“Casino Royale” was the
first Bond film I have ever watched. I therefore was unsure of what to expect;
I held in my mind the impression that it was probably another nonstop-action
shooting fest with a plot that was there simply to tie the action together. Quite
to the contrary, I was to discover that “Casino Royale” is well balanced with both
action to keep things entertaining and character interaction to further the
plot. Speaking of plot, I should say that the plot of this film, while not
extremely complex by any means, was at times difficult for me to follow. There
are several instances of “this guy works for that guy who works for that guy
who was threatened by that guy” that can be a bit confusing. Nevertheless, I
don’t believe that this should discourage those who aren’t skilled at following
plots. The action is divided up fairly well throughout the movie, ensuring that
there’s rarely a dull moment between an apparently peaceful conversation and a
massive shootout.
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| It's like you're really there! |
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| Bingo! |
One thing I feel that the
filmmakers did particularly well is ensure that the viewer(s) not only see but
experience a given situation in the movie. For instance, there is a point in
the movie where Bond is poisoned. You experience the same rush of fear that
Bond does when the poisoned drink is brought into focus, and well placed sound
effects and visual distortion give the viewer a great feeling of panic as Bond
stumbles to his car in order to defibrillate himself before he falls
unconscious. Sound and visual effects are used similarly to emphasize the tones
of other situations as well. These are especially evident in chase scenes, such
as the scene where Bond pursues a bomb-maker across the skeleton of an unfinished
building structure. The soundtrack is notably good as well, ranging from
peaceful background music to the classic and epic 007 theme. While the
components of the film were mostly well put together, it does have its shortcomings.
More than once the film feigned being near its end, with an apparently happy
ending, only shortly after to have some betrayal or other occur. In small
doses, these types of things may add to the plot, but at these particular
moments I was given the feeling that the filmmakers just wanted to drag the
movie on until everyone was either dead or disloyal.
As I mentioned, this is the only
Bond film I’ve seen up to this point, so I don’t have a standard with which to
compare it, but it seems to me that Daniel Craig plays the role of 007 well, with
a personality describable as lady’s man, comical, and cold-blooded agent all in
one. Overall, I feel that all of the actors did their part to deliver a
believable presentation, with solid acting for protagonists, antagonists, and minor/background
characters alike. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this movie as a 7/10. While this isn’t my all-time
favorite film, for the most part, I enjoyed it, though it seemed to drag on a
bit toward the end. I definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a movie with
a good balance of action and plot, given that the plot is not perfect but at
least interesting. One last comment I have is that it would be very helpful to
the viewer if you understand the game of poker, as (big shock) it is a major theme
in the movie, and as I’m not entirely familiar with the game, I was slightly
confused during scenes involving it.
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