Casino Royale (2006)

I must have seen my first Bond movie when I was 8 or 9, while living in the U.K., the proud home of James Bond. I confess I can't really remember what that first movie was, except that I enjoyed it a lot, and most of the others that I saw. I remember the channels would show a Bond film every few months, and every film was like a little festival for the whole family: we would note down in advance when it would be shown, and then sit there mesmerized for 2 hours in front of a little TV. It was pure magic.
As I grew up, and came back to China, I became more distant from Bond. In my mind I had always viewed the Bond films I had seen as classic action films, not to be compared with the contemporary action films. I also became quite critical of the recent additions to the franchise, feeling that there was nothing special about them. We had whole new waves of better action films, some of which featured great spies, from True Lies in the mid-90s to the more recent Jason Bourne series. The Bond films were becoming simply showcases for cars, watches, and some girls. The magic was lost, it seemed.
Then came Casino Royale. I had read some rave reviews before-hand, so I knew this film is great. It also meant I had very high expectations. With those expectations, I decided to go to the cinema and see it on the big screen. The first ever Bond film I saw in a movie theatre. And it was one great ride.
Okay, enough with the sentimental stuff. Casino Royale features James Bond in his first mission after acquiring the 007 status, so chronologically you could say the story here happened before the other films. (However the film is set in the present day, which might cause some confusion to those not so familiar with the character.) This premise immediately brings one interesting element into the film: what events in his early career made James Bond the spy he became?
The film opens with depicting the mission that Bond carried out to acquire his 007 status - his first and second kills. The kills are not done as cleanly as Bond would've probably had liked, and it perhaps suggests that the soon-to-be-famous spy is not entirely an expert at his game yet. As the film really starts after this short intro and the opening credits, we see him making a few more spectacular blunders, learning lessons along the way.
The better part of the first hour is devoted to those "spectacular blunders", and indeed they are spectacular, coming in the form of two very lengthy action sequences. The first utilizes the free-running sport (also called Parkour, and getting more and more screen exposure these days), and is a visual feast to watch, and is perhaps the best action sequence of the whole film.
After Bond finishes these two action scenes, the film moves on to some serious story telling, with the main plot - Bond playing some very high stakes at Casino Royale - set in motion. The female interest, Vesper Lynd, is also introduced. Lynd is in charge of looking over the government's interests, in terms of the money being used by Bond to play at the table. From this part onwards, the film's core plot gradually evolves, and the story-telling is masterfully paced. There are some action scenes now and then - this is a Bond film, after all - but what really drives the film is the plot and the interaction between Bond and Lynd. Along the way, the film leaves some hints here and there for the careful audience, and we soon find out that indeed all is not what it seems, as the film eventually builds up to its haunting conclusion.
I had doubts previously whether Daniel Craig could be Bond. I felt his looks and demeanor were comparatively different from that of Connery's or Brosnan's. Indeed, this Bond is not the polished gentleman (who could be rough some times, but as a rule, very polished) but instead a more fired-up and passionate person. He is more physical, and to a certain extent you could say there's an untamed beast inside this man, beneath the cold looks and cool expressions. This might not be the Bond that some audiences expect, but it's perfectly fitting for the plot, and Daniel Craig just nails it home.
Lynd, played by Eva Green, is also excellent. She handles the subtle emotions very well: right from their first scene, Lynd appears to be quite skeptical of Bond, but beneath the sarcasm you could always sense that they were in fact (fatally) attracted to each other.
If I have any complaints, it's probably that the film feels somewhat imbalanced between the opening half which was decidedly more action driven and the second half which was story driven. I felt that perhaps the film was trying too hard to prove itself of its name, and wanted to win the audience quickly with some complex action scenes. Then again, this isn't really much of a complaint rather than a personal wish to see even more of the story.
As a end note, the last few years featured some popular characters returning to the screen, such as Batman Begins and Superman Returns. What those films had in common with Casino Royale was fundamentally a reconstruction of the characters as we know them. These films successfully expand their characters, giving them more depth and/or history, and also contributes to the prior works involving these characters, as we can now see them in a new light.
9/10