RATING: 4/5
JUST the right perfect timing. The producers are wise and game enough to reboot the whole 007 franchise, all back to square one. Gone are the lightweight, increasingly preposterous Pierce Brosnan-era Bond outings that circulated from GOLDENEYE (1995) to DIE ANOTHER DAY (2002) in favor for more realistic approach that favored Ian Fleming's first Bond novel, 1953's Casino Royale.
In short, CASINO ROYALE, the 21st series of the ever-running Bond franchise, is a tauter installment that sees a new light -- not only this is the best Bond films ever since 1964's GOLDFINGER, it's also announced the arrival of Daniel Craig as the sixth and finest James Bond character since Sean Connery.
Not to be confused with the similarly-titled 1967 spoof version, this film opens with a stylish and gritty black-and-white prologue of James Bond (Craig) assigned to eliminate his first two kills, a result that he's later being promoted from a plain M-16 agent to double-0 status by his superior, M (Judi Dench). As the film bleeds into color, we see Bond is pursued the would-be African suicide bomber Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan) in Madagascar that resulted into messy body count and, especially a blown-up embassy which caused a nationwide stir back in the M-16 headquarters when M find out Bond's reckless act is such an embarassment. But Bond make amends by continued pursuing his first solo mission to infiltrate the underworld banker Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a well-known fiancier of international terrorists. He has just lost disastrously playing the stock market and intends to win back all his losses at the poker table, arranging a game with a $10 million buy-in at Montenegro's Casino Royale. Under the watchful eyes of M and aided by a fellow operative, Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), Bond arrives in Montenegro to meet British Treasury functionary Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), in which he is to deal in a high-stakes card game (the book version was originally a baccarat of sorts called chemin de fer, but the film changed it to Texas Hold 'em) to bankrupt Le Chiffre.
CASINO ROYALE has went through a great ordeal of difficulty that has been struggled to get made in years including the controversial choice of the 38-year-old Daniel Craig, in which purists and critics has been raging over the Internet buzz claiming that Craig is such a wrong choice to play the iconic James Bond character, simply because he is blond and blue-eyed, too short (at 5'11''), too rugged to tackle the role convincingly enough. At first it does sound odd enough for the producers to choose the craggy-looking Craig over 200 other actors for the part, which includes Julian McMahon, Hrithik Roshan, Dominic West, Gerald Butler, Henry Cavill (who almost got the part but was considered too young to play it) and Hugh Jackman, but Craig defies all the negativity and made them eat their words because he takes his role with great spirit.
This is the Bond like you've never seen before, as Craig injects more humanity and flaw to his character with distinguished complexity -- gritty, self-sacrificing, reckless and unafraid to get his hands dirty and blood on his sleeve. We also get to learn more fascinating fact about the origin of Craig's Bond is later becoming the man he's destined to be in the future. Here he's a man who just starting out in the field, willing to defy orders to get the job done his way and has yet learned to differentiate between friends and foes. Craig is a real deal, who's not only has a terrific athletic's grace and to make him a great tough-guy role but also has the raw charm and suave persona oozing with great confidence. Whether watching him all muscled-up as he emerged half-naked from the ocean in a Speedo trunk or donned his first tuxedo, he's the man's man. A scene that soon to be a classic is the one when Bond orders a martini. "Shaken or stirred?" asked the bartender. Craig gives him a straight and cold answer: "Do I look like I give a damn?".
No doubt that CASINO ROYALE is a triumph for its distinctive characterization that most of the previous Bond films has failed to deliver. While the plot is nothing to shout about, script-doctor Paul Haggis (CRASH) contributes some of the sly dialogue and brilliant character interplay with enough gravitas. A noted scene like Bond and Vesper attempt to guess each other's past histories, as well as subsequent flirtation between the two of them levelled with perfect zing. The film's Bond and Vesper's love story is superbly done that leaned the opportunity to showcase the no-nonsense Bond does actually has a soft heart beyond his tough exterior. One penetrating scene in which Bond is willing to give up everything to show how much he loves Vesper -- "I have no armour left. You've stripped it from me. Whatever is left of me - whatever I am - I'm yours", is one of the most touching moments ever seen in any Bond films. There is also an important point that forever changed Bond from a person who knows how to love a woman into a cold-hearted character who later treated women as sexual object.
The Bond girls are thoroughout sizzling with Caterina Murino (as Bond's first sexual conquest) and Ivana Millicevic, but it was Eva Green who is more than just your usual Bond girl -- she's beautiful, exquisite, brainy, cool, sexy and vulnerable, in which she performed her role with distinctive edge. Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen made a good villain who's not the usual megalomaniac out to rule the world, but a more realistic figure who happened to be a banker for international terrorists, and Judi Dench returned with even more gravitas as M.
Not to left out is the action scenes that showcased some of the best ever put in any Bond films -- a high-octane opening sequence featured an acrobatic foot chase in and around an African construction site, which showcased the martial-art parkour (or "free-running") ace Sebastien Foucan; a fight aboard a runaway fuel truck on an airport tarmac, a bloody staircase showdown, a grueling torture sequence which sees Bond stripped off completely naked and a tense shootout in a collapsing canal building in Venice, Italy -- devoid of computer enhancement to make them more organic and realistic.
Director Martin Campbell, who previously re-ignited the franchise with Brosnan's first outing, GOLDENEYE (1995) does the series proud by handling both action and characters department with equal flair. Production credits are superb, with Phil Meheux's cinematography put full emphasis on great locations ranging from Prague and Venice to the Bahamas, while David Arnold's score is well-elevated that highlighted between the tensions and emotions.
Still it's not without its flaws: Chris Cornell's theme song "You Know My Name" is a flat rock song, while the title credit design is plain dull and at 144 minutes, the film feels overlong.
It's not a perfect Bond film but one can't deny that CASINO ROYALE has shaped the increasingly worn-out Bond franchise into a whole new game again in the coming future.