Saw Casino Royale over the weekend, and oh, the Daniel Craig love. So. Big. I hope everyone who booed the idea of him playing Bond has been properly chastised now, because I think he was perfect. The new raw edge was more than yummy.

My only disconnect was knowing this was supposed to be Bond's promotion to 00 status, early in his career -- and then hearing the reference to 9/11. Somehow having seen all the other actors (except for George Lazenby, and really, who cares) as Bond isn't weird when accepting Craig, but the chronology element struck a weird note. Makes me wonder where they're going with the franchise -- starting over, as this was the first Bond novel? Are there unfilmed novels left?

I loved the way they humanized Bond in this one, and really moved away from the cartoon aspects of the earlier films. I loved those, way back (and still do love some of them), but as much as I enjoyed the eye candy of Brosnan (and Berry -- and Brosnan and Berry together), Goldeneye's Hotel of Ice! and Magic! Disappearing! Car! were a bit too silly for me. *This* Bond was real -- no gadgets beyond the technology any one of us could use, and a healthy dose of confidence and really big balls. (Although I suppose the Internet-heart rate-poison diagnosis thingie was a bit of a stretch.)

I didn't mind his relationship with Vesper, because I had in mind that this was early Bond -- a Bond who has a preference for married women and no complications, and who lets himself fall once and promptly gets burned. I liked seeing a Bond focused enough on redeeming himself with M and getting the job done that seduction wasn't the first thing on his mind, and I love that Vesper was supposed to be a smart girl, as opposed to pure cheesecake (even though I agree that the director seemed to assume we would believe this without much evidence). That said, her motives and the execution of the betrayal were kind of weak, despite the cool sinking building scene.

Excuse my enthusiastic rambling here. I haven't been to a movie aside from one for the kids in months and months, and I haven't loved a movie so much in a while. Pure entertainment. Awesome action! And scrumptious eye candy! Oh! I do agree that Eva Green looked odd in the casino scenes -- she looked much prettier in the scene at the hospital when Craig is in the wheelchair, and in then in Venice. In all that makeup, with the chunky jewelry and the dark dresses, on her fairly skinny if busty frame, she looked like a preteen girl playing dressup, and doing it badly.

AmyLiz, the ice hotel and disappearing car were Die Another Day, not Goldeneye, which I think was really good. Probably still my favorite, as it may have been the first one I ever saw.

Oh. Oops. I can never keep the names straight unless it's Goldfinger.

My first Bond was probably one of the Roger Moore ones. It's been so long ago, and I've seen so many, so many different times, it's hard to keep track.

I loved the earlier gadget stuff, but this (slightly) more realistic Bond was really appealing to me. Like the parkour scene (and I didn't know what the hell that meant when I read the white font before, either!) -- I loved that Bond wasn't able to just do it, automatically, but had to compensate by using his head (and sometimes simply brute strength and force of will). The Ford Focus was unforgivable, though.

Die Another Day [...] may have been the first one I ever saw.

Jesus, I feel old.

I have no idea what the first Bond movie I saw was. I'm pretty sure I saw Moonraker when it came out, and I would have been...[does math] 6.

Jesus, I feel even older.

My dad brought Moonraker home on a huge clunky laserdisc back in the early 80s. Though I think Live and Let Die was the first Bond movie I saw, actually. In the theater.My strongest recollection is of the 7-Up guy in witch doctor getup laughing on the cowcatcher of a moving train.

Hey! Your ellipses misrepresent what I said!

If it makes you feel less old, I know we had a bunch of those older ones (like Moonraker ) on tape at home, so they could have conceivably been my first. But I don't remember watching more than bits and pieces, if at all, before Goldeneye.

Nuh-uh!

If it makes you feel less old, I know we had a bunch of those older ones (like Moonraker ) on tape at home

Aaa! That is the opposite of helping!

Daniel Craig on Charlie Rose. (There are a few spoilers for the movie.)

Not only is he a smokin' pile of hottitude, he seems to have a functioning brain in his head. Hot, articulate and confident. A lethal combination indeed.

Not only is he a smokin' pile of hottitude, he seems to have a functioning brain in his head. Hot, articulate and confident. A lethal combination indeed.

Deadly.

I don't know the first Bond I saw. I've never, to the best of my knowledge, seen one in the theatre. (My parents only ever went to see SciFi movies, and theatres are a habit I didn't really get into until about a decade ago.)

I know it was Moore, though.

The one I remember most clearly, possibly because I also owned the book, was Goldfinger.

I've seen every Bond movie in the theatre since I was about...10, I guess. It's a thing. I don't even question it--in fact, I pause whenever someone points out it's not automatic for them.

I've seen all the older ones more than once, and also read all the books--though that was way long ago. Maybe I should give that a shot again. Not like I have anything else to do.

I cannot get over how great I thought the parkour scene was. Just so educational about the character, and so few action scenes bother to shoot for more than shock or tittilation.

Mads Mikkelsen makes me laugh, because I'd only heard of him from fangirls getting me to put his picture up. He's just so not at all attractive in the movie.