I must be one of the biggest James Bond fans; I grew up watching and enjoying James Bond movies, and have seen every single one of them multiple times.
My favourite Bond remains to this very day Sean Connery, followed by Pierce Brosnan; I think they embodied the character better than all the others.
My worst Bond was George Lazenby, I think a lot of people agree with me on that, the guy was just plain boring.
With “Casino Royale”, a new Bond is introduced to us, and the story takes us back to the beginnings of James Bond, just as he became a double-O agent.
When it was announced that Daniel Craig would be the new James Bond, a blond one, a lot of people were unhappy about it, and I myself was skeptical and thought it was a bad decision.
Anyway after watching “Casino Royale” yesterday, I can see that we were mostly wrong, Daniel Craig is a really good Bond; not the Bond we’re used to, but more of a Bond in the making, which is really interesting.
The movie basically has no gadgets at all, has some great action sequences, which are pretty realistic compared to what we’re used to in other Bond movies, it is also very interesting visually, and well to keep it short, it’s not a regular James Bond movie. In fact, somewhere along the movie, you do get a sense that it’s not a 007 movie at all, but then you’re reminded that this is the making-of and that this is how Bond became what he is, and the end emphasizes that, especially closing with the Bond theme which didn’t appear anywhere else in the movie.
I’m guessing I’ll have to watch the movie again to better appreciate it as a James Bond movie and to have it fit in with the other ones, but even after the first time, I really like it and I do recommend seeing it.
I’ll have to see another James Bond movie with Daniel Craig in it before I can properly place him within my top Bonds list, but now I’m more confident he’ll do a really good job.
My score for this movie would be: 8/10.