Almost as if WhatCulture read my mind on every point....

2. Balance Brutality with Nostalgia

Another of the really great habits Bond has picked up since Casino Royale is that he's back to being the brutal assassin Fleming created him to be. It was refreshing because we hadn't seen a Bond that was as much of killer as he was a lover since Timothy Dalton's criminally underrated turn, especially in 1989's Licence To Kill. This brutality was one of the strengths of Quantum of Solace, but this seemed to be toned down a little in Skyfall as a reaction to Quantum's reception.

Bond 25 needs to bring more of this brutality back, but to do so without retaining the charm and throwbacks of Skyfall and SPECTRE would be a problem. The Bond franchise is in rude health right now, in part because the last two films re-introduced classic characters, a few more gadgets, and a lot more wry humour. All it needs to do is turn up the violence a little more than it did in SPECTRE whilst keeping what everyone loved about the last two films.

The logic is that Bond was reborn, broken down, built back up again and faced his demons. When you think about it, it's going to be really exciting to see Daniel Craig's Bond in a truly classic standalone adventure without the baggage of an origin story, or overcoming obstacles for a previous film. But to ignore everything that worked in SPECTRE, and much of it did, undoes the hard work the producers put in the justify a truly fun Bond again. But just because it's fun doesn't mean Bond has to soften up or be any less of a killer.