Birth of a legend

Well, like I said, it was cheap night at Showcase last night — I got to see Casino Royale on the big screen. We had to rush a bit, but cinema advertising and trailers gave us about ten minutes to spare.

Neil had said that Daniel Craig is not right for Bond, because he’s blonde, because he’s not smooth, because he looks like a thug.

After watching the film, both of us agree that he was a great choice for this film (well, I think so much more since I quite like Daniel Craig, ever since I saw Hotel Splendide years ago*).

Spoilers ahead.

One of the things I was wondering about was Vesper Lynd’s character — that Algerian knot necklace was obviously from her kidnapped boyfriend, and that was how she was coerced into cheating the Treasury. And so on. So, was cheating on her boyfriend by shagging our erstwhile Mr Bond and stopping wearing the necklace all a ploy? Or had she really fallen for our hero and was going through with the deception because… she was being honourable?

Very strange.

I liked it. It was grittier and Daniel Craig was good because he doesn’t look as polished, because his Bond is a bit more of an unknown quantity. And his eyes… wow. Those are comparable to Chris Isaak’s piercers, although I’ve never seen Daniel Craig in person and I don’t know how much of that blueness is for real.

* Did you notice that the names of the hotels in the films were the same?

• 22 Nov 2006