Casino Royale

Going to the cinema after work on Fridays is starting to be a habit now. I like habits...
I watched Casino Royale, the latest James Bond. I had heard it was much different from the previous movies. Luckily, it was. I think the new James Bond is going to stick.
The focus is now less on the Bond girls, more on the action. The makers paid attention to realism, it's not quite "Black Hawk Down" or "Saving Private Ryan", but the most absurd gadgets have disappeared. The traditional sports car is equipped with a defibrillator, used when Bond drinks something he should not have drunk. To be compared with the invisible car (behind which you can hide, interestingly) from an earlier episode.
Another detail I noted is that after fighting two African rebel leaders in the stairs, Bond goes to his bathroom to get a new suit and tend to his injuries. He's bleeding a lot from multiple scratches. At this point he fills a whisky glass with alcohol, which he empties right away. "Why?" might one ask. I had read earlier in a book that alcohol does not help you warm up when you are freezing cold. Quite the contrary, it slows down your blood flow. Could that be the reason why 007 drinks a large glass of Whisky?
The character of Bond himself looks a lot less important than, say, Sean Connery's Bond. The old Bond was a gentleman who took care of himself, would sometimes show up at work between two Martini's, flirt a bit with Money Penny, pay a visit to Q to steal his latest invention (which he would later discard like a paper tissue), and disappear with the Bond girl at then end, ignoring calls from his boss.
The new Bond his disposable, his life expectancy is very short. He is played by M, who does not hesitate to inject him with an radio emitter to follow him, a bit like cattle. Bond is now a part of the equipment of the English secret service, nothing more. His capacity for compassion also seems to be only marginally higher than that of his standard-issue pistol.
There are only two Bond girls in this movie, one of which I did not really like (too much like a top model: skinny with boobs, how is that even possible???). The typical sexy womanly shape who dances during the opening song has been replaced by manly shapes busy getting killed by cards. A bit of a disappointment, really.
To summarize, it's a strong improvement compared to the latest episodes, but it has too much violence and too few girls. I also miss Sean Connery's gentlemanly side, James Bond is a now a brute.