Casino Royale

After the lackluster performance of Die Another Day, and a four year hiatus, Daniel Craig starred in the first Bond film to definitively reboot the franchise, by appropriately adapting the very first James Bond novel: 1953's Casino Royale. This was, in fact, the third time that the novel had been adapted, but the first two adaptations were far from ideal: The first being a one hour television special, and the second serving as a satirical poke at the main film franchise (It stars David Niven, Peter Sellers, and Woody Allen of all people!)

Freed from all of the previous Bond chronology, which had always been loose at best, Casino Royale allows us to see a less experienced, more vulnerable Bond who has just attained his License to Kill / 007 status. Judi Dench remains in the role of M, but almost all of the other periphery characters are not to be seen: This is, in fact, the first of the films to not feature the character of Moneypenny, and only the second in which someone is not portraying Q. Felix Leiter, Bond's long time CIA ally, does eventually appear, played by the excellent Jeffrey Wright, in what is to be their first meeting of the new franchise, harkening back to their first encounter on film in Dr. No.

Needless to say, Casino Royale was a huge shot in the arm for the character of Bond, featuring a grittier, more believable tone while still having the grandeur audiences have come to expect. Much of this is due to the machinations of the film's primary villain, Le Chiffre, played with an excellent mix of menace and desperation by Mads Mikkelsen, who is racing to replenish the bank accounts of the various shadowy organizations he serves as a banker. None of Le Chiffre's associates are slouches by any means, and each set piece, from the stunning parkour inspired chase scene near the opening of the film, to the gun fight amidst the sinking city of Venice fails to disappoint.

Also notable is Eva Green's turn as Vesper Lynd, the British Treasury agent assigned to supervise Bond as he enters into a high-stakes game of Poker in Montenegro: She is, as a Bond girl, obviously very beautiful, but also far more nuanced than many of the women who have played opposite the fictional British spy, eventually serving as the main catalyst of Bond's transformation into a far more cold-hearted, emotionally distant spy we all know, culminating with the famous line: "Bond . . . James Bond."

I was truly taken aback by this film, expecting to see more of the same as had come before, and if there's any disappointment I have about it, it is that the filmmakers steering the franchise failed to capitalize on what could have been a very interesting series of remakes of older Bond adventures. What would an updated Live and Let Die have looked like? Or a Moonraker that adhered more to the far more realistic plot of the novel? Or a Diamonds Are Forever that dealt with Bond tackling the Diamond trade from Sierra Leone to Las Vegas without the orbital space laser? Alas it was not to be, as Casino Royale was followed by a number of sequels that eventually sought to reboot the reboot, and transform the new Bond into . . . Well, something we had already seen. Ah well.

But how good were the rest of them?

2: Skyfall. There's actually a lot to admire about Skyfall, with its plot revolving around its villain's understandable vendetta against M (and by extension MI6), though I can't help but be reminded of its similarities between Raoul Silva and Goldeneye's Alec Trevelyan: Both are former MI6 agents who were left to die, resulting in facial deformities, who are using their insider knowledge to their advantage . . . But that's forgivable in the face of all of the satisfying sequences, and its choice to show us a Bond who is quickly losing his edge, needing to resort more on his wits than superior strength, speed, or accuracy. We also get to meet the newest incarnations of Q and Moneypenny, and its got one of the best Bond opening theme songs I've heard in quite some time. All of this said, it's hard for me to wrap my head around the film's ending, which essentially brings us full circle in terms of the look and feel of M's office, while weirdly harkening back to Bond's earlier adventures that this version of Bond never experienced: The Aston Martin from Goldfinger returns, as does Bond's limited arsenal of pistol and radio transmitter. There's also some CGI Komodo Dragons that took me out of the movie just long enough to ruin my suspension of disbelief, but seeing as Bond falls seemingly to his death at one point and somehow survives in spite of having been shot, I suppose I should look more closely at my priorities.

3: Spectre. I wouldn't say that Spectre is a bad entry into the Bond franchise, especially compared to some of the poorer entries we've seen up to this point, but seeing as it wraps up the Daniel Craig years, it did leave me wanting more. I think it's main blunder was in trying to bring back one of Bond's most reoccurring villain as someone who has had a lifelong grudge against Bond due to . . . Adopted sibling rivalry? The Ernst Stavro Blofeld of the earlier installments was motivated purely by business, a napoleon of crime comparable to Professor Moriarty. Here we have another man with a chip on his shoulder, who has been deliberately trying to make someone else's life miserable via massively elaborate schemes. S.P.E.C.T.R.E. as an organization only really pays off if we've been dropping clues, obvious or subtle, so just throwing it in at the last minute can't help but feel cheap. I guess it was fun to see Mr. White again. Just felt like we went out on a fizzle.

4: Quantum of Solace. This movie is quite forgettable, which is especially disappointing seeing as it dovetails directly from the ending of Casino Royale. After a promising car chase, we find out that an environmentalist entrepreneur named Dominic Greene is somehow connected to Mr. White's organization, Quantum, who is helping a Bolivian generalissimo stage a coup in exchange for seemingly useless desert, but oh, it's not useless! Greene is going to create a monopoly revolving around fresh drinking water! And there's oil involved somehow? Personally, this film reminds me of The Living Daylights. There's just so many different interested parties, reversals, and new characters who are introduced before summarily being killed that it all becomes something of a blur. Coming off of a much better film also seemed to take a lot of the air out of the tires of a franchise that could have chugged along successfully for at least five more installments rather than three, though I have to assume that did have something to do with the personal real life beating Craig seems to have taken during every single Bond film he starred in. It's just a shame we didn't get to see more.

So, this wraps up my rating of the Bond series. Only time will tell whether or not we'll be seeing someone else step into the shoes, though seeing as there's been twenty-four of these (not counting the off brand Casino Royales, or the actually rather fun Never Say Never Again), I'd say it's a safe bet that someone will be saying the words, "Bond, James Bond" in our near future.