Without the fantasy James Bond is dead.

Rating: Null/10 (15 December 2006)

I said I would watch Casino Royale if it got great reviews. Well it did and I did.
What a waste.
Casino Royale is not the best Bond movie by any stretch of the imagination. A few reviews said you have to forget it is a Bond movie to enjoy it. Well if it is not a Bond movie then it wasn't a good movie either.
Seriously the plot is convoluted. Without the fantasy Bond operated under it can't work. We are supposed to believe playing cards, very boring by the way, is the solution to this sniveling terrorist accountant. Why not kill him? Why risk the chance he'll finance these dangerous African terrorist? I laughed when the CIA made the deal to take him. If the CIA wanted him then, to our shame, they would have picked him up off the street and waterborded him. And if Le Chiffre is a math genius why not a real genius scheme and a plan to go with it.
I didn't think Daniel Craig had the special bond feeling, well he doesn't. In a tux he sticks out like a sore thumb. It stretched creditability when Vesper said he was from Oxford. No way does this thickheaded dull agent ever give the slightest sign of intelligence. Shutter to think about his university days. Daniel Craig would be at home as one of the guys from the football team, as James Bond he is uncomfortable and it shows
Almost to the ridiculous real and gritty were over done. I know some people are swearing Daniel Craig is Fleming's Bond. He's not. Not even close. They concentrated too much on the ugly nature briefly described by Fleming and missed the real flavor of the Bond of the Books, who by the way is described many times as being like a movie star -good looking.
Vesper is forgettable. Eva Green has much better performances in other movies. Le Chiffre is the weakest villain of all time. The Le Chiffre of the Book was interesting with a equally fantastic history. Mads Mikkelsen was miscast, Lambert Wilson would have been a much better choice.
Felix Leiter was ignored as character. In the Book there was a meaningful setup for the story.
Daniel Craig was not interesting as Bond. Not once inhabiting the role. They tried to make it a character driven movie, which certainly isn't what Fleming wanted, and it didn't work here. Daniel Craig's performance was too aware of itself, when there was moment were we were supposed to believe that Daniel Craig's bond experience something it didn't work it felt like Daniel Craig was the only on screen with no sign of James Bond. It all came down to Daniel's interpretation of Bond. He wasn't comfortable with Bond so it was change so he could work his way into it. Sadly he doesn't fit, the character he makes is alien to Bond.
The fun, the glamour, the gadgets, the girls, the charm are all gone. Left is an empty husk and a depressing movie with no redeeming qualities.