'Casino Royale': A Human, Brutal Bond

James Bond falls in love? Lost in poker game? Reckless and arrogant instead of cool? Cold-blooded instead of comfortable? Get used to it...!

The new James Bond in its latest installment, 'Casino Royale', is a different kind of Bond. A very human and brutal Bond. And Daniel Craig ('Munich') is very convincing in his first role of Bond. He more than rises to one of the toughest challenges in the world of entertainment, especially as he takes over the character from Pierce Brosnan, who had successfully played and continued the tradition of cool and charismatic British superspy for the past 4 Bond movies before the new Casino, started with Golden Eye (1995) and ended with Die Another Day (2002). He must have given tough time to the die-hard fans of the old Bond in 'Daniel Craig is not Bond' site.

As good as Craig in his portrayal of Bond, how does the movie fare compared to the previous Bond films?

The action scenes are still as thrilling, but there are not many sophisticated new spy gadgets with Q as the chief inventor. Even the tortures scene doesn't display complicated tools like 'chakra' or the 'torture chair' in the past Brosnan movies. No lengthy car chases as well, although there are still the Aston Martins... there are two: the classic and the latest model with its sophisticated tools. Not much special effects seems to have been used in the movie as mostly stunt works dominate the hard-hitting actions. The film focuses on the brutal, physical actions and hand-to-hand fighting. They can be very raw and far from the common savvy, 'intellectual' actions found in most previous Bond movies.

None of the action scenes is overblown; all make a lot of sense. The new Bond has to fight really hard, bleeds and bruises, to win the fights, starting from the beginning with a compelling foot chase when he is assigned to Madagascar to hunt a bomb maker. That is his first assignment after he gets the double O superspy status, so it makes more sense that he is portrayed as a reckless Bond and makes a mistake at the end of this spectacular chase. Compared that to the previous Bond opening scenes from Brosnan or Moore or maybe all, in which they were so comfortable handling their enemies.

Other action scenes are also exhilarating and will not disappoint fanatic Bond fans. The main mission is to stop a global terrorist banker, Le Chiffre (played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen) for financing global terrorism. He is setting up a high level poker game in a luxurious Casino Royale in Montenegro to earn more funds for terrorism after Bond thwarts his effort to gain from the stock market with the sabotage of the huge new airplane from Airbus. Bond joins the game accompanied by a government accountant Vesper Lynd (played by stunning French actress Eva Green ['Kingdom of Heaven']) who is assigned by M (Judi Dench) to watch over the government money used by Bond in the tournament.

The game is probably a bit too long, but it may be justified considering the title the movie suggests. Again, Bond is shown as reckless, arrogant, and having a problem with his ego. It costs him and Vesper having to go through painful torture in the hand of Le Chiffre, with Bond shown bare naked under duress. Audiences will see a human Bond who gradually learns from his mistakes. This is a nice setting up for next Bond movies.

As we come to the main plotline, a romantic chemistry develops between Bond and Vesper. The relationship is portrayed nicely in a gradual way. Vesper doesn't like Bond's ego and arrogance in the first place, but as Bond becomes more human and learns the hard way from his mistakes, the relationship turns more romantic. No sex scene is wasted in this movie, in fact there is only one between Bond and Vesper. It's more of a love scene than a sex scene. There is love there, unlike other Bond movies. This romantic portrayal is probably too long, but it shouldn't bore the audience. Eva Green gives a spirited performance as Bond's leading lady. She is not just a flesh to enjoy, in fact she doesn't bare or wear bikinis throughout the movie. She is portrayed as a smart, intelligent lady who happens to be beautiful.

Ok, so Craig is very convincing as the new Bond and I am looking forward to seeing his next movies. The action scenes are rock solid and worthy of a Bond movie. The romantic relationship with the leading lady is a nice addition to show Bond as a human. So what does this movie lack of?

Almost nothing actually, yet too much of something may not be good, either. The obvious one is the usual 'product placement' throughout the movie as commonly found in other 007 movies. This time it becomes the marketing tool for Sony-Ericsson, Ford, Omega, Smirnoff, and Heineken. I found the placement is a bit too apparent. My stomach got sick when Vesper Lynd asked Bond if his watch was a Rolex as it looked expensive. Bond told her that it was an Omega. Vesper responded 'beautiful watch.'

I think there is only one nice marketing placement in this movie, which is a cameo by Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic in the Miami Airport. That is very lightning fast that you can miss him if you blink.

Another thing bothering me is the 'calibre' of Bond nemesis, most likely because I had been getting used to see past Bond's efforts to stop his megalomaniac enemies from world domination. On this movie, his main enemy is ruthless banker Le Chiffre, who just wants to profit from the stock market. This blood crying (when he is nervous) bad guy doesn't have ambition to rule the world. He even has someone to report to, who Bond finally meets at the end of the movie. During the break on the poker game, Le Chiffre even gets severely beaten by his African terrorist clients, who come down to Montenegro to force him to give them the money back after the foiled sabotage attack (by the way, the fight scene between Bond and these African terrorists is brutal, yet this is the start of the developing chemistry between Bond and Vesper).
And what about the poker game stake of $10 million each player which make up for a total for a little more than $100 million gamble to fund the terrorism if Le Chiffre win? In my opinion, that is too small for Bond calibre.
Overall, this level of calibre may be fine for a 'Bourne Identity' or 'Bourne Supremacy' type of action drama, but not sufficient for 007 superspy, at least to me as a Bond fan.

However, as a whole, this is a great Bond movie, which more than meets the expectations to rejuvenate the Bond tradition. This is easily one of the best 007 movies, and definitely the most human one. Two thumbs up!