James Bond reinvented--darkly

Rating: 8/10 (8 December 2006)

James Bond (Daniel Craig) is after world terrorists in this one. Judi Dench is back as M telling him off left and right. The plot is kind of vague but it ends up with Bond and a sexy sidekick (Eva Green) paired off against a thoroughly evil man (Mads Mikkelsen).
OK--James Bond has been reinvented in this film with Craig in the role. Is Craig good as Bond? Kind of. He's not handsome at all (at 38 he looks 45) but he has a great body, holds his own in fight scenes and is a VERY good actor. Also this Bond is more serious than the others. He's not making bad jokes (like Roger Moore did) or acting like a sexist pig (Sean Connery). He's dead serious and will kill when he has to--the previous Bond films seemed to shy away from Bond killing anybody. This Bond also gets hurt (you see his face crisscrossed with scratches after one fight) and he bleeds--quite a lot too. This film is VERY violent--it pushes the PG-13 rating to its limit. I personally think it went too far--the torture scene where he is tied nude to a chair was not needed. Not everything has changed though--he has a beautiful woman by his side who eventually falls for him...and is of NO use in a fight (once or twice I wanted to yell at Green to do something). But Green IS good and looks stunning.
The film is a little too long (but most Bond films are) and doesn't make much sense. Still, all in all, it was an entertaining movie. I'm only giving it an 8 because I think the violence went overboard. Still this is an interesting redo of Bond. Worth catching.