I went to the movies yesterday so I wouldn’t have to sit around and listen to the family eat Thanksgiving dinner (I can’t eat solids at the moment), and smell those wonderful smells, and I’m glad I did.  I saw Casino Royale, and I have to say, I think it’s the best Bond movie ever.  They set out to portray the original Bond from the books, and succeeded magnificently.  I’m showing my age here, but my dad had all the Bond books, and I read them before I ever saw a Bond movie.

Even Sean Connery, who up until now was the best representative of the real Bond, was steered away from certain aspects of his personality.  If you’ll recall, he killed a guy in cold blood in Dr. No, and never did that again.  After that, the producers concentrated on the urbane, sophisticated Bond.  This Bond is driven and ruthless, and they want you to know that right up front.  The opening sequence drives the point home. 

Casino Royale jettisons large parts of the Bond formula.  They wanted to make their own Bond flick, and you have to admire them for that. There were a couple of nods to the old stuff.  There was a sly reference to Moneypenny, and a funny bit about the martini.  It says a lot about director Martin Campbell that he was able to pull it off in the middle of the crucial sequence in the Casino, which is otherwise filled with dramatic tension and Bond almost being poisoned to death.  They also fleshed out the characters quite nicely, which hasn’t been done seriously in the past.  Among other things, there’s an amusing scene where Bond and love interest Vesper Lynd (played by Eva Green, the hottest Bond Girl since Daniela Bianchi) psychoanalyze each other over dinner and drinks.

One of the formula parts they did keep is the slightly ridiculous extended chase scene.  The big one at the beginning of the film is really the only minor criticism I have.  Of course no one who’s running from the cops is going to go up a construction crane.  Where do you go from there?  They did it as an excuse for some Parkour-based stunts that are mind-blowing.  If you’ve ever seen video of those guys jumping from building to building, you know how amazing they are. And it’s nice to see stunts that you know aren’t being faked.  It also showed that this Bond is in good enough physical shape to keep up with the baddy, albeit with a few almost-disasters.  He’s not just a guy standing around the bar with a martini making devastating witticisms.

Speaking of which, I guess this is the part where I have to address the Daniel Craig issue.  I’m aware of the fact that at this point, I sound like a cheerleader for the film, but what can I say? What you see is what you get, and I’m about to do it again.  There was a lot of hooting about Craig in the runup to the release of the movie.  Certain bloggers *COUGHAceCOUGH* got a lot of mileage out of reports of him being, shall we say, less than hardy on the set.  Here’s a newsflash: He’s an actor, and Bond is a character in a movie.  To this day, the specter (so to speak) of Sean Connery has hung over any actor who takes on the Bond character.  Daniel Craig has not only managed to avoid that specter, he’s banished it for good.  His portrayal of Bond was dead-on.  That’s Bond the way I imagined him when I read the books.  Tough, ruthless, conflicted, mysterious.  Running with the devil.  He’s that good.

And he still gets the best tail.