The highly-anticipated release of No Time to Die will bring yet another villain into the fold of James Bond history. While Christoph Waltz' Blofeld will be making a return appearance, Lyutsifer Safin (Rami Malek) may finally be the villain to defeat the titular character, especially given its the last appearance of Daniel Craig as the agent.
Come October 8th, audiences will get a glimpse of how insidiously intelligent Safin is compared to the other villains featured in the series. Some fail due to greed while others fail due to arrogance. Which adversaries from Bond's storied, 24-film career failed because of their (lack of) intelligence?
Gustav Graves - Die Another Day (2002)
Perhaps it's a vicarious effect caused by the movie as a whole, but Die Another Day's Gustav Graves just comes across as silly. If anything, Graves' claim to fame is an impossible surgery. Therein lies the film's main problem: the character's plan essentially hinges on him changing races. It's a plotline that wouldn't happen today for good reason.
This is just one of Graves' faults, though. He never seems as though he's playing Bond, much less has the ability to kill 007. His partner in crime, Miranda Frost, comes across as the brains in the equation. Graves seems content to fire lasers and party in ice castles.
Le Chiffre - Casino Royale (2006)
Every bit of intelligence Le Chiffre appears to possess is due to Mads Mikkelsen's reptilian, cautious performance. However, the man is really nothing more than a white-collar criminal on the run from his machete-wielding debtors.
Le Chiffre is not particularly lacking common sense throughout Casino Royale. However, being a banker for not one but several terrorist organizations carries its obvious dangers. Le Chiffre secured himself an early demise, and it almost certainly was never even going to come from Bond. If anything, that shaking of the formula makes Le Chiffre's a satisfying James Bond villain death.
Aristotle Kristatos - For Your Eyes Only (1981)
In spite of arguably being Moore's best Bond film, For Your Eyes Only has a serious villain problem. At first, Aristotle Kristatos displays cunning in his manipulation of Bond. Once it's revealed in an obvious Bond movie twist that he is a foe as opposed to a friend, things take a turn.
As problematic as Kristatos' serious pining for a much younger woman is, his preparation skills are worse. Once Bond realizes he's the villain, Kristatos plan is to run and hide on a mountaintop monastery. Kristatos is a man unable to finish what he has started because he lacks creativity.
Dr. No - Dr. No (1962)
The first Bond villain set a lot of franchise standards. From the specific physical trait (metal hands) to the complex lair, Dr. No checks a lot of boxes. However, this was also the first time a Bond villain put him in a ridiculously elaborate scenario from which he could easily escape (as opposed to just shooting him).
Dr. Evil's flawed, funny attempts to kill the title character in Austin Powers are almost identical to the tactics of Dr. No. The difference is, when done originally, they weren't played for laughs.
Emilio Largo - Thunderball (1965)
Emilio Largo feels very much like a lesser version of Blofeld. Comparatively incompetent, Largo merely serves a more sinister master. While the eyepatched look of the character is iconic, his brains never prove equally intimidating.
Largo's sharks are fun (and also iconic) but as a character, he's fairly hollow. Largo is clearly a man not trusted by his higher-ups at SPECTRE. Perhaps their lack of trust in his confidence is fair, as Emilio Largo is a man who loses to Bond in his own casino.
Kamal Khan - Octopussy (1983)
The evil, exiled Afghan prince from Roger Moore's penultimate Bond film didn't make much of an impression. Kamal Khan was owned by greed, and he never had qualms with flaunting it. However, greed leads to bad decision-making.
Furthermore, the man's plan was anachronistic. The goal of nuclear disarmament would never be achieved by setting a bomb off. Staging this sadistic attack in a circus is just icing on a very strange and misguided cake.
Gen. Georgi Koskov & Brad Whitaker - The Living Daylights (1987)
It's obvious from the very beginning that General Koskov's defection from Russia is a fake. While he may have been smart enough to fool Bond initially, he wasn't smart enough to trick the audience. Furthermore, he's played like a Three Stooges character and that remains the case throughout The Living Daylights' runtime.
The best thing that can be said about Brad Whitaker is that the obnoxious take on the Reagan Administration is barely in it. Written and played as a raving gun obsessive, Whitaker simply seems like a goofball.
Dominic Greene - Quantum of Solace (2008)
Dominic Greene from Quantum of Solace is in the running for the series' most forgettable villain. The film was notoriously plagued with production issues, and every aspect of the final product is at least somewhat compromised. This extends especially so to its villain.
Greene is essentially just a loud personality in a small room. He's not much of a leader and fails to ever intimidate any subordinates, much less competition. The character is hardly written, so no personality comes through. In the end, he ends up being just dull.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld - Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
The second-most iconic character to come from the Bond series is often seen as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. However, no two Blofelds are the same. Part of this is due to the writing and part is due to the direction. The last part is the particular performance behind the iconic character.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice featured the character at his most conniving and brilliant. He even came out ahead of Bond during his cameo appearances in From Russia With Love and Thunderball. The character comes across as a bit of an eccentric dullard in even Diamonds Are Forever's best scenes.
Franz Sanchez - License to Kill (1989)
Despite an icy performance by terrific character actor Robert Davi, Franz Sanchez feels entirely out of place in the pantheon of intelligent Bond adversaries. If he's anything, he's a mid-series Miami Vice villain. He's written as a simple drug kingpin and that's how he comes across. One of the darkest James Bond movies, License to Kill put Bond against a sadist, not a genius.
The baffling key to understanding Franz Sanchez's incompetence is simple: he invited Bond in. Numerous villains have invited the title character into their operation to bragadociously spout exposition about their master plan. Sanchez, however, brings Bond into his own home without even doing a thorough background check on the man. Bond essentially just gives Sanchez the name of a supposed mutual ally and walks again. Sanchez gave Bond not only cause to kill him but ample opportunity as well.