Marissa has been watching a bunch of James Bond movies on Netflix as workout fodder (or at least as much of each one as she can stand) and we have structural questions.
The canonical opening is an action sequence completely unrelated to the rest of the plot, then title sequence, then office banter. But why?
This actually makes more sense in the Netflix era! Now, you want to get the audience hooked so they don't switch to something else. But for theater audiences? They aren't going to walk out if nobody gets shot by James Bond in the first few minutes, are they? And just psychologically speaking the last action sequence is probably going to be more memorable.
Is it really necessary to re-introduce James Bond each time? Does this setup serve some crucial role in engagement with the film? (One of the breaks in this pattern is the George Lazenby film where the rest of the cast seems to be reassuring us that James Bond is still James Bond, but that also seems backwards, why tell instead of show?)
Narratively, it seems like you could be doing other things with that time. Show the villain's dastardly plan being set into motion. Then M calls for Bond, office banter, etc., but the plot is already in motion. (The Columbo structure!)
So what function does the opening set-piece serve?
