Ultimate reboot.

= 5 stars

Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen
Directed by Martin Campbell

Amazon Link

Daniel Craig (James Bond)

Eva Green (Vesper Lynd)

Caterina Murino (Solange)

Casino Royale is a complete “reboot” of the Bond franchise, featuring a grittier, more serious take on the beloved super spy, not unlike Batman Begins. The jury is still out whether Daniel Craig as Bond or this film will stand the test of time, but at the very least, it’s easily the best Bond film since GoldenEye.

I feel that the Roger Moore films had too many silly moments. The Bond quips had devolved into flat out bad jokes, and Bond became involved in ridiculous slapstick humor: a car jump to a slide whistle, Jaws falling in love to romantic music, Bond swinging on a vine complete with Tarzan yell, Bond dressed as a clown. Meanwhile, the nefarious plots grew more complex yet ridiculous, with schemes of destroying the world and repopulating it with a new race. Even as late as Die Another Day, the bad guys’ plans were so convoluted it seemed their primary purpose was to confuse the audience. The second trend was Bond drifting away from his roots as spy and assassin. The violence grew so cartoonish that a casualty was more of an inconvenience than something to seriously ponder.

Needless to say, with Casino Royale, these trends have been obliterated. This was attempted before with Licence to Kill, which now in retrospect, didn’t go far enough.

The change is evident from the pre-credit sequence, taking cues for German Expressionism or film noir. The traditional gun barrel opening is introduced so suddenly, I barely recognized it. From that moment, it’s clear this will be a very different take on Bond.

The camera angles are deliberately odd and constantly changing - activity is omnipresent. Objects are constantly out of focus, along with a grainy, more realistic look. This style grounds Bond in reality and possibly offers a view into how a spy would see their world while on a mission: constantly on the move, hidden in shadows, and watching out for mortal threats.

Daniel Craig makes for a rugged, aggressive Bond, unlike any previous. The only slight resemblance is the gruff aggressiveness of Sean Connery plus the cruelty of Timothy Dalton. He’s up against La Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a rich criminal who profits from other companies’ failures, and weeps blood. Bond is sent to beat him in a high stakes game of poker in which the pot rises to over a hundred million dollars.

The other awesome part of Casino Royale is Bond’s new flame, Vesper Lind (Eva Green). We at last see a real plot arc of Bond making a connection with a woman, falling in love, seeing her die, and the emotional fallout. This is an emotional shift that never had a chance to occur in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service when Bond’s new wife, Teresa was murdered by Blofeld. At the beginning of Diamonds Are Forever, Bond avenges her death, quickly hunting down and attacking Blofeld. But afterwards, the only other reference to Traci is at the start of For Your Eyes Only when Bond places flowers on her grave, and then drops Blofeld down a smokestack.

However, I do have two complaints about Casino Royale. Bond displays some inappropriately superhuman feats - namely the early on-foot chase sequence where Bond jumps up a construction scaffold like Super Mario. I think there should be an unwritten rule: James Bond is a secret agent, not a superhero (as in Spider-Man or one of the X-Men).

Second, Casino Royale is extremely violent, as this Bond doesn’t shy from the duties of a cold, aggressive, serious killer. The playboy charm of Sean Connery is sadly absent - no 60s camp or fun here. I suppose today’s serious times dictate a cold, cruel, near terrorist existence. There are two particular scenes that are nearly sadistic - Bond killing a machete wielding thug in a stairwell, and a brutal torture sequence where a knotted rope is swung repeatedly at a naked Bond’s unmentionables.

However, I do grant that this move towards extreme violence fits with the shift towards realism. Killing is messy and not fun and games. Bond is shown cleaning blood from his body and the hotel bathroom sink is tainted red. It’s disgusting but adds a cruel gravity to the situation. So I don’t know, do I want to see people blown up to a laugh track or a gritty, intense killing with tears afterwards? Although the latter is difficult to watch and possibly gratuitous, at least it treats the subject with honest attention. Plus, we’ve seen too much cartoony Bond already.

In conclusion, this film doesn’t play it safe. After three formulaic, ironically tame Bonds (as the CGI got more ridiculously epic) with Pierce Brosnan, Casino Royale is an audacious reboot of the franchise. It’s like going from Mac OS 9 to the first version OS X. It might be a little rough around the edges and not all the bugs are worked out, but it’s obviously a necessary move to the future. There’s so much more that’s right about this film than wrong.

Note: I apologize that I’m publishing this review after my list of Best and Worst Bond Films. I fully intended to post it over the weekend but due to the digging I didn’t have time to finish it sooner. But rest assured, this post was largely solidified before I went public with that list.

IMDB: Casino Royale
Wikipedia: Casino Royale
Rotten Tomatoes: Casino Royale 94%

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