Cast aside the languorous mumbling of Connery, the goofy escapades of Moore, the fatuousness of Lazenby and feline temperance of Brosnan and you are left with a sweaty, virile, psycho, sociopath Craig who is of this day and age. The transformation from ludicrous plot situations characterized in the earlier movies to using modern dialect of vengeance, terrorism & paranoia is discernible.
The principle of a series riddled with silly thrill rides, rickety papier-mâché props, cheesy get-ups and squirming double entendres and an indestructible superhero, is compensated for by a kickass script reversal written by Bond regulars Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and ably assisted by Oscar winner Paul Haggis. The makeover also brings in a feral intelligence to the main protagonist, self aware that he is a nasty guy. The action is fantastically choreographed and alive with weight and violence. What is reassuring is you can virtually feel the new Bond pissing on the urbane bullshit harking back to the rest of the franchise. Casino Royale is an extremely satisfying back-to-basics reboot for the ailing franchise.
The action starts as a black and white prologue where Bond is baptized as a “Licensed to Kill“ 00 agent. In the meanwhile baddie Le Chiffre(Mads Mikkelsen) runs a crooked bank operation for the Bin Laden sort, making a fortune for himself by manipulating the stock market by engineering impending terrorist attacks. After our neophyte agent disrupts one of his big-money schemes, Le Chiffre finds himself owing a heap to a machete-wielding Ugandan warlord(Issach De Bankole), and his only hope of keeping his head on his shoulders lies in a high-stakes poker game he has orchestrated. Dispatched by M(Judi Dench) to bankrupt Le Chiffre at the tables, Bond arrives with tart treasury agent chick Vesper Lynd(Eva Green) keeping an eye on her majesty’s bankroll.
The seemingly endless casino summit is one of the film’s few missteps. Another is the long running time, and fans may be disappointed(yours truly) by the summary treatment given to Bond staples, notably his high-tech gadgetry and its creator Q.
Casino Royale is a fantasy drive that fans have been waiting for after Brosnan’s disappointing last outing.