Refreshing

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2006)

Casino Royale gives the Bond franchise a decent injection of adrenaline that it needed to be relevant again.
Chances are, you already know what Casino Royale is about, so I won't go too much into details. It is a difficult film to review, mainly because it will obviously be compared to all the other Bond movies (which I can't say I'm a fan of, they're mostly hit and miss decent enough action movies) and also because there is quite an odd structure to the proceedings. (Though, this may be because it doesn't follow the same structure as most other Bond movies.) I'll just get into it, the film succeeds due to the reinvention of the Bond character and becoming a back to basics film, this can be credited to both Daniel Craig and the scriptwriter for the former, and Martin Campbell for the latter. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is annoyed at the level of CGI used in films these days, it's usually so obvious it detracts from the film and lessens the impact due to it being completely fake looking. Thankfully, Casino Royale ditches this in favour of a more realistic approach, including the likes of Sebastien Foucan, parkour extraordinaire (the reason I wanted to see the film) to create some realistic, hard hitting action scenes.
Another aspect where the film succeeds is the relationship between Bond and Vesper Lynd, which was a joy to watch, and a welcome change from the bordering on Benny Hill antics that the likes of Roger Moore got into.
So, it's got solid realistic action, rounded enough characters for an action film (including the main "villain" Le Chiffre, who despite his eye gimmick keeps up with the reinvention of Bond, given decent reasons for his villainous actions, not just a madman bent on world domination.) The film fails on a few levels, as big and action packed and Bond as it is, I felt it may have worked better in three short episodes due to it's odd structure and pacing, it feels like three films pasted together. This is probably due to the fact that I was expecting a typical Bond structure, (Bond tracks villain, Bond beds women, Bond beats villain, Bond gets his girl, end) which the film was brave enough to ditch, so not really a big failure. The other main failure is the now mandatory product placement, (the scene with the Ford looking particularly just like a car advert) but I usually look upon product placements as tongue in cheek myself, and have a bit of a giggle about it rather than kick up a fuss.
In a nutshell, Casino Royale is a meandering journey with James Bond, complete with hard hitting scrapes, gambling for the Queen, and relationships with women. A very entertaining film.