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It was nice and sunny all weekend, and now, to greet me on a Monday morning, back to the grey and the wet.
I went to see Casino Royale yesterday, and was thoroughly entertained.
My main gripe is that it's too long, and that it feels a little disjointed. There's a reason for this, though. The first 45 minutes or so - which is my main complaint, length-wise - is all set up, Bond on the electronic paper-trail of Le Chiffre, blowing things up, getting in trouble, and seducing women the world over. Having finally driven the man into a corner by foiling his plot to blow up a new airliner, thus sinking the company's shares and making a killing on the stockmarket, the set up is there for the high-stakes winner-takes-all poker game that is central to the film. Basically, his clients aren't going to be happy that he's blown their cash, and his clients aren't the sort to attempt legal action to get it back. Illegal action, more likely.
At this point, we finally get to where the book starts. The book contains a single chapter detailing who Le Chiffre is, and why he's setting up a card game in order to win back his clients' money. Indeed, any earlier Bond film might have had 007 called into M's office, a dossier handed over to him, and off we go straight into the card game. So for the next hour or so, the plot is reasonably close to the novel (although it's a different card game, in a different part of the world, but that's hardly a problem). Bond and Le Chiffre (with a cast of supporting actors) play cards, and there are a number of attempts to get Bond to leave the game in a permanent fashion. We're introduced to the local man, Mathis, the Treasury's girl, Vesper Lynd, and latterly the CIA's man Felix Leiter, who's undergone a kind of reverse Michael Jackson. Or given this is a prequel of sorts, he undergoes a Michael Jackson-like tranformation in his latter years.
It's safe to say that Bond gets the girl, and that Le Chiffre is dealt with. The end of the film isn't unlike the end of the book, either, though again more drawn out and spectacular than it needs to be. Though I suppose the somewhat slow, noir, psychological tension of the book's ending wouldn't have translated that well.
Okay, Daniel Craig. Is he Bond, or isn't he? Well, to start with, he's not the Bond we know. He's not sure of who he is, whether he truly believes in what he's doing. There's arrogance, there's flair, there's vulnerability... but they're all more intense. By the end of the piece, having he's literally deconstructed himself and put his persona back together, and the final scene is the only time we really get to see Craig as James Bond, 007. Casino Royale is all about the making of Bond, it's been advertised as such, and it's what we get. It could've done with being 1/2 hour shorter, is all.
I went to see Casino Royale yesterday, and was thoroughly entertained.
My main gripe is that it's too long, and that it feels a little disjointed. There's a reason for this, though. The first 45 minutes or so - which is my main complaint, length-wise - is all set up, Bond on the electronic paper-trail of Le Chiffre, blowing things up, getting in trouble, and seducing women the world over. Having finally driven the man into a corner by foiling his plot to blow up a new airliner, thus sinking the company's shares and making a killing on the stockmarket, the set up is there for the high-stakes winner-takes-all poker game that is central to the film. Basically, his clients aren't going to be happy that he's blown their cash, and his clients aren't the sort to attempt legal action to get it back. Illegal action, more likely.
At this point, we finally get to where the book starts. The book contains a single chapter detailing who Le Chiffre is, and why he's setting up a card game in order to win back his clients' money. Indeed, any earlier Bond film might have had 007 called into M's office, a dossier handed over to him, and off we go straight into the card game. So for the next hour or so, the plot is reasonably close to the novel (although it's a different card game, in a different part of the world, but that's hardly a problem). Bond and Le Chiffre (with a cast of supporting actors) play cards, and there are a number of attempts to get Bond to leave the game in a permanent fashion. We're introduced to the local man, Mathis, the Treasury's girl, Vesper Lynd, and latterly the CIA's man Felix Leiter, who's undergone a kind of reverse Michael Jackson. Or given this is a prequel of sorts, he undergoes a Michael Jackson-like tranformation in his latter years.
It's safe to say that Bond gets the girl, and that Le Chiffre is dealt with. The end of the film isn't unlike the end of the book, either, though again more drawn out and spectacular than it needs to be. Though I suppose the somewhat slow, noir, psychological tension of the book's ending wouldn't have translated that well.
Okay, Daniel Craig. Is he Bond, or isn't he? Well, to start with, he's not the Bond we know. He's not sure of who he is, whether he truly believes in what he's doing. There's arrogance, there's flair, there's vulnerability... but they're all more intense. By the end of the piece, having he's literally deconstructed himself and put his persona back together, and the final scene is the only time we really get to see Craig as James Bond, 007. Casino Royale is all about the making of Bond, it's been advertised as such, and it's what we get. It could've done with being 1/2 hour shorter, is all.