Blonde Ambition

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2006)

Finally! All the pretty and silly Bond's of recent years have been swept away and put in their place is the Bond Ian Fleming must have envisioned. Daniel Craig IS Bond from the first glimpse of him photographed in cold black and white. His Bond is cruel, imperfect, emotionally wanting and can take a beating but keeps on ticking. Casino Royale packs an action packed punch from the opening scene where Bond is chasing an animal like man who can climb up girders of a building being constructed using his bare hands and feet, and who can propel himself through narrow openings; to an ending, where again, Bond is in a building, but this time it is collapsing as is Bond's chance to find love. No silliness or wise crack one liners or "invisible" cars here.
His journey is long in the film and he is changed by the end of it. Eva Green pales in comparison to Craig's Bond. Perhaps lovely to look at but she offers little more than window dressing. Her Vesper lacked a fire that would temp Bond to leave MI5, and run away with her into the good night. But these complaints are minor because there is so much about the film that works. An excellent villain (fabulously portrayed), a testy M, with locales that are so incredible you want to call your travel agent and book the next flight to Montenegro.
The second half of the film more or less follows Fleming's novel, which has one of the better story lines. Thankfully, the story was not thrown away and replaced with a "typical" Bond formula. The final scene says it all, but I will not spoil anyone's enjoyment of it, but Bond is definitely back and rightfully so!