Casino Royale: Taking a Critical Look

Michael Noble, author of this critical essay starts off by giving a brief summary of the last Bond movie to be released in theaters (Die Another Day). He explains how this set up the newly released film Casino Royale and explains why Bond is so different in this movie. Noble also gives history/background of the previous Bond's portrayed by Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan in hopes of comparing the new Bond, Daniel Craig to the others. In his article, Noble gives Craig high praise for his refreshing role as Bond and to the movie for staying real to Ian Fleming's creation of Bond in his many books. Noble also applauds the more realistic characters and scenes in the movie by saying,

"More Jack Bauer than Austin Powers, Daniel Craig plays James Bond as a spy for our interesting times. With images of real torture beamed nightly into our living rooms, we are a long way from the elaborate castration-by-laser of Goldfinger."

Noble ends his article with a salute to the new James Bond. The link provided goes straight to flakmag, which is where I found the article. Below is the ending paragraph of Noble's article, which I found interesting.

"Bond ends Casino Royale by uttering his most iconic line: "The name's Bond, James Bond." It is fitting that he waits until the end to introduce himself. 007 has come full circle. Yes, the world has changed, but in a way that only makes Fleming's original conception of him more relevant. The real James Bond is back."