I've always been a big fan of the Bond movies, even though in recent years I've seen the series become more and more 'by the numbers', with gadgets and set pieces that were too outrageous for their own good, bordering on parody. I enjoyed seeing Pierce Brosnan as Bond, and still think his work in Goldeneye was outstanding, but missed the grittier style that was the main attraction of the early Sean Connery pics. It only takes a few minutes of Casino Royale to realise that this harder Bond is back in full effect, and that the choice of Daniel Craig is one of the best casting decisions we have seen in years. His Bond may not be as suave and sophisticated as Brosnan's, but Craig is much more believable when it comes to being a cold, murderous bastard, who still has some emotions going on behind those icey blue eyes.
Yes, Bond is very much back, without invisible cars and watches that he can blow up anything with within a three mile radius, but with much more of an edge than we have ever seen. This is already evident in the black and white opening scene, where Bond is victorious in a vicious brawl inside a bathroom, where he uses his opponent's head to redecorate the place. What follows is maybe the most amazing scene of the movie, where Bond chases an enemy on foot, a chase which leads them to the site of a new skyscraper being built, with some jumping and running up and down buildings that confirms very much that Bond is back to his basics (no gadgets needed), but with an injection of adrenaline that this series has long needed.
Casino Royale is more or less a restart for the series. Bond is on his first mission, to find the man responsible for the funding of terrorists. The trail leads to hotel Casino Royale, where said man, named Le Chiffre, is holding a high stakes poker tournament. Thanks to Bond, Le Chiffre has run into some money problems, and to make this even more painful: the money he has lost is the money that belongs to his terrorist clients, who want their money back. He hopes to win the money back in this tournament,and it's up to Bond to make sure Le Chiffre doesn't win and thus gets into more troubles, with the man then no doubt being more than receptive to special protection by the British government, in exchange for the names of his clients. As the movie does not break completely with tradition, some beautiful women are involved, as well as some fast cars and deadly fisticuffs, with a torture scene that is painful to the eye (especially for male viewers) thrown in for good measure.
In recent years, you could plot out the next Bond-movie before you saw it. Bond would be up against an evil villain and his henchmen (one henchman especially, with a defining characteristic, like white hair, or one eye, or something silly like that), intent on taking over the world. Bond would be supported by the special gadgets cooked up by Q and his men. Bond would travel the globe trying to find the bad guy, meeting up with all sorts of beautiful women along the way. And then, the movie would end with a huge fight inside the evil guy's secret lair that would take up at least one third of the movie's runtime. While this has been fun to watch, it was also getting a bit old. However, in Casino Royale things have changed. The beautiful women are still there (phew!), and so is the globetrotting, but Bond relies on his wits to save him, not on Q's gadgets, while Le Chiffre is evil enough without a right hand man doing the killing for him, and his secret lair is nothing more than an old houseboat in dire need of a fresh lick of paint. The movie is plotted out differently as well, and even though this is a welcome change, it does leave the last half hour as a bit of an afterthought, with many people at the showing where I saw the movie wondering if this was really all.
That aside though, Casino Royale is the movie I have been hoping for, for a long time. The Bond-franchise is very much alive again, and Daniel Craig can rival Sean Connery when it comes to choosing a favorite Bond. Now let's hope the filmmakers can keep this up with the next parts in the series, and not fall back on the excess of previous installments...
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