James Bond is a franchise that has seen many ups and downs and has been reinvented so many times on film that it's hard to keep count. With the more reinvention of the characters coming in 2006 when the series went from being an over the top summer blockbuster type of film franchise to being a more grounded and serious type of franchise and so then join me as I review the film that is actually the third time that this story has been adapted with the film in question being called simply just "Casino Royale" enjoy.
The plot of this film is James Bond is given his first ever mission as a double 00 as he has to beat a terrorist at a card game and drain him of all of his money before it's to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with this films plot doing a good job of not only telling the plot of the book really well but also adding in things to help pad out the books story and while yes granted this film might not seem as exciting just based on the plot alone this films is perhaps more exciting because of the fact that it is a small scale plot as there's no plan to take over the world or start a new civilization either under the water or in space rather it's just Bond trying to outwit someone whilst playing a game of cards and that's it and to be fair that's all this films plot needed to be as alot of the people coming into this film were coming to see how Bond became the character that we all know and love and the fact that we got a really good plot on top of that is the cherry on top as by all rights this films plot could have been really bad and yet it's clear as day that after the disaster that was Die Another Day you can tell that there more of emphasis put on making this films plot be as good as it could have been whilst also making it feel like a new era for Bond and that is something that does work really well and while yes this films plot isn't as good as say Goldfinger for example it's also alot more better then what it really had any right to be with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
This film was of course the first film to star Daniel Craig as James Bond , Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter and the returning Dame Judi Dench as M. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually feature / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with all of the acting from the main MI6 regulars being really good which is not all that shocking for Dame Judi Dench as she of course played M in the Pierce Brosnan films as well with her doing a really good of playing in this film as well and while Daniel Craig does turn in a good performance in this film as well his performance would rather understandably get alot more better in his later James Bond films as here while he is good in this film he is still getting used to playing what is truly an iconic character with Jeffrey Wright being just as good as you'd expect him to be as here he's just as cool and as confident as his character is and that is something that does shine through in the final performance as just as we the audience are trying to work out of if we like this new James Bond so is Felix Leiter as well and in that regard that does make Felix the audience character for this film as well as his character would act that way towards Bond as he is still trying to work out if he likes Bond or not with it being really hard to say just how out of these MI6 regulars turned in the best performance in this film as being realistic here anyone of them could have layed claim to that and it would be totally understandable as well.
Also starring in this film is Eva Green as Vesper Lynd , Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre and Giancarlo Giannini as René Mathis. Also starring in this film is Jesper Christensen as Mr. White , Tobias Menzies as Villiers , Isaach de Bankolé as Steven Obanno , Simon Abkarian as Alex Dimitrios , Ivana Miličević as Valenka , Claudio Santamaria as Carlos Nikolic and Sébastien Foucan as Mollaka. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with all of this films actors turning in some really good performances in this film something which should come as no surprise to anyone as alot of this films actors are a bunch of really good actors in there own right with them all showing us why they are so good in this film with there not really being a single bad performance in this film when there very easily could have been and yet because of the fact that we had the experienced had of Martin Campbell back for his second and so far final Bond film it really is something that does help as he does know how to get a good performance out of his actors with the best actor in the whole entire film being Daniel Craig as even tho this really is only his first every James Bond film and isn't as good in this film as he would be in Skyfall for example he is still really good in this film with him really putting in the performance of a lifetime in this film with the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.
This films Bond Girl is of course Vesper Lynd whom is of course played the seriously stunning Eva Green. While alot of people do like her character and while she is a good character me personally I just don't find her to be all that interesting as a character as to me the best Bond Girls are the ones that are risking their lives just by being seen with Bond as that is something that does add an element of danger to there character and can make them more interesting as characters if it's done right and yet here in this film we don't really get anything with Vesper that makes it seem like she's risking her life just by being seen with James Bond but on the flip side of that is the fact that she is basically this Bonds true love and it's not that hard to see why he fell head over heels in love with her as there are something about her that makes you want to know more about her and that makes you hang onto her every word while yes she is essentially a double agent and is only there to teach Bond not to trust every one he meets she is also there to teach him that it's OK to fall in love with her being just as quick with the quips as he is something which does make them seem like a cute couple with there best scene together being the shower scene where Bond comforts her after she's just been involved in a pretty violent action scene which was interesting as we only see how Bond an experienced agent deals with the after effects of being in such fight but we never or very rarely every see how the Bond Girl deals with being in that same fight with it being revealed here that Vesper is a fragile creature that whilst she is smart and funny she also finds it hard to cope things that she doesn't understand all of which are things that do make her a good character in her own unique way.
Doing the production design for this film was Peter Lamont who if you've read my reviews of other Bond films that he's worked you'll know that he's very hit and miss for me. Well here he does knock it out of the park as he does create some really good looking sets which is something thar does make as he had worked on alot of the Bond films in this role since the eighties and dating even further back in other roles as well with it being clear that he understood that the mission with this film was to make the world of James Bond somehow both feel grounded in reality and yet at the same time have those fantastical elements in the sets that we all know and love something which he does pull off really well as he does create alot of very large looking sets that would look at out of place in any other film and yet they feel right at home in a James Bond film with this being especially true for the main casino set which not only looks huge in it's own right but also has different levels to it as well and it's those little touches that does make the sets in this film feel unique as it would have been very easy to copy the sets that they did for the 1967 spoof version of Casino Royale as they to had a very large main casino set but here they take pretty much what they did in that film or tried to do in that film but they did it better as they had the time and the money to do so with that love meaning that they can put in little touches that no one would notice like the stairs connecting the two levels or the fact that there's a bar in that set as well as those are the touches that help to make this set and this film feel all the more real.
This films main villain Le Chiffre is to be frank here quite weak as a villain which is something that does make sense as this film is basically Bonds first full mission as a double O agent. Therefor of course he's not going to be all that powerful as that would then make him to hard for Bond to overcome but at the same time tho the makers of this film could have made him a bit of a challenge for Bond and not have him be someone that looks like he would get beaten in the first round of a fight as this character is meant to be one of the smartest characters in any room that he's in and therefor he would have plans on top of plans and yet that is something that we really don't get to see in the film with the character instead spending alot of time in trying to work out how to win this one game which OK fair enough is key to the whole plot of the film but at the same time tho he could have had insurances going on in the background to make sure that he won as that would have made him seem more like an actual threat and while he's not the worst villain that Bond has ever come up against he's also not the worst one either as you can tell that the makers of this film did try to make him an interesting character and while he of course won't be strong as villain like Blofeld , Goldfinger or Sir Hugo Drax are for example as the character does have aspects him that do work like the fat that you can see that he's always thinking or the fact that he does actually come close to killing of James Bond something which none of his villains have done but the film really doesn't make him as strong as they could have done either and heck it's not even Bond that kills him it's Mr. White with Le Chiffre getting a fairly weak death but it's not as bad as the death of Karl Stromberg from The Spy Who Loved Me.
The opening titles for this film were of course done by Daniel Kleinman with the films title song "You Know My Name" being sung by Chris Cornell. With the films opening titles being really well done as they show a newly double 0 James Bond fighting off several foes in a casino type of setting with the visuals being really well mixed with the films more rock inspired title song something which does go along way in making this film feel all the more different from all of the James Bond films out there as alot of them had used pop songs or love ballads as there opening theme songs with there only being two that used a more rock inspired theme song those being "Live And Let Die" and "A View To A Kill" with this films theme song being a really good song in it's own right as its one that is oddly well written for a James Bond theme song as well as being well sung as well with the both the opening titles which here used alot of rotoscoping with the opening titles even not including that many characters in them as outside of Vesper there's only two ladies that appear in them with both Vesper and Bond himself being the only two human characters and that is something that does work well for these opening titles as this film is all about doing things differently yet also keeping enough things similar as to not put people off them as having there only be a few characters in these opening titles does fit that and when you add in the fact that the film has this high energy rock song playing all throughout it it does make something that you actively can't wait to see when starting another viewing of the film as the two of them compliment each other so well as it's hard to picture these titles without hearing this song and it's hard t hear this song without picturing these titles.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and twenty four minuets and thirty three seconds. Which is something that whilst it is pretty much the bogstanderd running time for these Daniel Craig James Bond films it is still a bit of a long time for a James Bond film to have with the film having more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running time in the first and yet with that said that this film really doesn't use it's running time all that wisely as while this film does use it's running time wisely in one respect as the film does fully develop it's plot with alot of the films plot development coming i scenes that aren't really all that important to the plot of the film as we get to see why this card game is being set up and we get to find out why M selected Bond to enter it in the first place with even the fact that we get to see how Bond got his double O status in the first place something which is key for the entire franchise and yet even so the film doesn't take it's time to fully develop it's characters as while the film doesn't give James Bond any character development the argument could made that that's the point of his character as he's meant to be a male power fantasy character which is something that doesn't require alot of character development but given that this a new version of Bond and yet we don't know all that much about him with the same thing being true for alot of this films characters as well and while none of this films characters are harmed by this it is something that does stop the characters that just appear in this film from being as great as they all had the potential to be but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the makers of this film preferring to do there action scenes for real and not use alot if any CGI with that being something that does add an element of danger to the films action scenes as nine times out of ten the stuntmen are putting themselves in real danger to get the shot and to do the stunt in the best and safest way possible something which the later Pierce Brosnan James Bond films didn't do as they went over board with the use of CGI to the point where the stunt became less exciting to see and yet in this film the stunts are exciting to see as it's real people doing them all for real with the best action scene in the whole entire film being when Bond chases someone around the streets of this town in the opening of the film and yet while that might sound dull and boring what makes it exciting is the fact that it keeps on escalating as first it starts out on ground level and then the two of them are fighting on a crane with both of them just barely making it across to the other building and while the action did peak there and should have ended there it does keep on going with the the characters fighting their way through a building with the film having alot of really good action scenes in it with the thing that makes them better being the fact that they were al done for real with that creating sone really good looking action scenes in this very film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this film is not only the great relaunch that the series needed at this point in time it's also a film that can stand on it's own without having the James Bond IP attached to it as if you remove the James Bond characters this film still works on it's own as that's how good that this film really is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and and well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , Wikipedia , Blogger . Com and Google Images. With my personal favorite website to use to get the images that I used in this very review being Google Images just simply due to the fact that pretty much all of the images that are featured / presented to us and are currently up and also on Google Images are all fairly high quality and as well as being fairly high definition and well then boys and girls just freaking like James Bond I will return.
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