Let me start off by saying that I’m not exactly a James Bond fan. I’ve seen a couple of the more recent movies with Pierce Brosnan in the lead, but missed everything before that. I’ve never read an Ian Fleming book, and was never interested in the heated debates over which actors were or were not fit to play James Bond.
I’d of course heard that there would be a new Bond this year and, though I didn’t know anything about him, I’d seen pictures of Daniel Craig around the Internet. I thought to myself, “He doesn’t look like a suave, sophisticated spy,” and thought he wouldn’t make a good James Bond. How wrong I was!
I only went to see Casino Royale because my husband wanted to see it, so I wasn’t expecting much out of it. At first, it looked like my low expectations were warranted. There was an extended chase scene after the opening credits that, while at times was exciting, isn’t the way to start a movie, IMO. I wanted to meet Bond first, and then see him in action. There were some cool stunts during that sequence, but it lasted too long.
After that, however, the movie really took off. In the previous Bond films I’d seen, the plot was always so twisted and convoluted that I couldn’t really understand what was going on. Luckily, that wasn’t the case with Casino Royale. Most of the time, I knew precisely what was happening (and why), and that added immensely to my enjoyment of the film.
I won’t go into plot details here, but I do want to say that Daniel Craig was fantastic in this movie! I thought he made a great James Bond and I’ll freely admit that I was way too quick to judge him. I liked what he did with the character here and am looking forward to seeing him in future 007 movies. I also loved Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. She wasn’t the typical Bond girl in that she was witty and intelligent in addition to being beautiful.
Overall, Casino Royale was a fun, exciting movie that is well worth seeing in the theater. I give it 4 stars out of 5 and I’m sure you’ll like it too!