Bond is cool again

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2006)

It goes without saying that the years haven't been especially kind to James Bond. The series went from being cool and genuinely exciting to campy and barely coherent. James Bond himself went from being charming, roguish, and crafty enough to be a believable secret agent to being an almost cartoonish superhero whose mannerisms had become too cliché to be considered cool by anyone. The movies and the character needed to be reinvented. Fortunately, that's exactly what we get with "Casino Royale." "Casino Royale" is easily the best Bond movie since the early Sean Connery films. It's far more engaging and exciting than the series has been in years, and for once it isn't due to ridiculous gadgets or effects-heavy action scenes. It's due to a plot that actually makes some sense, characters that are actually believable, and a note-perfect performance from Daniel Craig as James Bond. The people who go into this movie expecting the kind of nonstop action of some of the previous Bond films might be disappointed (Bond's mission is to bankrupt a man who is funding a terrorist network by beating him in a high-stakes game of poker), but the folks who want to see a more realistic take on James Bond will love this one.
Of course, the big question that everyone's been asking is whether or not Daniel Craig is any good as James Bond. While he may not look like any of the previous Bonds, he plays the role better than anyone has in years. He often comes off just as charming and likable as the character has been in the past, but in this film we see a dark side to him that we haven't seen before. There are times when he is downright cold-blooded in the way he deals with his enemies, and it's clear that part of him truly enjoys brutally killing people. He's also quite a bit more arrogant than we've seen him in the past. He's good at his job, he knows it, and he doesn't hesitate to do things that let the people around him know it. This kind of cocky confidence is really what makes James Bond the iconic character that he was years ago. He's smooth, cool, confident, and everything that most people want to be.
The most interesting thing about Craig's Bond, however, is that his cool facade is really a front. This is one of Bond's first missions, and it's clear that the fact that his job frequently involves killing people affects him more than one would expect. He's visibly shaken when he makes his first kill in the opening sequence, and at one point he seems to be afraid that his job will rob him of his humanity. There has been talk in other reviews I've read of this movie that Bond is more human in this film because he makes mistakes and gets hurt, but what I think the thing that truly humanizes the character is his conscience. He's far more compelling here than he has been in years.
As I said above, those of you who go into this movie expecting nonstop action will probably be disappointed. Most of the drama comes from a high-stakes game of poker. That may sound strange for a Bond film, but believe me when I say that it works far better than one would expect. Bond may be a tough secret agent, but he has to rely more on his wits and his ability to read his adversary to succeed. It goes a long way in making this more of a character-driven film than most of the Bond films have been. Le Chiffre isn't the typical megalomaniacal Bond villain. He has just as much to lose as Bond does, and he's clearly Bond's equal at the card table. The main conflict is a battle of wits, something that I don't see nearly enough in movies today. It is worth mentioning however that despite the lack of a lot of big action scenes, there is an extended chase scene early in the movie that is almost worth the price of admission alone. It doesn't rely on a lot of big special effects, but it features some truly impressive stunt work. It ranks up there among the most memorable Bond moments, and that's saying a lot.
Overall, I have to say that this movie was a lot better than I could have possibly imagined. If this is where the James Bond series is headed, then I will definitely look forward to the next movie.