Bond 21: Bond reborn.

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2007)

After earning his 00 credentials (in a moody and electrifying Black and White prologue), James Bond (Daniel Craigh) follows the trail of terrorist banker Le Chiffre. When Bond thwarts his initial plan, Le Chiffre organizes a high stakes poker game in Casino Royale, Montenegro, to recuperate his money and pay back his terrorist clients before they kill him.
After all the controversy about Craigh, one finally has the chance to judge the film itself. Judging by audience reception, the world is finally ready for the darker, more human Bond tentatively experimented with during the Dalton years. Craigh's Bond begins as a ruthless killer, developing class, a heart and finally the first marks of his famed style during his first mission. The first thing any honest reviewer can do is remark on the actor's prowess in giving us arguably the best - certainly the most real and touching - Bond ever to grace the screen, or at least a fair match for Connery. He is at ease with both the warmth and the ruthlessness, the charming banter and cold threats, the character scenes and violent bursts of action, and conveys that rare sense that Bond actually evolves over the course of the film. His different relationships with women and his (often vicious) sparring with M (Judie Dench on top form and hogging many of the script's best lines) also add surprising layers to his character.
After introducing the new Bond, Casino Royale kicks off with the dangerously addictive title song "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell. It then proceeds to present Le Chiffre, daring to hint at a larger organization behind our villain. An opening African free ruining scene will leave the audience breathless, as will a demented airport confrontation. The film also has the virtue of giving us a villain fighting to save his life, for whom the stakes are just as high as they are for Bond, which brings us to section 2 of the film: the poker tournament.
The second half of the film is slower, yet by no means lesser. Though the poker game has its moments and is inter-spaced with nasty assassination attempts, its chief merit is in the chemistry between Bond and Eva Green's Vesper Lyndt. Whether Green is the sexiest woman ever to play a Bond girl is a matter for the message boards (and likely not the case) but she certainly is the best actress to face 007. What's more, their relationship manages to attain depth and be touching without forsaking the usual sparks that should mark a Bond romance. Ultimately it completely convinces us in the profound effect it will leave on Bond as he will become in the future.
The ending might feel abrupt to some, since it slightly pales in contrast to the unusually excellent film that precedes it. It serves as a reminder that this is merely a beginning. That it is such a stunning, moving and energetic one should delight viewers. Hopefully the level of quality attained here will be the standard for following 007 adventures and mark Craigh's era as the definitive years of the Bond saga.
Rousing entertainment. A must-see.