I really didn’t like this. What with the rest of the film pretty much succeeding at the whole franchise-reboot thing, it’s as if nobody bothered to try anything new with the opening credits. It was just all a bit “is that it?”. Fortunately it gets a LOT better.
I always loved the intro sequences of the 007 movies and I was actually glad that they kept the style in this sequence. Nothing was ever wrong with the titles so why change it.
I count three of Danny Kleinman’s James Bond titles sequences as being amongst the very best in the series — in order, GoldenEye, Casino Royale, and Tomorrow Never Dies. That’s just my personal opinion, of course, but I was concerned about the increasing use of grotesqueries in his work. The imagery of oil-coated women in his The World Is Not Enough piece, and the “Fire” and “Ice” female…[i] creatures[/i] he created for the Die Another Day titles sequence were, I felt, extremely offputting (if otherwise extremely well-accomplished).
I was hugely relieved by, and ecstatically happy with this piece he created for Casino Royale. The almost 100% animation of it brings a vague recall of Maurice Binder’s work on Dr. No, while the complexity of it points to a whole new direction for the Bond picture titles. As is the case with all of Kleinman’s work, he continues to honor the history of the tradition, without slavishly aping his celebrated predecessor.
Plus, I loved the Mandelbrot Set-like exploding “clubs” sigils — just too damn cool!
Chris on
August 29th, 2008
I thought this was an interesting direction for the Bond titles, and glad that it didn’t leap straight into the girls ‘n’ guns motifs that had dominated the franchise for so long.
Eva Green’s face appearing was, I thought, a bit superfluous and doesn’t sit so well with the rest of the imagery. It’s the one part of the sequence that irks me. I would have loved to have seen the whole done as animation without the actors appearing at all – except for that last moment of Craig stepping towards the camera as the credits end and the music hits it’s crescendo.
On the other hand, I can understand a production house wanting to get it’s money on the screen as soon as possible.
I really didn’t like this. What with the rest of the film pretty much succeeding at the whole franchise-reboot thing, it’s as if nobody bothered to try anything new with the opening credits. It was just all a bit “is that it?”. Fortunately it gets a LOT better.
I always loved the intro sequences of the 007 movies and I was actually glad that they kept the style in this sequence. Nothing was ever wrong with the titles so why change it.
I count three of Danny Kleinman’s James Bond titles sequences as being amongst the very best in the series — in order, GoldenEye, Casino Royale, and Tomorrow Never Dies. That’s just my personal opinion, of course, but I was concerned about the increasing use of grotesqueries in his work. The imagery of oil-coated women in his The World Is Not Enough piece, and the “Fire” and “Ice” female…[i] creatures[/i] he created for the Die Another Day titles sequence were, I felt, extremely offputting (if otherwise extremely well-accomplished).
I was hugely relieved by, and ecstatically happy with this piece he created for Casino Royale. The almost 100% animation of it brings a vague recall of Maurice Binder’s work on Dr. No, while the complexity of it points to a whole new direction for the Bond picture titles. As is the case with all of Kleinman’s work, he continues to honor the history of the tradition, without slavishly aping his celebrated predecessor.
Plus, I loved the Mandelbrot Set-like exploding “clubs” sigils — just too damn cool!
I thought this was an interesting direction for the Bond titles, and glad that it didn’t leap straight into the girls ‘n’ guns motifs that had dominated the franchise for so long.
Eva Green’s face appearing was, I thought, a bit superfluous and doesn’t sit so well with the rest of the imagery. It’s the one part of the sequence that irks me. I would have loved to have seen the whole done as animation without the actors appearing at all – except for that last moment of Craig stepping towards the camera as the credits end and the music hits it’s crescendo.
On the other hand, I can understand a production house wanting to get it’s money on the screen as soon as possible.