I thought Casino Royale was a solid and professional effort. It was the almost universally positive reviews (many from non-Bond fans to boot) that piqued my interest in this film.
Personally, I thought the Bond franchise was dead and buried after the Brosnan era, so the makers of Casino Royale do deserve a lot of credit for taking some brave decisions in an effort to re-imagine the Bond formula for the 21st Century.
I liked the contemporary setting and modern trappings of the film and understand why - having attached Daniel Craig to the picture - they went all out for a more rugged and muscular Bond. However, in my mind James Bond will always be blue-eyed, dark haired and intellectually attuned rather than the action-hero cypher, I felt Craig ended up being for most of the film. Although, I suspect this change of emphasis in Casino Royale is due to the desire to get back to a back-to-basics, no wisecracks, more believable-type Bond based more on Ian Fleming's original creation.
As an actor Craig is more than capable of delivering a good performance so I had no problems with him being Bond before I watched the film. Unfortunately, having watched it I was a little disappointed. It is just like I said for me personally, I prefer a little more going on upstairs and some wry wordplay over lots of running and jumping with explosions in the background. My memory of this film mainly consists of Craig trying too hard to put on a "I'm a tough guy face" for fear of cracking a smile or showing any emotional warmth and thus undoing the macho persona.
That said, Casino Royale was the best Bond film I can recall seeing in years - I haven't been a fan since I was a young child - and I appreciate the script's efforts to offer explanation for Bond's (now socially unacceptable) future promiscuity and misuse of women by showing us how he loved and lost in the form of Eva Green's character (a very lukewarm performance in my opinion, again because I believed the hype - she is though a beautiful and gifted actress) back when it all began.
In the end, I find the Bond character to be an anachronism and don't think the film makers have completely overcome that yet. I am optimistic that Craig will be allowed to grow in a more nuanced representation of Fleming's protagonist and Craig has the ability to make the role his own.
However, my personal taste is not for action moves and I found myself drifting off during many of the numerous action sequences with little compulsion to piece together the narrative for myself in between. That said my concentration may have been impaired due to a large dinner and two bottles of wine shared with the girlfriend.
I would like to see the Uncut version of the film and do intend to watch Casino Royale again at some point. Although I doubt I'll be adding it to the DVD Wishlist just yet.
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