Casino Royale Review

Overall Rating

Lots of action for the first half of the film. Daniel Craig's portrayal of this new, darker Bond is interesting - although that was what Timothy Dalton was supposed to do with the character, and look at how that one turned out.

Too much of the modern film-editing style in the fight scenes which requires nanosecond cuts and noise instead of a decent fight choreography (nothing new or unique to this film) and a somewhat self-conscious fashion show approach to Bond and his love-interest, Vesper Lynd. Bond is also tortured for the second time in as many films: why? I don't want go see the famous 007 Bond-James-Bond save the world only to have to sit through another gruelling torture scene. (James Bond can be less vulnerable, he's a fictional character after all!) And what happened to the patented witty Bond quips?

Overall, and without getting into the particulars if someone hasn't seen it, I found the first half of the film very entertaining up to where they cut the hole in the wicker chair for James to share his most agonizing moments to-date with the audience. There were some interesting twists after that, but most of the stuff that makes a Bond film were pretty much over by the halfway point when he was stripped and beaten.

The vulnerable, and often-accused male chauvinist Bond (although that one died with Connery and Moore long ago) continues to regress into a more flawed and fragile character with each installment. Not much left for an old escapist who remembers a guy who rather gracefully faced the danger with the professionalism of a soldier or an astronaut, and still managed to have a good time doing it.

During that second half, I also wondered if all the Jags and Bentleys weren't the same ones being used as eye-candy throughout the film, which probably meant they were over-used and distracted from the storyline. But I like Jags and Bentleys, so that's not much of a complaint.