Friday – 03 August 2007
I watched Casino Royale and finished Dark City last night.

  • Casino Royale: Bond. James Bond is back. I haven’t watched this movie since its theatrical release. It was every bit as enjoyable on the small screen as it was on the silver screen. Daniel Craig makes an excellent rough-around-the-edges, newly-minted 007. It will be interesting to watch as this “blunt instrument” develops into the refined spy who defined cool for many a movie goer over the past 40-odd years. If, in fact, they are using this movie to “reboot” the James Bond franchise, I will be quite interested to see how they portray Bond as going from cold and detached, to falling for Vesper Lynd, to once again setting aside his emotions… only to later fall for – and marry – Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo.
     
    As the opening – and closing – credits rolled, I listened to You Don’t Know Me, the theme for this movie. Performed by Soundgarden and Audioslave front man, Chris Cornell, it stylistically harkens back to older Bond themes. It was also interesting to note how it was worked, very subtly, into the score… even in places where one would expect to hear the classic “007 Theme.”
  • Dark City: As I watched this movie, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between it and The Big O:
    • Both take place in cities where people have lost their memories.
    • Both take place in isolated cities: Dark City is a… petri dish, for lack of a better term; Paradigm City has been sealed off from the rest of the world, inside a giant dome.
    • The protagonist lives a little outside the norm – both John Murdoch and Roger Smith know that “something isn’t right” with themselves and in their respective cities – and question the norms.
    • Both protagonists have, in supporting roles, a prominent female figure and a police officer as a somewhat reluctant ally.
    • Both features are done, to borrow a phrase from Warner Brothers Animation Studios, in a “dark deco” (and in some instances, gothic) style.

    I’m not entirely sure what I expected to get from the movie. It borrowed from many different concepts and blended them into a dark oleo. I’m not saying that it was bad – or that it was done poorly – but it was definitely… different. One thing that I did note was Jennifer Connelly’s presence. No, not for that reason (but, yes, she is nice to look at). I saw her and thought about her role in Ang Lee’s Hulk, in which she played the romantic lead opposite another man who not only had metahuman abilities, but also had… issues. I enjoyed the movie, but it would probably take another viewing for me to sort everything out about the movie.

Stray Toasters

And now, off to save the world! to work.

Namaste.