Two important elements in the success of any Bond movie are the calibre of the Bond girl and the main villain. Where both are good, such as Honor Blackman and Gerd Frobe in "Goldfinger", the result can be a classic. Where both are weak, as with Tania Roberts and Christopher Walken in "A View to a Kill", the result can be a very disappointing film (although, to be fair, Roger Moore's performance in that film was also very much below par).
"The World Is Not Enough" (the title is taken from the Bond family motto) takes the unusual step of combining Bond Girl and villain in one person. There have been female villains in previous episodes, even glamorous ones such as Naomi in "The Spy who Loved Me", but they have been relatively minor characters, subordinate to a male criminal mastermind, generally middle-aged or elderly. There is normally no doubt about which side the male villain is on (although "For Your Eyes Only" may be an exception in this respect); nobody familiar with the conventions of the series will be surprised when, say, Drax in "Moonraker" or Naomi's boss Stromberg turns out to be the bad guy.
Sophie Marceau's Elektra King, however, is the first principal villain who is young, female and beautiful. Moreover, for much of the film we do not perceive her as a villain at all. She is the daughter of a prominent oil tycoon who inherits his business after he is murdered at the beginning of the film, and we are initially led to believe that the mainspring of the plot will be Bond's attempts to protect her against Renard, the ruthless international terrorist who was responsible for her father's death and who is threatening to blow up her pipeline which connects the Caspian oilfields to the West. Only later do we realise that Elektra and Renard are actually in league with one another and that she has an even more sinister plot in mind.
Given that Elektra effectively combines roles that in most Bond films would be played by two different actors, it is fortunate that the lovely Marceau copes so well with the burden placed upon her, making her character both detestable and desirable. (Although Elektra is half British and half Azerbaijani, Marceau herself is from France, a country that has provided three other lovely and talented Bond girls in Claudine Auger, Carole Bouquet and Eva Green).
To even up the balance, a more conventional "good girl" love interest has to be provided for Bond in the shape of Denise Richards who plays nuclear physicist Dr Christmas Jones. Although Richards is as attractive as Marceau, she is unfortunately much less talented, and proves to be the weakest Bond girl since Roberts. She is never convincing as a scientist, not because of her looks (contrary to what some might think, there is no genetic link between beauty and stupidity) but because of her weak acting; whenever she has to discuss anything technical it is all too obvious that she has no idea what she is talking about and is simply repeating lines learned by rote.
Another feature of "The World Is Not Enough" is that it appears to be less of an extended advert for the travel industry than most Bond films. Although Istanbul (famously featured in "From Russia with Love") makes another appearance, most of the locations- the industrial city of Bilbao, London's East End, the Caucasian oilfields- are not the sort of glamorous tourist destinations featured in most films in the series. There is a particularly good opening sequence in which Bond takes part in a thrilling speedboat chase along the Thames and in which the Millennium Dome makes its first screen appearance. (It is a pity that M's line "Well, at least the Millennium Dome has some use" was cut, although admittedly we did not realise in 1999 what a massive white elephant the Dome would prove to be the following year). There is also a chase scene involving snow and skiing- something that has perhaps become an over-familiar cliché in Bond movies.
Pierce Brosnan is as assured and capable as ever in the main role, and there are some good supporting performances from Judi Dench as his boss "M" and Robbie Coltrane as the dodgy Russian businessman Zukovsky (who also appears in "Goldeneye"). This film marked the last appearance of Desmond Llewellyn as the eccentric scientist "Q" and the first appearance of his successor "R", played by John Cleese as a sort of hi-tech Basil Fawlty. Denise Richards apart, this is one of the better Bond films, with an excellent balance of excitement, humour and glamour, and probably Brosnan's best together with "Tomorrow Never Dies". 7/10
"The World Is Not Enough" (the title is taken from the Bond family motto) takes the unusual step of combining Bond Girl and villain in one person. There have been female villains in previous episodes, even glamorous ones such as Naomi in "The Spy who Loved Me", but they have been relatively minor characters, subordinate to a male criminal mastermind, generally middle-aged or elderly. There is normally no doubt about which side the male villain is on (although "For Your Eyes Only" may be an exception in this respect); nobody familiar with the conventions of the series will be surprised when, say, Drax in "Moonraker" or Naomi's boss Stromberg turns out to be the bad guy.
Sophie Marceau's Elektra King, however, is the first principal villain who is young, female and beautiful. Moreover, for much of the film we do not perceive her as a villain at all. She is the daughter of a prominent oil tycoon who inherits his business after he is murdered at the beginning of the film, and we are initially led to believe that the mainspring of the plot will be Bond's attempts to protect her against Renard, the ruthless international terrorist who was responsible for her father's death and who is threatening to blow up her pipeline which connects the Caspian oilfields to the West. Only later do we realise that Elektra and Renard are actually in league with one another and that she has an even more sinister plot in mind.
Given that Elektra effectively combines roles that in most Bond films would be played by two different actors, it is fortunate that the lovely Marceau copes so well with the burden placed upon her, making her character both detestable and desirable. (Although Elektra is half British and half Azerbaijani, Marceau herself is from France, a country that has provided three other lovely and talented Bond girls in Claudine Auger, Carole Bouquet and Eva Green).
To even up the balance, a more conventional "good girl" love interest has to be provided for Bond in the shape of Denise Richards who plays nuclear physicist Dr Christmas Jones. Although Richards is as attractive as Marceau, she is unfortunately much less talented, and proves to be the weakest Bond girl since Roberts. She is never convincing as a scientist, not because of her looks (contrary to what some might think, there is no genetic link between beauty and stupidity) but because of her weak acting; whenever she has to discuss anything technical it is all too obvious that she has no idea what she is talking about and is simply repeating lines learned by rote.
Another feature of "The World Is Not Enough" is that it appears to be less of an extended advert for the travel industry than most Bond films. Although Istanbul (famously featured in "From Russia with Love") makes another appearance, most of the locations- the industrial city of Bilbao, London's East End, the Caucasian oilfields- are not the sort of glamorous tourist destinations featured in most films in the series. There is a particularly good opening sequence in which Bond takes part in a thrilling speedboat chase along the Thames and in which the Millennium Dome makes its first screen appearance. (It is a pity that M's line "Well, at least the Millennium Dome has some use" was cut, although admittedly we did not realise in 1999 what a massive white elephant the Dome would prove to be the following year). There is also a chase scene involving snow and skiing- something that has perhaps become an over-familiar cliché in Bond movies.
Pierce Brosnan is as assured and capable as ever in the main role, and there are some good supporting performances from Judi Dench as his boss "M" and Robbie Coltrane as the dodgy Russian businessman Zukovsky (who also appears in "Goldeneye"). This film marked the last appearance of Desmond Llewellyn as the eccentric scientist "Q" and the first appearance of his successor "R", played by John Cleese as a sort of hi-tech Basil Fawlty. Denise Richards apart, this is one of the better Bond films, with an excellent balance of excitement, humour and glamour, and probably Brosnan's best together with "Tomorrow Never Dies". 7/10