Fleming's Bond

Rating: Null/10 (25 March 2008)

"Die Another Day" garnered average, but not altogether poor, reviews from critics and was the biggest financial success of Brosnan's era. The franchise could have continued from that point into even more silliness, gadgetry, bad jokes, product placement, and celebrity Bond girls, but in one of the best moves a franchise has made in ages, it didn't. "Casino Royale" is the most drastic reinvigoration of the Bond franchise in its history. Sure, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", "The Living Daylights", and "GoldenEye" might have all been turns in a new direction, two of them sadly short-lived, the other ill-fated, but "Casino Royale" marks the purest return to Fleming's vision of Bond since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and it is a move that has created a vocal minority sad to see 'movie Bond' go and a much, much more significant majority that was thrilled and captivated by "Casino Royale" from start to finish.
"Casino Royale" was the first Bond novel by Ian Fleming, and though this film is not all too faithful to the book's events- keeping the main points of the story but changing it to obviously set up "Quantum of Solace" and update it to a modern setting among other things. "Casino Royale" has many strengths, chief among them Craig as Bond, perhaps the best Bond since Connery, with the potential to, dare I say it, be better. Combining just enough suavity with a very strong physical presence ala Dalton, and delivering his one-liners (thankfully kept to a minimum) just as well as Brosnan did his. Then you have the action scenes, in this film only one which even has a significant amount of gunfire, the rest a merciful return to the sort of hand-to-hand combat we haven't seen in a Bond film in decades. The action is well-shot and well-edited, with Martin Campbell keeping the film moving at a swift pace much like he did with "GoldenEye". There are one or two scenes which go on too long, one or two lines that don't quite work, but these things are minuscule complaints given how hugely enjoyable this film is as a whole.
The entire cast is exceptionally good here, Judi Dench continuing to prove that casting her as M was an inspired choice. Mads Mikkelsen makes an excellent LeChiffre, and Eva Green is one of few Bond girls who is a quality actress and seems effortlessly classy. No bimbos to be found here, that's for sure. The film is very well-written and paced and for once it's hard to pick holes in it.
"Casino Royale" takes the Bond franchise in a bold, new, and fresh direction. Following installments will hopefully not become too formulaic and can certainly afford to be slightly more light-hearted and traditionalist (Q & Moneypenny never harmed anybody), but the tone was set just right by "Casino Royale" and hopefully it will stay this way at least for the duration of Craig's run in the role and not fall apart as Brosnan's era sadly did following "GoldenEye".
9/10