I don't think the dead care about vengeance...

When we left our hero, James Bond, he was driving an armored Aston Martin through a melting ice castle... It was so absurd that it was actually funny. It was still an entertaining movie, and quite visually stunning, but it really hit the limit to how crazy the bond movies could get and still keep me watching them.

Enter Daniel Craig... When I first found out he was the new Bond, I was shocked. He is dirty looking. He is blonde. He is nowhere near as suave as Pierce Brosnan. However, I was completely wrong. Casino Royale was the first of what I've been referring to as "new Bond". These movies are based very closely off of the actual original James Bond books by Ian Fleming. Those books present a much more gritty, and human version of James Bond.

That's what these movies do. Casino Royale and, the newest installation, Quantum of Solace, are fundamentally one movie. You could literally cut the credits off, and put them back to back and they would make perfect sense. What they present is a modern Bond just beginning. They are James Bond when he first becomes a 00 agent. He is a cocky, precise, and blunt tool. He gets the job done, but cities fall in the process.

This Bond doesn't introduce himself with a catch phrase. This Bond doesn't know what drink he likes yet. This Bond still considers the concept of monogamy. This Bond isn't awarded all the crazy gadgetry yet.

That Bond is coming.

What Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace are then, are the molding and culmanation of what made the old Bond the suave, perfect spy that he was. That's why in these movies, you see him trying different drinks. You see him introducing himself in different ways. You see him learning that he can't be in a monogamous relationship. He is becoming the amazing instrument that the original James Bond movies show. In Quantum of Solace he was closer to that old image than he was in Casino Royale, and I imagine as the Daniel Craig series of James Bond movies continue, that we will eventually see all of the old tricks return... and when we do... prepare to be floored!

Craig is an amazing fit for this role. He does a great job of showing the mental anguish, while still getting his job done. In this movie he is no longer into married women, he is a blatant womanizer. He woo's the woman and leaves as soon as duty calls, not even leaving a note. Craig plays the role in such a way as that Bond looks powerful, and on the edge of insanity. You are always wondering if he is making the right decisions, or if he really is letting his feelings take over.

This Bond then, is what Timothy Dalton should have been so many years ago when they tried to give Bond emotions. Except Timothy Dalton came across as a whining, crying, wuss of a Bond. Whereas, Daniel Craig, is exactly what James Bond is designed to be, a precision tool of destruction and efficiency.