Probably the best Bond movie ever

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2006)

As a BIG fan of Sean Connery -- perhaps the last great movie star -- I have to say Craig may have delivered the best Bond portrayal. He'll never have that Connery persona, but he's tremendous in the role. Bond is, essentially, a hired killer for the British Government (and Craig certainly looks the part, from his muscled physique to his steely cold blue eyes). As the movie shows, Bond _cannot_ be a thug ("any thug can kill", as M says), but we see him evolve into the more refined -- and more advanced -- Bond that we know. From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service were my Bond movie gold standards and this one ranks with them. One way you know this movie is good is that there will never be an Austin Power's parody. This Bond is deadly serious.
To be sure, there are a lot of elements in old Bond movies that aren't in CR -- Moneypenny, Q, phantasgorimical gadgets, one-liners -- and if that makes a Bond movie for you, you won't like CR. This movie is not some fantasy. The score is OK, it's certainly not among the best of Bond. If you're too dim to "get" the opening theme, you're too dim to "get" the movie. The James Bond Theme appears at the end, for a reason that I thought obvious, but which appears to have escaped most critics -- which makes me think they're looking for something, ANYTHING, to criticize. Oddly, the weakest parts of the movie -- particularly the romance, which was poorly realized, I thought -- were in the original book. But if you want to see a story that focuses on Bond the character, from the point of view of his origins and motivations, CR is a must-see. Although the overall plot line is mediocre due to a weak third act, the dialogue is some of the best ever in a Bond movie. And when Craig does get a witty line, he nails them (viz his line when returning to the poker table, and his little finger line). They have more impact because they're employed more judiciously. People have issues with a woman M, but when the woman is Dame Judi Dench, you need to lose the issues. She nails every line; I particularly liked her line "one more syllable and I'll have you shot".) Eva Green didn't do much for me, but her part wasn't terribly well written, in that we didn't see her romance evolving with Bond. She had some good dialogue, though.
I must say, after reading several reviews criticizing the movie, I find them rather odd. Martin Campbell is criticized as a hack, but his prior work with Bond ("Goldeneye") was hailed by many of the same people lambasting him for CR. (For the record, I though his work was quite good in both.) And the critics all seem to hate different aspects of CR -- some think Craig didn't look the part, some did, some said it was too much like Jason Bourne (because it WASN'T a fantasy), some hated the product placement (like we haven't seen THAT in recent Bonds) -- point being, they seem to have hated CR PURELY because it was CR. Judge the movie on its own merits. (I particularly like the review that said "everyone in the theater were in admiration and awe, except me" -- Dyan think maybe YOU'RE the one out of step? For the record, the movie drew applause at the closing credits.) One thing one anti-Craig site harps on is that CR has trailed Happy Feet at the box office, disregarding (a) Happy Feet is the no. 1 movie, CR has run no. 2, (b) Happy Feet is something of a phenomenon; everyone I know who has seen it raves about it (the same is true for CR) (c) Casino Royale, per theater, out performed Happy Feet which was released in 370 more theaters (According to Box Office Mojo, Casino Royale acquired, on average, $11,890 per theater, while Happy Feet grossed $10,918 per theater.) (d) CR will go down as one of, if not the, biggest grossing Bond movies ever. A movie that grosses almost $400 million worldwide in less than a month is an unmitigated financial success, anyway you slice it.