I think that most of you are just on an opening weekend MI3 "high". Even Craig supporter, TDalton (who I respect and usually agree with)is thinking CR may be a one shot Bond and that MI3 is the better film.
My dear friends, WE HAVEN'T SEEN CASINO ROYALE YET! There is no way that we can judge it against MI3. I will wager that by November MI3 will be, for some just a nice memory. If Craig delivers the performance he is capable of and if EON is as brave as they seem to be in making this film, then CR will hold up very, very well both financially and with the critics. Sure, Cruise may bring in more money, but CR will also do very well at the box office.
This, coming from someone who wanted, Butler or Jackman in the role over Craig!
Let's all keep a healthey perspective on this.
I may have been wrong in thinking that M:I-3 could be the better film just based on some of the reviews that we're seeing in this thread (and I'm also reconsidering whether I should go see it or not), but I still think that Craig and Casino Royale are, sadly, going to be a one-off Bond and a one-off Bond film in terms of serious and down to earth. Outside of this forum and maybe 2 people whom I talk to that follow the franchise to any degree, the overall mood I'm finding towards CR is that it's a film that they're probably going to pass on in November. Simply put, I don't think that this film is going to make any money (we're talking somewhere between 25 to low 30 mil on opening weekend at best) and Craig, IMO, will be made the scapegoat when it was EON that put him in a bad position by half-rebooting the series instead of either not rebooting or going all out with the reboot. Fact is, you have to go in one of those two directions, you can't camp out somewhere in the middle and think that the public will buy into it, because they won't.