Saw CR last night and whilst as a cinema-goer I enjoyed the spectacle, as a Bond 'purist' I came away very disappointed.
The classic Bond elements are there; the Martini, the Aston Martin, the Bollinger, the Tuxedo, the girls, the exotic locales, the action, the crashes and the explosions, all very much in evidence. Still, this doesn't disguise the fact that Daniel Craig looks and moves like a builder, albeit a very, very toned one.
Yes this is a reboot, a back to basics approach on 007 but the last time this was tried with 1989's Licence To Kill the series stalled at the box office. Dalton's Bond was humourless, angry and wasn't afraid to get into a punch up but audiences didn't connect with the gritty realism of the new Bond and the result was a return to more familiar ground with 1995's Goldeneye. CR won't stall at the box office as the marketing hype around the film is considerable compared to the lacklustre effort afforded to Licence To Kill.
Dalton wasn't a bad Bond, but played the part in a rather brooding way, as if he was nursing a rather bad hangover all the way through. All the previous BonRAB have forged out a niche for themselves in the character's history. Sean Connery was the dark ladykiller, Moore was the suave Englishman with the puns and the gadgets, Brosnan was arguably a bit of both most of the time. What though, of Craig's Bond? This is a man who would look more comfortable mixing concrete than taking part in a game of poker.
Once the fuss has died down, I think in the cold light of day Casino Royale will emerge as a humourless, cheerless attempt to reinvent a character that we know all too well. 007 is a round hole and both Daniel Craig and Casino Royale are very, very square pegs.