tara get romantic in Afghanistan. The anger in Kara, the hitting him with a pillow, her calling him a "Back end of horse." His bluntness"Are you calling me a horse's @ss?" And the laughter that follows is extremely REAL

And I particularly like Dalton's cynical reaction at the beginning when Saunders says he's telling M Bond missed. Dalton's reaction, that M may fire him and he'll thank him for it, is classic Ian Fleming. James Bond was often disillusioned in Fleming's books. But he stuck with it because, while he hated the job, he couldn't live without it. He's her majesty's killer. The job isn't just fun and games. Dalton, thus far, is the only actor who's portrayed the Bond that does sometimes hate what he does.

I saw Dalton long before reading the books. I thought he was good, and that was that. Then I read all the Fleming books. Then I went through Gardner, and Benson, and the one-offs, Colonel Sun and Devil May Care, and then Deaver's. Then I watched all the films in sequence again.

When the credits start, and list _________ as Ian Fleming's James Bond 007, Dalton's is the only name that truly matches that description. Connery is great, Andi like all the actors, but Dalton is #1.

I love to love my Lisa.

He was the great promise after an era 1 1/2 decade long of scrapboard thick characterisation of Bond! If he would have been more lucky, able to make a third, he would have shown us a fantastic Bond!

That's your prerogative and you have a right to your opinion. But it seems the majority of us disagree with you.