And it comes from Bond realizing that he can’t use the usual charm and walk away strategy with her. Unlike the previous relationships portrayed in this franchise, this one feel genuine. And for the second time in the history of this franchise, loses the girl who he’s been falling for resulting in a tragic ending.Īnd then we have Bond’s relationship with Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Bond nearly dies several times and has to have someone else save him from his untimely demise. And it’s not like previous movies where he gets captured for a second and then instantly frees himself and everyone else. He is frequently out raced, out gunned, out maneuvered and often finds himself struggling. The second big aspect of change is that Bond fails a lot. Bond is not allowed to just make reckless decisions and walk away from them, and it really grounds the character brilliantly. This is established very early on in the movie, and it is frequently brought up as he communicates with MI6 throughout. M (Judi Dench) makes it very clear that several of his actions are out of line and he is not going to get away with ignoring orders without consequences. The biggest thing is that Bond is clearly called out for his lack of decorum. Instead this movie is going to examine what make Bond… Bond, and what aspects of that character are wearing thin as time has passed. So it is clear that this movie, and franchise, were not setting out to do what had been done before.

He’s clumsy in his fighting, he’s constantly unsure, and at the start of the movie he’s not even a Double-O, only earning that status as the movie dives into the plot proper.

Right from the start of Casino Royale it’s clear that Bond isn’t the character we’ve been following for the past 20 films. Is it possible to both create and deconstruct simultaneously? Can you take a well-worn franchise and grind it apart while at the same time creating a new vision that established the character we’ve come to know and explores what it is that made them who they are? Is it possible that the best thing to ever happen to James Bond (Daniel Craig) was to destroy everything that made him James Bond? Let’s look at the movie that attempted to both make and break Bond at the same time.

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