The Bond Begins

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2006)

There was an absurd uproar, when it was announced, that Pierce Brosnan wouldn't be Bond anymore. The uproar continued, and it even got a bit more absurd, if that's even possible, when Daniel Craig was announced as Bond, mainly because Craig isn't anything like his predecessors; he's muscular, blond, blue-eyed and bit brutish in looks. But all the same to me, I'm not a hardcore Bond fan, I know there's been five different actors before him and in the end only thing that matters is, that the acting works and the film is good. And for these points the movie delivers.
Now Craig is Bond you've never seen before, well Dalton was a bit like him, but Craig is more arrogant, more self aware and colder. He's something you'd expect a double 0 agent to be. And he's not indestructible man with a gadget to safe him in every turn. There actually are few gadgets in the film and these few are in the realm of believe. And it is evident, that Craig has charisma, that appeals to women, at least that was the general consensus among the ones I saw the movie with.
The action is greatly constructed from the first scene to the last. From the acrobatic Parkoire escape to the drowning Venize building it all works and makes you sit on the edge of your chair. Bond shoots and beats the thugs and occasionally blows them away and it all is entertaining and yet the film is more down to earth than the previous movies, when the action is in question.
Only minus I found from the film is, that it really is a bit too long. A couple of scene feel too forced in and clichÃ©d. The film could have been two hours long without any feel of unnecessary loss of story.
In all I finally understand why 'Casino Royale' is the most successful Bond at this moment: it breaks the formula of the genre, it genuinely is different, like Dalton's Bond tried to be in the 80's. Bond has been upgraded to fit today and that isn't a bad thing. Unless you want that old formulaic movie, in which case it might be better for you to skip this one and get back to oldies.