Bond is a more caustic, intense character with virtually no weapons concealed within gadgets or cars and with an antagonist far more rounded than the mad megalomaniacs previously seen.

21st Century Bond

Casino Royale was a bold departure from the franchise's long history, with director Martin Campbell, who first directed GoldenEye starring Pierce Brosnan in 1995, focused on the plot more than action. This movie is more high-roller poker games than the fun wink slots casino. The movie has Bond as a steely character who is both intelligent and controlled, with a bitterness that sometimes becomes cruel, making him a more rounded character than previous 20th-century incarnations.

Casino Royale is not all dark, it plays on previous knowledge of Bond, such as when 007 snarls that he doesn't care whether his martini is shaken or stirred. The movie also launched the success of several up-and-coming actors including Eva Green as treasury agent Vesper Lynd who Bond falls for, as well as the aforementioned Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre and Jeffrey Wright as Bond's CIA ally Felix Leiter.

Screenplay

Ian Fleming's original Casino Royale novel does not see Bond saving the world or getting his girl, but rather sees James Bond assigned to play cards against the amoral Le Chiffre, a private banker supporting international terrorists who are desperate to replace client funds he has already stolen. Bond needs to win the game to stop the villain or at least have his grass on other villains. If Bond loses, a charge of directly financing terrorism could face the British government.

Over the course of the mission which sees Bond travel through Madagascar, the Bahamas, Miami, and eventually Montenegro where he faces Le Chiffre in a high-stakes poker tournament, Bond reluctantly falls in love with Vesper. After winning against Le Chiffre and surviving torture, Bond is furious when he discovers that Vesper is a double agent but desperately tries to save her when she is trapped underwater. At the end of the movie when Bond finds out that Vesper is dead, he forces himself to believe he doesn't care, only to find that Vesper has left him all the information he needs to track down those responsible for her death, setting the scene for No Time to Die.

Public votes

Calling Casino Royale the best Bond movie will enrage some purists, but movie website IMDb polled thousands of people in an attempt to reveal the very best Bond movie. With 4,432 votes Casino Royale won just over 70 percent of the votes to beat Pierce Brosnan's second-place Goldeneye to a convincing win.

In contrast, Rotten Tomatoes, which combines professional critic reviews and the public's vote, scored the classic Goldfinger as the best Bond movie with a 98 percent rating, with Casino Royale coming second with 95 percent, followed by Dr. No, Skyfall and From Russia With Love.

Next

On 2 October 2020, MGM, Universal, and Bond producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, announced the release of No Time To Die, the 25th film in the James Bond series, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and Craig's last as 007, would be delayed again, until 2 April 2021 in order to be seen by a global audience.