The World Is Not Enough (1999) | Villains

The first henchman we meet is known in the credits only as Cigar Girl, but the novelization for The World Is Not Enough calls her Giulietta da Vinci. She's not a great henchman. For instance,  she unnecessarily calls attention to herself by shooting at MI6 HQ from her boat on the Thames. But it's nice to see a woman henchman in a role that doesn't explicitly demand one (ie, there's no romantic angle between her and Bond).



I don't know why I even bring up Elektra's security chief Davidov, except that he's an important plot point. He's a nothing character whose motivation is unclear until the movie's real villain is revealed. And by then Davidov is dead.



I love Robert Carlyle and I love the potential of a dying man who can feel no pain and has nothing to lose. But World doesn't do enough with Renard. Once Elektra emerges as the movie's real villain, Renard becomes nothing more than another henchman with a gimmick. I mean, he's still played by Robert Carlyle, which is awesome, but he's not as awesome through and through as he should have been.

Bravo for his use of the parahawks though. That attack sequence is probably my favorite part of the movie.



It's such a great idea to reveal that the Bond Girl is actually the villain. This is why I don't really care that much that Renard gets demoted in the third act. Elektra is a great idea and she's wonderfully played by Sophie Marceau.

But like I mentioned yesterday, there are too many unanswered questions about her. Most importantly, why did she go crazy? Was is just the kidnapping or did she already have that tendency? And why is she so obsessed with sex?

A clue to that last question is when she tells Bond about seducing her guards to get away from Renard when he'd kidnapped her. In hindsight, it sounds like she really only seduced Renard, but her feelings about the event are probably honest. She describes it to Bond as "taking control," which makes a lot of sense for a young woman with an extremely powerful father. It sounds like she got a thrill from rescuing herself. And if she already resented her dad for being overprotective (this is totally reading between the lines, but that's all we've got to go on), her experience overcoming Renard probably gave her the confidence to eliminate her pop.

But she's wired so strangely that she now seems to conflate control with sex. She's consumed by sex. Even when it's clear that she and Bond are on opposite sides, she wants to be lovers with him again. And she's overly concerned about whether Bond and Christmas have been intimate. She doesn't sound that jealous when she asks - her issue isn't the same as Fatima Blush's - she just realizes that her control over Bond is diminished if he's moved on.

I wish all that was clearer or better explored in the movie. She's a great start to a character, but the villains suffer a lot in World by having to split the film between them. Renard is the bad guy for the first half and Elektra takes over for the end, with neither getting as much attention as they deserve.

Top Ten Villains

1. Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger)
2. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Never Say Never Again)
3. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (From Russia With Love and Thunderball)
4. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
5. Maximilian Largo (Never Say Never Again)
6. Francisco Scaramanga (The Man with the Golden Gun)
7. Dr. Kananga (Live and Let Die)
8. Doctor No (Dr. No)
9. General Gogol (For Your Eyes Only)
10. Karl Stromberg (The Spy Who Loved Me)

Top Ten Henchmen

1. Baron Samedi (Live and Let Die)
2. Fiona Volpe (Thunderball)
3. Grant (From Russia with Love)
4. Nick Nack (The Man with the Golden Gun)
5. Gobinda (Octopussy)
6. May Day (A View to a Kill)
7. Jaws (The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker)
8. Naomi (The Spy Who Loved Me)
9. Oddjob (Goldfinger)
10. Necros (The Living Daylights)

The World Is Not Enough (1999) | Women

Dr. Molly Warmflash might be my least favorite Bond woman of all time. First there's her horrible name, but more than that she's a kind of character who doesn't belong in modern Bond films. I accepted Caroline from GoldenEye because she was an intentional throwback for the rest of the movie to comment on, but Warmflash (I hate even typing that name) doesn't get that leeway. She knows she's doing something unethical by clearing Bond for duty with a screwed up collarbone, but she does it anyway for sex in the exam room. And just to make sure we don't mistake this for a mutually non-committal thing, she makes the condition of her compliance that "you have to promise to call me this time." She's the worst.

Well, Bond's the worst, but she's right there next to him.



Sophie Marceau is wonderful at Elektra King, though the character's motivations could have been developed a lot better. I love the tragedy and how it affects M; I'm just not convinced that there's enough there to explain Elektra's hatred toward her father and her sociopathy.

I'd also love more background on her motto: "There's no point in living, if you can't feel alive." Is that something she believed before her kidnapping or did it develop after? We get no sense for what Elektra was like before meeting Renard, which is unfortunate. She's a fascinating character and could have been even more so.

Another thing I really like about her is how she shames Bond for using her (for sex as well as bait). That's not quite fair since she pushed hard for the sex, but it's cool to see Bond confronted for once after doing this to so many women. I would have loved to see Solitaire push him like that, for instance.



So... Dr. Christmas Jones.

Here's the thing. I don't hate her. Not by a long shot. Most people don't like her and I get it. Denise Richards playing a nuclear scientist is its own punchline. And she's not especially necessary to the movie, so she does feel a little tacked on.

What I don't get is the sheer outrage by fans over her. I frequently hear her brought up as the worst Bond Girl of all time and that's just not true. Tilly Masterson, Stacey Sutton, and Paris Carver all immediately leap to mind as having more problems than Christmas Jones. She's not even the worst Bond Girl in this film (hello, Doctor).

Look, I'm willing to admit that I cut her some slack because she looks like Denise Richards and dresses like Lara Croft, but she's an active character who figures things out and contributes to the mission. She doesn't deserve the horrible reputation she has. No, Richards isn't great with her lines, but worst ever? Not even a little bit. In fact, she's going to bump Holly Goodhead out of the Top Ten.

My Favorite Bond Women

1. Tracy Bond (On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
2. Melina Havelock (For Your Eyes Only)
3. Kara Milovy (The Living Daylights)
4. Wai Lin (Tomorrow Never Dies)
5. Paula Caplan (Thunderball)
6. Tatiana Romanova (From Russia With Love)
7. Natalya Simonova (GoldenEye)
8. Fiona Volpe (Thunderball)
9. Domino Derval (Thunderball)
10. Christmas Jones (The World Is Not Enough)