Goldfinger is a solid example of the early Bond movies - a decent villain, but a plot with little substance that relies heavily on hand-to-hand action sequences and Bond seducing women constantly. Goldfinger has a fully coherent plot (more so than From Russia With Love), and my favorite villain yet. It drags a bit less, and on the whole I can agree that it's the best of the first three. It still is in the same category as the previous two, though - fine movies that just don't have much substance to engage with. The way women are constantly treated as objects for Bond to seduce and protect is extremely tiresome, and the fact that there's a nonconsensual kissing scene made it even more upsetting here. The entire plot and Bond's success rests on convincing Pussy (what a silly name choice) to see his side of it, despite a single paper thin scene of him pleading. The climactic action scene with the admittedly cool henchman with the steel hat was shockingly bad - one of the better parts of From Russia With Love was the solid climactic action scene, but here it couldn't be less convincing, with Bond throwing himself across the ground and hitting the wall with no force. I did like the callback to the opening scene of the movie with the electric shock, though. It's not a bad movie, it's just so mediocre and forgettable that it is truly odd to me how iconic Bond as a figure is, especially if this is the peak of Bond films.