“The coldest blood runs though my veins”

Casino Royale is a very special and interesting installment in the James Bond series, This film is often considered a game changer by many and upon rewatching it it’s pretty obvious why. Unlike every 007 film that came before it, it’s not necessarily a fun spy action film. While it has some fun moments it’s more of a serious and grounded take on the character, taking him in a completely new direction than seen before. 

Showing Bond as a brutal killer that he’s always been though the intense and violent action sequences. Martin Campbell’s take on this film is fantastic, I loved his work on GoldenEye (one of my favorite 007 movies) but it’s incredibly interesting seeing his more mature and grounded take on this character, setting up Craig’s run in the same way he helped setup Brosnan’s run. 

Just in the 5 minute black and white opening sequence you know this isn’t a typical spy flick, and the fantastic Chris Cornell song helps make that even more clear. His track is my personal favorite Bond theme, it’s awesome, badass, and sad at the same time, it definitely reflects James as a character and it’s such a perfect choice here (RIP Chris Cornell) honestly one of my favorite film openings of all time, it sets the mood and feel of the whole ride up so perfectly.

Daniel Craig is such a different Bond, kinda feeling like a spiritual successor to Dalton’s take (especially in license to kill) he’s my favorite 007 by miles. His performance is cold, awesome, and just overall terrific. I think he’s the only Bond (with the exception of Dalton and George Lazenby but they only got 1-2 films) without a bad or even mid tier film. In 2005 when he was initially casted he received a load of backlash and almost dropped the role, but his excellent performance here proved everyone wrong.

The villain here Le Chiffre played excellently by Mads Mikkelsen is amazing, he’s not a typical Bond villain in the sense he wants to take over the world, he feels like a real person with vulnerabilities he’s also not given a comical or over the top death like some prior Villains in this franchise. 

Eva Green who plays this film’s Bond girl, Vesper Lynd is one of my favorites as well, her character, she is given time to shine and you can definitely see why Bond ended up falling in love with her making her death at the end extremely tragic much like how the end of On Her Majesty's Secret Service had that gut punch of an ending, ending in Craig becoming the Bond we know and love. her chemistry with Craig is electric. It’s very well known that Craig insisted on her being dressed during the shower scene, she was originally supposed to be near naked but Craig felt it would have been more realistic for her character to not take the time to undress after witnessing the death of the people Bond killed, I love this it makes her feel less like a sex object and more of an actual character. The shower scene is one of the highlights in general, it’s the scene where they fall in love and it’s just beautiful.

This film is flawless, I haven’t even gone into the amazing and thrilling action sequences or the amazing cinematography and set designs, it’s one of those movies I can talk about for hours. 

An amazing, awesome, emotionally powerful, and structurally perfect start to Craig’s run as the legendary character, one of my favorite films of all time.

“The name's Bond... James Bond”

Kinda crazy Martin Campbell made Green Lantern shortly after this, huh?