Deep analyses of Bond films are pointless (though some people give it a go). There are simply good ones and bad ones and some which are O.K. 'The World Is Not Enough' is a bit of a cracker. Chases are top-notch, locations are exotic, girls are stunning, and Brosnan is Bond at his best.
Robert Carlyle is the villain in this one, and it's a curiously underplayed part, as if the film-makers weren't too sure of how to fit him into the story. Something is always missing from a Bond film when the villain is not a full-powered Beelzebub, but as the action fizzes along, the deficit in this case is not too serious.
So who is/was the best Bond. For me the last three: Dalton, Brosnan, Craig, are all excellent, with little or no difference between them. Brosnan was made the scapegoat for the atrocity that was 'Die Another Day'. I wonder if the fool who sanctioned an invisible car, John Cleese, and backdrops that would have embarrassed a '60's episode of 'The Saint' was told his/her services were no longer needed?