Solid Reboot

Rating: Null/10 (31 December 2012)

Bond was a staple of my youth. I watched all the Connery and Moore flicks. By the end of Moore's run, the series was tired. I was hopeful Pierce Bronson, who I always thought was a natural, would breathe life into the sagging franchise. Nope.
When the series was rebooted in 2006, I passed. I had moved on from Bond, not that I was ever a huge fan! Yesterday I downloaded all the Ian Fleming books onto my Kindle. I have decided to read them in order. I read Casino Royale. I enjoyed it. I then watched the 1967 film with Niven, Sellers, Allen, et al. It wasn't true to the story and was rather silly. I then decided to give this a whirl.
Worth it! First off, the reboot is fresh and exciting. While the Bond movie elements are there, this has a modern feel to it.
That could spell trouble for a story set amid the Cold War. The changes to the script to keep it fresh mainly worked. I would have preferred Baccarat to have remained instead of its replacement of Texas Hold'Em. Even so, the American cards looked odd set in Europe. Real poker cards would have been appreciated.
The story worked well. The ending was modified. It wasn't the worse change that could have been made, but Vesper did not need to be made whole. I did enjoy the non-suicide by pills angle. That was solid. I wasn't wild about how Mathis was handled. :( I like this version of the series, I think they did justice to the original story, and I look forward to the next one.