Casino Royale, or Europe's New Toy vol. 2

I really enjoyed Casino Royale in a way I haven't enjoyed a Bond movie in twenty years. Judi Dench as M particularly hits just the right note in terms of mixing humor with ruthless gravitas, and the verbal fencing between Bond and Vesper is perfect, seductive and funny. Casino Royale refers to the franchise's hallowed traditions with a sense of humor as well, such as mocking James Bond's tremendously mannered drink order, while simultaneously giving it a special place in the new Bond mythos by giving it an origin and significance. The reference to the unusual names of Bond girls (Pussy Galore, Holly Goodhead) is nicely woven into the interplay between Bond and Vesper. In another simultaneous break with and nod to the past, the opening credits dispense with the usual naked ladies, silhouettes, which had progressed from silhouettes to models with oil pouring over their breasts, another example of how style had given way to excess in the franchise. Actually I really missed the barely-disguised nude women, because I first discovered Bond films in the awakening sexuality of my youth, and I find I still really like boobies. To me though, the new opening credits were very reminiscent of Dr. No, reinventing the franchise by returning to its roots, using Ian Fleming's only un-filmed Bond novel as inspiration. The two opening action sequences were wonderfully done, the first serving as an introduction for Bond and the whole franchise reboot by doing something unusual, opening the film in black and white, alternating between a callous assassination in a dark office and a flashback to a brutally violent knock-down drag-out fight to the death in a bathroom, all concluding with its own take on the signature Bond gun barrel opening shot. After the credits, there's a fantastic chase sequence of Daniel Craig pursuing Sebastien Foucan through a Madagascar construction site, in which Foucan's ability to evade Bond through a whole monkey-like style of movement, and Daniel Craig's attempts to follow resembling the proverbial bull in a china shop made for an amusing but still tense chase. The film can really be split into three acts, and the first act plot really seems to be about affirming an English commitment to Europe and European industry, as amid speculation about the future of EADS and Airbus, Eon has James Bond foiling LeChiffre's plot to manipulating the market by shorting EADS stock and then blowing up the A380 at its launch. It's not actually the A380, but I thought the message was clear to those speculators considering abandoning Airbus and forcing a bail-out by the French government, when LeChiffre loses $102m overnight. The A380 apparently takes over from the Chunnel (featured in Mission Impossible) as Europe's new toy. The second act, where Bond meets the absolutely scrumptious Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) and engages with LeChiffre in the Casino Royale, all went very well, with just the right balance of high class gambling, brutal violence, and shower finger-sucking. My only gripe was I wondered why they played No Limit Texas Hold'em, when the dominant game in Europe is supposedly the very similar Omaha, but then it would be somewhat harder for Giancarlo Giannini to give a play-by-play to the audience. And to those who criticize the ridiculously rare hands played, I'd just have to point out that no matter how gritty it gets, this remains a Bond film, and Bond doesn't win on a pair of threes facing a broken straight, and I would wager Bond and LeChiffre are guys who like to rake in huge pots when everybody's looking at a monster hand, not professionals who grind out wins. It's really the third act that hurts the film, and has caused the most criticism. The beginning of this third section is easily the poorest part of the film. It asks us to skip ahead quite a bit by introducing a romance with very little real groundwork, and explore the softer side of Bond, and then compounds its clumsiness by dragging quite a bit, and by offering somewhat clumsy foreshadowing. At that point we all know where the film needs to get itself to, and losing its way two hours in is not good. The overall length wouldn't be as much of a problem if it didn't head into the third hour with a declaration of "I've loved you ever since... actually just since 5 minutes ago" and a very long, long series of romantic scenes in romantic locations. First the lake, then the beach, then St. Mark's Square, it just crashes the whole film, when what needs to actually be explained in the third act is very rushed and unclear. It all concludes with one of the signature action set pieces of the film which the trailers had to tease us with, the collapsing Venetian building, which is quite well done, and concludes the story of how Bond came to be the strange lover and killer he's been for decades, so it's by no means a complete derailment, but it is the clear flaw of what is otherwise a really fun film. All in all, Casino Royale is really just a hell of a lot of fun, and immensely exceeded my expectations, especially in its sense of humor. And was that really Richard Branson in the airport? Rufus will return in "Sotongfinger"