Review of Casino Royale (2006) by Stefan G — 19 Aug 2015

If there's one thing we don't need, it's another reboot, especially if it's a Bond reboot. James Bond is a character that is now synonymous with fads that have long since overstayed their welcome.

The original Bond films started off as really good, but then became tedious as the years went by and as they kept making so many. The Pierce Brosnan films tried making the franchise edgy again, but ultimately fell prey to the much of the same old clichés, to the point that the franchise would once again collapse under the weight of its own silliness.

This film tried to change all that by reinventing the character as a gritty, post-Bourne action hero, and it's all too apparent that the producers have missed the point of the character entirely. This new Bond is ugly and fights like a street thug, and with all the charm of a poor man's Mark Harmon.

Considering the film itself, saying that about the guy is extremely generous. I know that much of the plot in a Bond film is mainly just a giant excuse to parade around a handsome actor, but in the case of this film, the plot is really boring and thin.

The producers stretch it out for as long as possible, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the guy they're showing off for two hours is a total bore, and that whole scene where he gets tortured just seems like a pointless attempt to give depth to a character that has is incapable of such in a modern context.

For me, that's the entire problem with this film. It attempts to put an embarrassingly dated character and franchise into a modern context, and yet Bond simply doesn't work in a modern context at all.

Without the suave Bond just seems like a neutered spy trying to be Jason Bourne just because that was the next big thing at the time. Of course, one argue that the Bond franchise is a lot better without the silliness and gadgetry that plagued the older films, but what we get instead is arguably much worse, and even more repetitive in the films to come.

The film may have been competently produced, as can be seen from the visuals and the realistic action scenes, but it's worth nothing if the film as a whole cannot entertain. By this point, Bond is deader than disco, so why can't we just accept it?