Bloody brilliant sums it up quite nicely me thinks. We saw it last Friday and thoroughly enjoyed it. Certainly one of the best Bond films I’ve seen. I read that one of their aims was to make it more realistic without all the silly gadgets (such as the invisible Aston) and they’ve definitely done that. It seemed more gritty and real.
The parkour in the opening sequence was excellent. I had a sneaking suspicion that Sebastien Foucan was involved and I was proved right since he is listed in the credits. Actually on a related tangent, we saw him in person when we went out for a meal in Manchester a couple of years ago. I think it was not long after Channel 4 aired a documentary on parkour.
Anyhoo, going back to Bond’s beginnings as a double O worked well. I would have liked to have seen how he was recruited, but never mind. It was also a nice touch to see how Bond won the famous DB5, and whilst the plot was pretty simple it held together well.
*Spoilers ahead* A banker, Le Chiffre, that deals with terrorist money organises a $150 million poker tournament in order to pay back money he’s lost. The continuity during the poker match seemed a bit off and jumped about a bit, but not enough to confuse matters. It was a nice twist to have Felix Leiter (CIA agent) make an appearance to help bail James out when he gets knocked out of the tournament.
Le Chiffre, played by Mads Mikkelsen, turns out to be a really evil baddie which, as I said previously, is a must for a good Bond film. You can see he has a nasty streak from the beginning, but the torture scene really brings out the worst in him.
Daniel Craig actually seems to be acting and brings more depth and character than we’ve previously seen in Bond. He seems haunted by something in his past that we’re yet to find out about.
Overall, good stuff, highly recommended, probably more so if you’re not a Bond fan. Watching from here, you can start afresh. Hopefully they’ll build the series up again with the new style they’ve used. I’m really looking forward to Bond 22.
