The pre-publicity for this latest Bond outing has seemingly added up to the makers throwing their hands in the air and admitting, “okay, we got it wrong.” It became obvious when The Bourne Identity stole audiences away from the risible Die Another Day that discerning audiences were no longer satisfied with designer watches that turn into helicopters, female villains with names like ‘Regina Dentata’ and all the other stupidity that the series has accumulated over the years. And to their credit, Sony Pictures have had a good hard look through their copy of the Batman Begins franchise-revitalising guide and come up with something drastically different to the last few increasingly-misguided outings.

Casino Royale emphasises exactly the elements of Fleming’s antihero that have been played down in previous incarnations – Daniel Craig’s Bond is a cultured thug, well-spoken and borderline-psychotic. He may not look entirely the part, but Craig brings plausibility to the character that’s never been there before; you can actually imagine him as somebody that the British Secret Service might employ. The same can be said for Eva Green, who (though landed with the typically improbable character name of Vesper Lynd) manages to bring depth and interest to the role of Bond’s MI6 contact and love-interest. The romantic subplot feels as if a hefty chunk has disappeared somewhere in the edit, but there’s enough genuine chemistry between her and Craig to ride out the fact that she only seems to fall for Bond because the scriptwriters have abruptly decided that she should.

It’s a credit to Green and Craig, and to director Martin Campbell, that the slower moments manage not to be overwhelmed by the action neatly placed at the beginning, middle and end of Casino Royale. And here again, a certain amount of innovation is evident – the first stunt sequence is an absolutely mind-blowing chase that incorporates free-running (and the creator of free running, Sebastian Foucan) and looks entirely real and ludicrously dangerous, especially when giant construction cranes are involved. Unfortunately, it’s so good that it overshadows the middle scene (which is merely good) and the slightly underwhelming finale.

Sadly, where Casino Royale doesn’t push the Bond envelope, it falls flatter than it reasonably should. Mads Mikkelsen disappoints as the villain, terrorist-financier Le Chiffre, but only because he never gets to do an awful lot. The plot is fairly nondescript, relies on a twist that’s both obvious and utterly stupid, and gets increasingly wayward towards the end. There’s no excuse for the two and half hour running time except lazy editing. And – worst of all – the level of product-placement actually seems to have risen from the saturation of the Brosnan years, to the point where it’s occasionally hard to remember that you’re not watching some kind of confused mega-advert for cars, watches, mobile phones and every other expensive gadget under the sun.

Having said all that, this is undoubtedly the best Bond film of recent years, its only recent rival being Goldeneye, (which Campbell also helmed). The idea to reboot the franchise has proven a wise one, and it’s only a shame that it wasn’t pushed further, into really dangerous waters – like having James Bond do some actual spying for a change, or not using the film to advertise Blue-ray players. But criticisms aside, Casino Royale is a real step towards what a great Bond movie should be, and a very good thriller in its own right.