Casino Royale

As in the newest edition to the James Bond canon, not the parody movie which somehow got away with using the name "James Bond." That one was fairly entertaining, if rather corny.

The newer Casino Royale, though, is extremely well done, if a bit problematical for the established canon. See, it's an origin story. Bond's only just been promoted to "double 0" status. However, it's set in the modern era with cell phones and computers and implantable microchips, etc. Once I got over the whole "Er, did the earlier films with older Bonds regress technologically?" thing, I quite enjoyed it. (There are no major spoilers ahead, but possibly a few hints at things)

I will note that there were two places where the movie could potentially have ended, but I'm just as glad that it didn't. Most of the plot loose ends did get tied up by the end. There were a few places where I just wanted to applaud the villain(s). Seriously awesome badness. I mean, tying a girl to a railroad track just doesn't compare (if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about; if not, you'll figure it out when the scene comes up). Also, there was no "lock the hero in a room and wait for a complicated device to kill him" shtick. There was a locked room, but the villain kinda needed him alive at that point. `/^

*pauses* I just noticed a bit of a plot hole... which renders that entire scene unnecessary. Ah well. It still beats the locked-room-death-device, even if torture is not an intelligent way to gather information. I can think of much better ways to get the needed "password," assuming it was genuinely needed. Probably not as spectacular on screen, however. `/^