I think Dalton gets a bad rap as Bond. His edgier, brooding portrayal is more faithful to Fleming’s original Bond, who was pretty much a guilt-ridden burn-out case looking for a way out of the service. And Dalton actually kept a copy of Fleming’s book on hand during filming for use as reference material in between scenes. Gotta give him credit for that.
After the comedian(Moore) retired i found him quite refreshing yes edgier and had a sense of humour..I believe the movies did well at the box office but he was only there to fill in until Pierce Brosnan was available..