Daniel Craig’s first James Bond film can be found on DVD in every charity shop in the land. The opening section – designed as a flashback to set up the reboot – doesn’t really work and didn’t need to be there, and the use of black and white seemed clichéd. Fortunately, the film improves enormously after that.
The action sequences are stunning – fighting on cranes and leaping between them, an airport showdown and a collapsing building in Venice. There’s real drama in the multi-million-pound poker game and when Bond is poisoned and almost dies in his car.
Judi Dench is great as M. At one point she quips “In the old days, if an agent did something that embarrassing, he'd have the good sense to defect. Christ, I miss the Cold War.”
I really liked the unexpected love story: Bond actually falls for Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) and displays an emotional depth that would have been impossible in the Roger Moore era. On first viewing I thought it was a shame that after developing the asthmatic, blood-weeping Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) as a convincingly creepy baddie, the real villain turned out to be the characterless Mr. White. Or so you are led to believe until the subsequent films peel back further layers of intrigue. On second viewing, and with knowledge of where the series was heading, I enjoyed this ending much more.
No comments:
Post a Comment