News article:

... Daniel Craig Is the Best James Bond — It’s Not Even Close

Excerpts:

"An appreciation of how the ‘No Time to Die’ star revitalized a decades-old franchise — and gave us the strongest, most vital interpretation of 007 of them all"
...
"He was blonde, for starters — that was enough to throw some purists into a tizzy. Stockier, too, with a pugilist’s build, and muscles that looked earned rather than sculpted in a gym. Handsome, but not in a pretty way, with that barroom brawler’s mug of his. Those blue eyes were less suggestive of matinee-idol seductiveness than a subzero temperature, chilling everything right beneath the surface. Unlike many of the previous Agent 007s, his vibe was way more East End than Eton, and the confidence of his movements only emphasized that he was a coil perpetually on the edge of springing. Still, he could do everything that was required for the role: handle a gun, throw a punch, trot the globe, quaff a martini, drive sports cars at high speeds, look good while blowing up an island lair, look great in a tuxedo, convince you he could bed numerous women in a single night and kill a man with his bare hands. There was nothing that suggested that, given the right circumstances and a halfway decent villain to go up against, Daniel Craig couldn’t make for a perfectly capable James Bond."
...
"Craig’s flesh-and-bone interpretation not only kept Casino Royale from feeling like a generic action movie coasting on pedigree; it would lay the groundwork for the next four Bond films that came after. The screenwriters, notably series veterans Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, began to tread into territory where the sins of mothers and fathers would keep weighing on sons and daughters. Bond was often a man with an long kill sheet, an endless supply of innunendos and no real past; that would change drastically, and now seems impossible to imagine without Craig gifting 007 with a heart and soul to match the physique. (There are a lot of cracks about Bond’s age in these movies, but Craig is the only Bond who shows up in more states of undress than his female costars, and, regardless of your sexual preferences, it’s extremely easy to see why.)"
...
"Now that we can see how his run ends, the achievement is even more impressive. Fleming’s Bond is in there, with his love of queen and country and specifically made martinis and sharp lapels and expensive watches. But by this swan song’s final fade-out, you’re seeing Craig’s Bond up there. He owns him now. With all due respect to Connery, Moore, and everyone who’s had the privilege to be licensed to kill, nobody’s done Bond — the larger-than-life archetype and the man — better."