I’d been falling out of love with Bond for some time, and this “reboot” of the series is long overdue. Daniel Craig plays Bond with a hard edge, but also a certain vulnerability that comes from Bond’s (fictional) inexperience: this is 007 at the start of his career.

What I liked most about Casino Royale was the total absence of all the kitsch and camp the franchise has accumulated over the years. The title sequence didn’t feature naked female silhouettes! The title song was actually quite good! The very few snappy one-liners he comes out with are actually witty rather than corny! The villain isn’t a gratuitously megalomaniac caricature!

Damn, it’s actually really good! The plot and the action are all so much more mundane–but in a good way. It’s down-to-earth rather than superheroic, and all the more tense and exciting for it. It’s enough to make me start looking forward to the next episode in the series.