Nice To See That Bond Is Human

So I also saw Casino Royale this past weekend (3 movies in one weekend, after not seeing any in a month) and despite hearing a lot of good things about it, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually was, finally, a very good Bond movie.

Daniel Craig feels perfect in the role, and it's a breath of fresh air that they finally let his Bond be human. Past Bonds were always expected to be completely inflappable, to never be worried, to always be sort of boring. Here, finally, it felt like a Bond that was really living the part.

(Now if they'd just do something similar with Superman).

The setpieces worked well, particularly the early running-around-the-construction-site one. I agree that the casino segment seems to go on for a while, though ironically it's not because of the actual poker scenes -- I think they only show three hands in the whole Casino Royale sequence.

The poker scenes were also the typical ones, in which it all comes down to everyone having the kind of great hands that never simultaneously happen in real life. You don't need to know how to read other players, or see their tells, if you get a hand like this. As it was the bad guy's tell was so painfully obvious, that the poker-expert bad guy shouldn't have needed anyone to tell him about it, while Bond should suspect throughout that he is being set up.

The very end drags on for a while, though the final setpiece is very solid too. Overall, it's an entertaining ride.

It's also an example of a studio film that gets a PG-13 despite a myriad of reasons why it should have been R, including a torture scene. Just because the brutality is implied, doesn't mean that we don't feel it.