Let Down By The Ending

Rating: 7/10 (4 October 2008)

This is the first Bond film I've ever seen (to be honest, the idea of a womanising assassin in a load of action flicks aimed mainly at guys has just never appealed to me) but after hearing all the brilliant reviews about Casino Royale I thought it was about time I gave in and took the plunge into my first Bond film. I wasn't disappointed! You'd have to have been on another planet the last couple of years to have not heard all the criticism Daniel Craig has had in this part - I hadn't even seen the film yet I could recite all the faults - 'He's too ugly to play Bond', 'He's too old', 'He's just awful!' so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find that not only did Daniel Craig not resemble a troll (as some haters would have you believe) and definitely was not too old to be believable in the role, but that his acting was also top notch. As I've said, this is the first Bond film so I can't compare Craig to the other actors who've portrayed Bond, but I felt like he did a fine job with the script he had and have no reason to complain. Likewise, I really liked Judi Dench as M, and though Mads Mikkelsen played a very good villain in Le Chiffre, but Eva Green didn't really bring anything to the character Vesper apart from perhaps looking the part.
My complaints of this film have to be a) the script (the romantic lines between Vesper and Bond in the last 40 minutes or so are cringe-worthy) and b) the ending, though I've heard it's less cheesy than most bond films. I guess it's the only ending they could have to keep true to Bond and the previous films, which is a shame because it takes this film down from a 5 star rating to a 4 in my eyes. But there is plenty in this film to make up for it's few faults. I felt that all the Casino royale scenes were done brilliantly, script, acting, + direction, and, as a little side note, I also love the main song for this film, Chris Cornell's 'You Know My Name'. Take a chance on this film, especially if you've never seen a Bond film before. You might be pleasantly surprised!