There has been a lot of hue and cry about how the new Bond Daniel Craig does not live up to the standards set up by Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and to a certain extent Roger Moore. Well, if you are looking for the aura that Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan brought to the role, you may not find it. The earlier Bonds had style (Sean, Pierce), tongue in cheek (Roger Moore, Pierce), style (Pierce), etc.
Here you will instead find a Bond who has got a magnificent body structure, less stylish and more metrosexual. This Bond even considers giving up his MI-6 status and settling down in life with his girl, something which the earlier Bonds would consider a blasphemy. While for the others, girls were mere toys, here the Bond goes miles ahead and shares a romantic relation with her, maybe the producers wanted him to be a more acceptable character.
The movie begins with the a black and white scene, showcasing how Bond gets his 007 status. Later, with an IMPRESSIVE chase shot at a construction site in Madagascar, Craig settles all doubts about whether he can handle the Bond mantle. Executed amazingly, this action sequence is the life of the movie. UNMISSABLE!!!
He gets into the role of foiling the plans of a global terrorist banker Le Chifre (Mads Mikkelsen) and the climax of their battle ends on a poker table at Casino Royale. Quite an unlikely location for a James Bond movie climax. He is aided in his fight by Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), M (Judie Dench), etc. The female interest in the movie is surprisingly low key and people interested in watching James Bond’s antics with his female company will be seriously let down. Where art thou Pierce Brosnan? ;-)
Bond then decides to settle down in life with Vesper and quits MI-6, but realises his folly and returns to his bread and butter. The last 20 odd minutes of the movie could have been edited out, thus making the movie crispier.
Craig settles down in the Bond role and should be seen in more Bond movies. He has got style and some amount of humor in him. Check out the scene where he survives a poisoning attempt at the casino and returns to his poker table and tells Le Chifre "The last game was quite killing". Also, when the barman asks him if he would like his Martini shaken or stiirred, he replies, "Do I look like I care".
The bad man and the lady both are a let down and would have been better if there was some one with more zing in them. M continues to impress with her small role as a strict boss, who likes Bond but has to regularly take him to task for his attitude. Where are Q and Ms. Moneypenny? And pray tell us, why a title sequence without any of those fabulous ladies? That one was a letdown.
The best part of the movie are the action sequences, mainly the Madagascar one mentioned above, the world record breaking car somersault and the finale shot somewhere in Venice. Awesome is a word unfit to describe them.
Watch the movie and welcome the new Bond.