When Daniel Craig was announced as the new Bond, I admit, I was one of those people who responded with “Huh? He’s gonna be Bond? He’s not even that good looking!” But unlike the rabid Bondies who decried him at every turn, I was willing to give the first blond Bond a chance. Turns out the producers knew exactly what they were doing and in retrospect, casting Craig as Bond was an inspired decision.

Casino Royale is the first Ian Fleming book to feature the character of James Bond. Going back to the beginning, Casino Royale could arguably have been called Bond Begins, because like Batman Begins it tells the story of the origin of our hero, how he became the legendary super spy we’ve known and loved for more than 40 years.

The film opens with Bond earning his “00” status by killing two men. After officially becoming 007, he’s off to Madagascar to capture terrorist financier Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen). When that ends in disaster, M (Judi Dench) wonders if promoting Bond was a good idea at all. But Bond will have another chance to redeem himself. Le Chiffre is going to be involved in a high stakes poker game and poker just happens to be Bond’s strong suit. To make sure he doesn’t lose everything, a British Treasury agent, Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) comes along for the ride.

Taking Bond back to basics was a gamble that paid off. This isn’t the suave Bond that relies on gadgets and gimmicks to win a fight. This isn’t the perfectly coiffed Bond who survives bomb blasts and worse without a misplaced hair. This isn’t the Bond whose primary concern is whether his martini is shaken or stirred. This Bond gets physical. This Bond gets bloody and bruised. This Bond gets real. This Bond doesn’t give a rat’s a** how you fix his damn martini!

Daniel Craig brings a gritty realism and an intensity that has been lacking in the Bond franchise. While the action sequences are still frantic and intense, they are more realistic and grounded than the normal over-the-top Bond sequences of the past. There is one particularly brutal scene that involves Bond’s nether regions that made a lot of the guys in the audience cringe.

I only wish the casting of the villain had bee more inspired. Granted, the usual campy, highly fictionalized Bond villain hell-bent on world domination would not have worked with this new Bond image. But, at the same time, Le Chiffre wasn’t interesting enough as a nemesis.

I thought the movie lost a bit of steam during the poker match; it just wasn’t as climactic as it could have been. It was the only part of the movie where my mind started to wander.

Bond fans might miss Q and a lot of the gadgets (and the Bond theme is absent for most of the movie) but with the action and the character development of Bond, I must admit that I barely noticed.

Overall, Casino Royale was a crowd-pleasing, action-packed thrill ride. Tell your friends. Bond is back.