8 replies to this topic

[tdalton]

This is a review based on seeing the film once (I plan to see it at least once more in theaters, so I may revise this once I see it again). First of all, the film is very good (although there are some big flaws in it), but it is extremely difficult to compare it with the other Bond films and even to rank it amongst them because this is not a James Bond film in the sense that the other 20 films have been James Bond films.

Daniel Craig
Without a doubt THE reason why this film, as a whole, is pretty good. I don't think that with anyone else in it (say Clive Owen or Hugh Jackman, for example), that this film would be even half as good as it is. EON clearly showed that they knew what they were doing when they hired him to take on the role. Blonde haired or not, this is just about as close as we've gotten to Ian Fleming's James Bond since the series began over 40 years ago. My main concern going into to the film was whether or not Craig could handle the humor that is required to take on the part, but he passed that test with flying colors. Casino Royale may just be one of the funnier entries in the series, while still being a very gritty and serious affair as well. This is, in large part, to Craig's performance and delivery of the lines that are supposed to be humorous. The scene at the beach club where he acts as a valet is priceless, and is instantly a classic scene in the franchise.

Also, Craig's acting in the torture sequence is, just by itself, enough to cement him as one of the great Bond actors. The wide range of emotion that he puts into that short scene alone is amazing, taking the viewer from feeling the pain of the torture to laughing at the brilliant dialogue exchanges between him and Le Chiffre.

Pre-Title & Title Sequences
The pre-titles to this film were great, but far too short. I wanted to see a bit more of how Bond got his 00-status. The title sequence itself, however, was a bit lackluster. The song is fantastic, the best in the series. But, visually, this sequence is not quite up to standard. The gun-barrell was okay, and the first few seconds of it were okay, but after they start listing the credits of everyone in the film other than Daniel Craig, it all looks a bit dated and poorly done. The silhouettes from previous entires would have been a nice carry-over into this new franchise of Bond films.

Judi Dench
I'll admit, I was not in favor of her returning to the series for this film due to the continuity problems that it created. But, I was wrong. Dench is perfect as M in this movie, easily besting her other 4 performances in the role. Every scene with her is great, and the first time we see her when she's leaving the conference room is another classic scene.

Eva Green
A great performance, although I feel as though Eva Green may have been let down a bit by the script. The love story between her and Bond was simply not developed enough. I was willing to buy into it because Eva's performance was excellent, but even though many feel this film was too long at 144 minutes, this is one case where I felt that the movie should have, perhaps, been extended to a full 3 hours. The love story simply needed to be developed more, and it could have been done in one of two ways. Either a montage set to a song like in OHMSS, or lengthening the film by another half hour or so to flesh out that story a bit more. More scenes like the scene between Bond and Vesper in the shower were needed to make the romance a bit more believable.

The Villains
Two villains in this film have a chance to be legendary villains in the Bond franchise, and the rest of them are instantly forgettable, and that is primarily due to the fact that we never learn the names of many of the villains. Sure, I knew who they were because of the fact that we've been discussing them here for several months leading up to the film, but it would be very difficult to figure out who some of these characters were simply from viewing the film itself.

Mads Mikkelsen is brilliant as Le Chiffre, and in a limited role, Jesper Christensen is great as Mr. White. But, it really stops here, and the rest of the villains, save for Gettler at the end (a character which needed MUCH more development) are forgettable and unnecessary to the story. Maybe time spent on the "development" of these characters in the film could have been spent making the love story between Bond and Vesper a bit more believable.

The Action
I'll admit, I complained quite a bit about the free-running sequence on these boards in the months leading up to the film. I still found the sequence to be a bit overdone and unnecessary to the film, but it did look significantly better on the big screen than it does on a computer screen. Still, I think that something else could have been done that would have been better, but parts of the sequence were good, so I'll let it slide as it being a case of EON just getting a bit of what was left from the old series out of their system before delivering us some quality entertainment.

The Miami sequence, on the other hand, was fantastic. Some good, quality action, and Craig's performance at the end of it when he is being arrested is top notch.

The Venice Finale
The concept here was very good, althought he execution was a bit off, mainly due to the fact that I simply did not know who these characters were. There was Bond, Vesper, and then a whole bunch of people who simply showed up to give Bond a hard time. Further development of Gettler would have gone a long way towards making this sequence better. Also, confusing dialogue regarding Bond's answer of "Allow me" when Gettler says something about harming Vesper, only to see him visibly shaken later when he is unable to revive her at the end of the sequence.

The Line
The biggest disappointment of the film was the throwaway status that the famous line that ends Ian Fleming's Casino Royale was relegated to. This should have been given a bit more than just a passing reference, and the emotional impact of it suffered greatly. I'm not sure if it was the way it was written or if it was just Craig's delivery of it. But, I was disappointed with it.

Overall, Casino Royale was very good. Sure, there are some flaws here and there, but certainly no more than any of the other Bond films. I'd give it somewhere between a 7.5 and 8.0 out of ten, although I expect that it could increase to 8.5-9.0 after a second viewing.

[Austin_craig]

[size=3]CRAIG SURPASSES CONNERY

Daniel Craig surpasses even Sean Connery for me. To many this is pure blasphemy but hey, i give the edge to Craig for the simple reason that he is the first Bond who actually looks like he could perform the stunts (he actually did) that are performed in the film. He has an athleticism that none of the the other Bonds had. His complete arrogance and egocentricity i find make him a compelling Bond. In addition he is completely relentless i think a quality that makes him all the more appealing. I enjoyed watching Bond fail and get beaten. But watching him get up time and time again was a pleasure to watch. Kind of mirrored to me the actors real journey. All these people cutting him up. I Really hope this film is a smashing success so they can wallow in it for awhile. One thing for sure is; he is here, and here to stay.

[ACE]

Nice review, tdalton.

[tdalton]

After viewing the film a couple more times, my opinion on the film has changed slightly, as some (minor) parts of the film have shown some weaknesses, but in the overall scheme of things, I think the film is better than I remember it being in theaters. I didn't feel the need to create a whole new thread to review the film again, so here goes.


Overall, I think that Casino Royale is one of the 2 best Bond films to date, on par (or even slightly ahead) of The Living Daylights. With some time it may be my favorite Bond film (and it may already be), but I'm hesitant to make that claim because, even in the wake of my first viewing of DAD, I thought that was a good film until subsequent viewings of that film on DVD.

Daniel Craig is the highlight of this film, and he's the best actor to ever take on the role of Bond, and it's evident in his performance. Never has an actor been as believable as Bond as Craig is in Casino Royale. In this film, it's easy to believe that Bond could actually exist in the real world as opposed to the highly glamorized world that he has existed in for the past 40+ years. While Casino Royale does, for most of the time, operate in a similar glamorized world, Bond comes across as a real person who could really exist in the real world. Credit this to Daniel Craig who has taken Bond from being a 2-dimensional character that saved the day with a one-liner and a smile into a character who is a force for the villains of the world to reckon with.

In terms of his portrayal of the character, Craig's turn in Casino Royale is the best debut to date, and it's also the best performance of Bond by any actor, and it's exciting to wonder about where he might take the character in Bond 22 and Bond 23 (and hopefully 24, 25, and 26 as well).

An acting performance perhaps even on par with Craig's brilliant work is that of Eva Green. Having read the novel several times, and knowing what ultimately happens to Vesper, I would have thought that it would have been very difficult to like Vesper because of that knowledge. Eva Green, however, makes her character into a very likable character all the way until the very end, and even makes the viewer feel sorry for her, even though she has done terrible things to both Bond and MI6. Her banter with Craig in scenes such as the train scene and the "last minute details" scene are brilliant, to say the least.

Mads Mikkelsen's turn as Le Chiffre is very much in line with the character that Fleming put down on the page in 1953, and I'm not sure that a better actor could have been chosen for the role, despite my initial skepticism of the casting decision.

As far as the pacing of the film, which I have heard many voice opinions in criticism of the action-heavy first half of the film, I find it to be both a strength and a weakness for the film. It's a strength in that I think that it was necessary to do so in order to show those who may have been on the fence about this new direction that they could still do the action scenes on par with what had come before in the last few films, and I think that they proved that they could. It's also a weakness, though, as others have said, because of the pacing problems that they pose for the film, but I'm not sure that it's a very major issue, however. The Miami sequence is a great action sequence, and the free-running chase is still not one of my favorites, but it doesn't bother me as much to watch anymore, and it's important to the storyline, so I'll let it slide.

I think that the biggest weakness for Casino Royale is the music and, most notably, "You Know My Name". Don't get me wrong, I love the rock version of this song that can be found on iTunes. It's a brilliant piece of music, and in that version, I think that it is one of the best title songs the series has ever seen. But, the version that they used in the actual film is terrible. No matter what setting I have it on (and this is a review of the Blu-ray disc, so there is the option for Linear PCM audio or "lossless" audio as some call it), the music completely dominates Cornell's vocal. It's impossible to hear him, and sometimes he's even overtaken by the background vocals. This is not his fault (at least on the performance end, anyway), as it's clearly a mixing problem, but it just sounds the whole way through as if it's singing the song into a pillow, and the vocal has that muted sound to it.

But, moving on to the rest of the music, I find David Arnold's score to be distracting at times. There are certain points in the film where it just overwhelms everything that is going on onscreen. In the Miami sequence, it distracts at about the point where Bond is on top of the tanker truck, and this is a problem at random times during the film for me. Also, with the promise of this being a new sound for Bond, it sounds very much like The World Is Not Enough in many parts of the film, and the only pieces that really stand out as being very good are the small parts where "You Know My Name" is sampled in the score.

Overall, Casino Royale is a top-notch Bond film that has everything going for it (except the music) and is certainly one of my favorites of all-time. Daniel Craig's performance has a lot to do with that, but I think that EON has finally steered the franchise in the right direction and will finally get things back to the standard that they were when films like From Russia With Love, Thunderball and On Her Majesty's Secret Service were being made.

[dodge]

A pleasure to read the update. This is one of the rare Bonds that does get better with re-viewings. The only significant point of departure I have from your take is the score, which I loved. Cornell's singing didn't do much for me, true, but the song itself-I thought--was lovely. And it was worked nicely throughout the film, Barry style, imho. Anyway, well-done.

Edited by dodge, 15 March 2007 - 03:04 PM.

[tdalton]

A pleasure to read the update. This is one of the rare Bonds that does getter with re-viewings. The only significant point of departure I have from your take is the score, which I loved. Cornell's singing didn't do much for me, true, but the song itself-I thought--was lovely. And it was worked nicely throughout the film, Barry style, imho. Anyway, well-done.

I think that "You Know My Name" was a good song, and could have been very good even in the state that it's in on the film if they had just raised the volume on Cornell's vocal. I just find (and it could just be me), that it gets a bit lost in the orchestra, guitars, and the background vocals. The rock version, where his voice is very much up front and center, is fantastic, IMO, and should have been used for the film.

[dodge]

A pleasure to read the update. This is one of the rare Bonds that does get better with re-viewings. The only significant point of departure I have from your take is the score, which I loved. Cornell's singing didn't do much for me, true, but the song itself-I thought--was lovely. And it was worked nicely throughout the film, Barry style, imho. Anyway, well-done.

I think that "You Know My Name" was a good song, and could have been very good even in the state that it's in on the film if they had just raised the volume on Cornell's vocal. I just find (and it could just be me), that it gets a bit lost in the orchestra, guitars, and the background vocals. The rock version, where his voice is very much up front and center, is fantastic, IMO, and should have been used for the film.

I still haven't heard the original version, so I'll continue my search. If it's as good as you say, then the loss is ours: I get the impression that Eon or David Arnold caved in to the fierce outcry against Cornell's vocal and attempted to cover it up.

A pleasure to read the update. This is one of the rare Bonds that does getter with re-viewings. The only significant point of departure I have from your take is the score, which I loved. Cornell's singing didn't do much for me, true, but the song itself-I thought--was lovely. And it was worked nicely throughout the film, Barry style, imho. Anyway, well-done.

I think that "You Know My Name" was a good song, and could have been very good even in the state that it's in on the film if they had just raised the volume on Cornell's vocal. I just find (and it could just be me), that it gets a bit lost in the orchestra, guitars, and the background vocals. The rock version, where his voice is very much up front and center, is fantastic, IMO, and should have been used for the film.

I still haven't heard the original version, so I'll continue my search. If it's as good as you say, then the loss is ours: I get the impression that Eon or David Arnold caved in to the fierce outcry against Cornell's vocal and attempted to cover it up.

Edited by dodge, 15 March 2007 - 03:04 PM.

[roboas]

good review. I just saw the movie for the first time on dvd. I thought Craig was excellent, encompassing the qualities you noted. I thought the opening credits were the best of any bond film. My previous favorite was OHMSS, but this one visually is better, albiet not as nostalgic. Some of the action in the beginning of the movie was over done in my opinion, and it kind of broke away from flemming's novel. I also disliked the fact that the card game was texas holdem, which they've probably never heard of at the casino royale, c.1953. I found the film engaging and enjoyed reading your review.

[AgentPB]

I enjoyed your review tdalton!