Finally.
That’s the feeling one gets while watching the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. Finally. Finally the series has taken the next step. Finally the series has evolved. Finally they’ve got James right. Finally they’ve figured out how to tell a Bond story.
For years, the 007 franchise has been stuck in neutral, bogged down in its own conventions and mythology. It’s a dinosaur, and nowhere was that more evident than the last four or five films. Pierce Brosnan played Bond with such a cavalier attitude that it was hard to take any of the content in those films seriously. Death was joke; danger was just a stage prop, and James was shallow and devoid of human emotions. He was no longer someone we could identify with, or root for.
Enter Daniel Craig.
The first thing to say about Casino Royale is that Daniel Craig might be the best Bond ever (and apparently I’m not the only person who thinks that), for the simple reason that he, along with the writers and director for Casino Royale, have finally distilled Bond down to exactly what Iam Flemming originally intended him to be: a blunt instrument wielded by government agencies. Bond has a license to kill, and this time the movie takes that aspect of his life seriously.
Craig may not have the typical Bond appearance, being blond and having a slightly rougher face (although he does have the muscles), but he’s a great actor and embodies the role the way an actor should. He’s intense, aware and imposing when he has to be, and vulnerable and introspective at other times. He offers a wider range than previous Bonds; part of that is the script writing, but part of it is Daniel Craig as well.
But Craig isn’t the only overhaul here. A lot has changed since the last Bond movie. What makes Casino Royale great is that the producers have finally broken the mold.
For starters, the movie opens in black-and-white with sharp camera angles reminiscent of Orsen Wells and his iconic Citizen Kane. Instantly we realize that this isn’t the same old Bond. The technique is short-lived, but sets the tone for the whole movie: this Bond is going to be different.
It also helps that the dialog for this movie has finally been elevated; gone are the throwaway one-liners that had become tiresome and boring long ago. Instead, we get conversations that sound like they actually might exist if we were eavesdropping on the participants. When there is humor, it’s of a style and type we’ve not seen before in a Bond film (make note of the absolutely great joke James makes while being tortured late in the film – no other Bond dare attempt).
But the dialog isn’t the only change. This Bond is bloodier. For decades, the Bond franchise has been careful not to show too much blood and gore on the screen. When villians die, they disappear in bloodless explosions, like boogymonsters out of a dream. Times change, however, but until now Bond had not caught up. This time we get to see how this secret agent business really works; that it isn’t all glamour and martinis and beautiful women (although to be fair, there are some beautiful women in this film). There’s real danger involved – real killing to be done – and sometimes it’s going to be bloody and brutal. For the first time we get to see James wrestle with the very real emotions involved when a human takes another human’s life.
We also get to see an evolution. This is an “origin” movie. It’s about how James becomes 007, and what he goes through to earn his stripes. At the beginning of the film James is a cocky, self-assured agent-in-training. By the end of the film he’s not only a different agent, but a different man, and the events of the film shape his persona for the future.
There’s less action in this film, but it doesn’t hurt the end result, and actually helps the movie overall. Most of the film revolves around a poker matchup, a sport that has seen a recent spike in interest in the US, so most viewers will probably be able to connection with the poker action and stakes at some level. That is not to say the movie is devoid of any real action, however. When the action arrives, it is excellent. Early in the film we are treated to one of the great chase scenes in recent filmmaking history, and for once it doesn’t involve automobiles.
What I’m talking about is Parkour, also known as free-running. It is a sport described as:
A physical discipline of French origin in which the participant — called a traceur — attempts to pass obstacles in the fastest and most direct manner possible, using skills such as jumping, vaulting and climbing, or the more specific parkour moves.
This is truly a unique and interesting chase scene. We’ve seen chase scenes on foot before in movies (the footrace in Point Break comes to mind), but never like this. The man James chases in the movie is none other than Sebastien Foucan, one of the co-founders of the Parkour sport. What he does in the film is amazing, and takes an ordinary scene and elevates it.
Later in the movie we also witness an incredible car accident that his simple and brief, yet extremely effective. Unlike previous Bond movies, this time around the filmmakers don’t try to spend every moment of screen time cramming explosions and special effects down our throats. Instead, the film is very cerebral and deliberate, which makes the action scenes, when they arrive, all the more potent.
Even the villian, this time around, is better. For a while there is seemed like the producers had run out of good villians for the Bond franchise, reduced to casting Jonathan Pryce as a Bill Gates type mogul in Tomorrow Never Dies, perhaps the worst Bond villian of all time. This time around we get more than one villian, with more than one motivation. Villians are rarely “just evil”, and here we get to see layers of opponents for James to deal with, with varying degrees of deception involved. The whole thing adds dimension to the Bond franchise – something it has sorely lacked in recent years.
Finally, while Judi Dench returns as “M”, the comedic talent of “Q” is gone. And honestly, it’s a good thing. I had thought I’d miss Q and all of his gadgets and gizmos, but this film is much more serious and introspective, and the slapstick aspect of Q just wouldn’t have fit in.
In all honesty, I’m actually amazed at the filmmakers for the way they’ve focused the vision for this film and not allowed any extraneous distractions – despite the prior conventions and lore of the Bond franchise – to interfere. This is a Bond film with vision and purpose, and the makers stay true to their intentions with the movie, all the way until the final frame. This is a more serious, thoughtful Bond. It’s better, in every aspect.
If this is what we can expect of future Bond films, we’re all in for a major treat.