Yesterday, Thanksgiving, in the post turkey haze, Esther, her mother-in-law, her brother and I went to see Casino Royale. Having seen every Bond movie from Dr. No to Die Another Day, I was very curious to see the blue eyed, blond haired Daniel Craig take the mantle of James Bond.
Wow!
I was so impressed with this James Bond that I am willing to go see it again. The movie, while not without its small flaws, was one of the most superior Bond movies I have ever seen. It had grit, real grit, not the falsely campy grit that Sean Connery projected, and not the lost puppy dog grit that Timothy Dalton sucked for. Daniel Craig had an edge to him that was very realistic for the role, it re-energized the character, showing that he is a a man who goes to work by killing people.
Another aspect that I throughly enjoyed was the lack of gadgets! While they have been cool, the invisible car in Die Another Day, crossed the line from the very cool, the inanely stupid. Sure, my 13-year-old brother-in-law ate up the vanishing car and all of the super cool geeky gadgets, but having recently watched some of the Bond movies on TV, I came to realize that they cheapened the character. They lessened the “realism” and deadened the plot, the gadgets became a game of “Hmmm. Q is giving him an exploding pen, when will he use it?”
The lack of extended chase sequences was very nice, essentially the chase sequence has been a plot moving device that has served little function except to show off the car that Bond was given, spinning razor blades popping from the tires and all. The chase sequence in the beginning of the film was choreographed beautifully and really kept me on the edge of my seat.
Bond’s femme fatale of the movie was Eva Green as Vespa Lynd, and while she was the typical Bond beauty, she was an intellectual match for Bond, making for some witty dialog. I have read other reviews and heard that the viewer was bored by the card playing through out the film, but I found it to be quite exciting, watching for the “tell” of the opponent, who in this movie was the most realistic villain in pantheon of Bond baddies, more on him later. The reviewer may have thought the poker was boring, but towards the end of the movie, a few scenes were very drawn out and while I’m sure they, in some way, reinforced elements of the relationship between Bond and his girl, they did start to drag on.
The bond villain was generally a evil mastermind, he was not an over the top villain as in previous installments, like Max Zorin or Goldfinger. He was very fitting for this day and age. I am purposefully leaving out more about the character to allow you to find out for yourself.
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p>2 hr 24 min is the final run time of the movie and I think that it is a plenty good serving of Bond. Daniel Craig has given Bone not only a new look, but a whole new direction, one that is edgier, grittier and generally much more watchable.
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[rate 4.0]
