I genuinely like this movie. But a couple of things bug me.
The main one is Yashuko. Neil introduces her as his patient. In his capacity as one of the top surgeons in the world, he worked with her for months, building up a rapport while painstakingly undertaking reconstructive surgery (and also hypnotizing her for some reason - I always assumed in lieu of anesthesia?). That’s an almost parental level of responsibility over her care and wellbeing.
Then she gets kidnapped right from the middle of his presentation, and he seems mildly distraught? Admittedly, a lot did happen. Presentation interrupted, violent mob attacked everyone and threw things into chaos, he had to kill a man in the fight, and they got away with Yashuko. But when the British government says they’re looking to retrieve Yashuko and they need his help, he refuses until they tell him they’ll use diplomatic pressure to get him out from under the murder charge for killing the guy. (Which is inconveniently keeping him from… what was it again? Oh, right. His responsibility to his patients. The ones waiting for him in NYC. Not Yashuko.)
Adventure happens and they retrieve Yashuko and pull her away to relative safety. But time is short. So instead of getting her to a safe house or something, he hypnotizes her to extract the information from her while they’re still within jogging distance of the bad guys’ base. And, while he has her hypnotized so that she’s immobile and completely unaware of her surroundings, one of the bad guys sneaks up on her and shoots her. She dies in his arms. Neil’s emotion? Dull surprise.
He’s not angry. He’s not grief-stricken. He’s not remorseful. He’s not guilt-ridden. It’s just… well, dang. At least I got some of the information we needed. Time to move on.
Was it that IRL Neil had zero acting experience? Was it the writer? The director? The idea of James Bond as this unflappable battle-hardened emotionless Brit?
But, speaking of James Bond… I’m not entirely sure why they couldn’t use the name. Neil Bond would have worked, and wouldn’t have had any trademark issues. It’s not like they even own the name James Bond. Ian Fleming, looking for the most boring, forgettable, and unassuming name in the world, happened to look at the bookshelf and see the Audubon Society’s Field Guide to Birding, written by James Bond. And he just outright stole the name. It’s not like they own the copyright to the letter M (short for Minister, as Q is short for Quartermaster), either. Moneypenny is about the only name that might have gotten them in trouble. Honestly, “double o seven” seems more likely to hold up to a copyright claim than anything. It’s weird.