The Casino Royale / Daniel Craig Thread

[ffolkes]

i saw this last weekend, and i must say i enjoyed casino royale thoroughly. it was such a pleasant surprise that the movie succeeded so well in capturing the bond magic (especially after the terrible DAD) despite of all the much-touted talk of überbrutal realism. it was a gritty film, but it stayed true to its legacy & subject matter.

as to daniel craig: imo he was terrific as 007. what he maybe lacks in poster-boy appearance, he obviously makes up in depth and intensity. physically he looks like a man who he can give damage and take it as well (which he did)... and this comes from a roger moore fan.

what comes to his charm, i think he showed it best with vesper. the dialogue they exchange really reveals his wit and humour superbly, it's something that contrasts his rough exterior very well. true, craig maybe seemed a bit tense in some scenes: not perhaps as "laid back" as previous bonds. but the reason to this i think was how much more grounded the overall story was. it just felt like CR dealt with both physical and mental pain with much more realism than previous bonds. POSSIBLE SPOILER: [COLOR=#c8b090] the scene after bond's "revival" during the poker game stands as a testament to this... wouldn't anyone be a bit tense and on the edge after being practically dead? and he still landed a great oneliner for that, which was simply brilliant. [/COLOR]SPOILER END

in fact after all the hearsay i was surprised to see craig smiling so much in his role. granted, it still wasn't as quirky as sir moore etc, but it was much better than i had feared: he was serious, but not totally grim. and that's a good thing.

i was also surprisingly impressed with the score. david arnold hasn't really won me over with his previous bond scores, they've just felt far more generic than the genius work of john barry...then again barry is almost impossible to compete with. but in CR david arnold actually shines as the score has a very sweeping and classic feel to it. there are nice stabs at the key melody of "you know my name" as well, something that both nods to previous bond classics and also compliments cornell's song (which itself was just okay in my opinion).

speaking of the theme song, this reminds me of the titles. i had no problem with the cell-shaded visuals they used, but for some reason the colour scheme didn't work at times for me at all. beige as a background colour for the titles? it is a minor quibble, but something that distracted me anyways.

the rest of the cast was very good, eva green actually surprised me greatly by giving a much deeper impression as a bond lady than i would have thought. vesper really felt like an intelligent character, not just a carboard cutout. murino felt more like she was there just for eyecandy, but at least she did that part well. M was her usual self, it was odd in a way that dame dench was still playing her... but a blessing at the same time since introducing a new M plus a new bond would've probably distracted the audience too much. and then there's le chiffré. i thought le chiffré was a very interesting character, he came across as much more subtle rather than cartoony which was great. it might be because i was strangely hypnotised by mads mikkelsen's cold stare (he's a cool man), but i really thought he gave us a memorable bond "villain".

the direction in CR was solid from campbell, much tighter in terms of action and pacing (regardless of the film being long) that i had anticipated with sexier cinematography too. he did a good job in the 90s with goldeneye, but his past resumé with other projects hasn't really impressed me at all... so it was great relief to see him deliver such a classy bond film, something which surely was aided by a much greater script than the usual fare.

all in all i think the best thing about casino royale is that it reinvigorates a legendary and beloved franchise that was on its way to depressing idiocy. also i feel genuinely happy for daniel craig: here's a man who was nearly crucified for being casted as the next 007, proving the world wrong by giving us so much more than just empty model-boy looks.

so what else can i say?
long live 007, james bond will return