Casino Royale (2006)

User Review

• 

  BarneyNuttall

  7 / 10

  With exhilarating action sequences and a revitalized contemporary Bond, Casino Royale is a gust of fresh air which attempts to shed the old Bond while staying loyal to it. Yet, not all the cobwebs get swept away with the film's women failing to be anything more than the classic Bond Girl rather than a 21st-century woman.
  
  Firstly, the film's action sequences are of top quality. Campbell repeatedly ups the anti with action sequences that embrace their environment. Campbell masters tension by constantly raising the stakes, while also building on character. While chasing the slippery free runner in the film's opening action sequence, Bond chooses to run through walls rather than slip by them, instantly highlighting his recklessness.
  
  While the film is undoubtedly contemporary, it still honors its roots with Mikkelsen playing a quintessential Bond villain; all that's needed is a fluffy white cat. The humor is witty and quick with some moments making me laugh out loud. 'I miss the cold war' mutters a bitter M, played by a gently sour Jude Dench.
  
  Despite all this, the film has one major flaw. It's gender politics. Eva Green attempts to convey a modern woman, trying to resist Bond's creepy flirtations. In the end, she fails to be more than a two-dimensional portrait of a female lead rather than a fully rendered model.
  
  Another issue is the film's ending. With Mikkelsen gone and Bond in hospital, you think the story is done. But it doesn't! It seems to just keep on going. When it could have ended, the film chases a plot of betrayal which, in all honesty, didn't grab me. It leads to a fun action sequence in Venice but otherwise serves little purpose than to pad out run-time.
  
  Casino Royale is an unresistible return to an age-old franchise. While it seems to catch up with the modern world it seems to get yanked back in by sumptuous women who serve little purpose but to act as married 'pit-stops' for Bond.

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