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Casino Royale Movie Review

Casino Royale is a 2006 spy film directed by Martin Cambpell and starring Daniel Craig. It is a very strong reboot of the franchise.

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“Why is it that people who can’t take advice always insist on giving it?“

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I found the story pretty good, not great but terrific for the franchise’s very low standards. So this film can basically be defined as a hard reboot having in mind that the approach is almost entirely different from all of the previous entries in the series. That was done for better and for worse, but is mostly a successful experiment.

The best way to explain all of the differences is to comment upon the protagonist himself as there lie all of those major changes. So this James Bond is much less experienced than all of other Bonds as he is new to the job and makes mistakes. That I loved as it made him more human along with giving him a serious relationship. The film explored so well how lives are tough for spies and that’s why they are cold on the inside.

But the change that I didn’t love is that Bond is very serious and never funny at all. The entire film desperately needed at least some humor in it as it was frequently just dark for the sake of being dark of which I never approve of.

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And yet another major change lies in the sexual approach and I am mixed on that decision. Basically they entirely twisted it on its head. Whereas all of the previous movies objectified women (Bond girls), this new one objectifies its lead, Craig himself. I was honestly very surprised at how erotic some scenes with him were with the most memorable one being the torture scene. I liked it because it was different, original and the actor looks great, but I also found it overly excessive at times.

So Daniel Craig is a pretty good new James Bond. He isn’t as good as Sean Connery in my opinion, but is quite possibly the second best. He played him so well as he is a very good actor and the change in look from darker and lean to muscular, shorter and blond worked overall. I particularly liked how humanized he was while I particularly disliked his lack of humor. But he still is very charismatic, arrogant and sex obsessed.

Judi Dench’s M is as amusing as ever, Mads Mikkelsen gave us a pretty strong villain whereas Eva Green gave us such a wonderful love interest for the protagonist. But although I really liked their romance which offered a couple of sweet, tender moments, it still came way too late in the game, arriving as late as the two hour mark.

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Yes, Casino Royale is way too long which is a problem that plagues most of the entries in this franchise. Admittedly, it is mostly engaging, but sometimes I was bored as the action, although very well pulled off, is frequently overwhelming and the poker scenes went for too long and were uninteresting. The ending is solid, but could have been better. But the film is very well shot and I loved the diverse locations with Madagascar being the most interesting one.

You can hardly get a harder franchise reboot than Casino Royale which is almost entirely different from all the previous James Bond films. Some of the changes are done for the better and some for the worse. The lack of humor is problematic as the film is too dark at times and too serious. Bond being objectified this time around is an interesting choice that, although at times excessive, mostly worked in the film’s favor as did Daniel Craig’s more humanized portrayal of the character and his inexperience as an agent. The film is overlong and the romance arrived way too late in the game, but still this is an engaging, frequently even touching and very interesting Bond film that ended up being mostly a successful experiment.

My Rating – 4