Casino Royale
We went to watch Casino Royale yesterday. Every Bond actor transition is an adjustment, so I attempted to hold back any prejudgments going into it. The one thing I couldn’t get out of my head was Daniel Craig’s role in Munich. I don’t want to spoil anything, because I actually recommend people go see the film, but it’s obvious from my grammatical connotations that I do have some hang-ups with it. I’ll put it this way, this is a good film — a great action film, but not a Bond film. I’m not saying this is a bad Bond film, it’s just not a Bond film. I think I’ve actually seen every Bond film. With a few minor exceptions they all follow a particular formula. This does not follow that formula.
Is that negative or positive? I know it sounds like I feel that is negative, but I don’t. I certainly hope that future installments of Craig’s portrayal of Bond reapproaches the classic Bond in all his previous iterations, but this installment is a good, clean, fresh remake of Bond. Much as comic book series get “reset” with new twists and approaches to the same characters, that is what this is. It is a new beginning. We get to see how some of Bond’s peculiarities came about. He transitions from an unlikeable, but human character to something cold, mechanical, and well, Bond-like. Craig does this transition extremely well.
I really look forward to where they take this.
