The new James Bond movie is actually terrific. As covered in many reviews, Craig brings an intensity, urgency, and grittiness to Bond which the series has never seen before. This is fitting, since it is a reboot (a la Batman Begins) of an unending franchise which consistently manages to get stale every few years. Origin stories, especially for fans, are always a lot of fun. Here we do not get the full origin (we never see Bond as a child or even Bond the naval commander) but instead get the back story of him getting his "double oh" promotion right before his first mission as 007.
Going with this plot was definitely the right choice. Rather than getting burdened by trying to piece together what really makes Bond tick, audiences can focus on watching a younger Bond beat up the bad guys. At least that seems like a plausible reason to not tell a full origin story, right? But the real reason to not ever try to tell a full Bond origin story is because to do so would unravel the character.
Bond behaves the way that he does because that is his purpose, which he never considers, questions, or regrets. There are moments of Casino Royale when we see such introspection, and frankly it's weird and painful. It is obviously wrong. Bond is not capable of introspection, just as a spoon cannot taste soup. When he starts to become human, the character drifts. It is as though Bond wakes up in the middle of the movie, asks himself what the heck he's been doing with his life, and decides to make some better decisions right away. Of course, this is corrected in short order, and now that the origin story is out of the way, I don't expect we'll see Bond so conflicted again anytime soon.
Casino Royale may end up rivaling the gross of the previous movie, Die Another Day, which itself was the top-earning movie of the franchise.
Great review Shuman. I really enjoyed this terrific "premake" film and only cringed at the oddly introspective sailboat scene which as you noted quickly reverts to the unconflicted Bondness we all ... enjoy.