I remember hearing the announcement that the next James Bond would be Daniel Craig. My immediate thoughts were those trying to access where I had seen him before. I remembered some poorly written role he had in Tomb Raider, and a really great role he had in Layercake.  Anyway I instantly dismissed him - I was used to the wry Bond’s of Connery, Moore and Brosnan and Craig didn’t seem to fit this.

Fast forward 12 months sitting in the cinema as the 30 minutes of trailers and ads rolled before the main feature. I thought that the past Bond films hadn’t been the strongest moments of the series. Since the reboot of the franchise with Goldeneye, each film has gotten more fantastical - which ultimately has made the movies more silly than compelling.

The lights dimmed and the noirish black and white opening began. I was intrigued as the gritty realism wasn’t what I was expecting. It seemed more akin to the intense pacy thriller of The Bourne Identity. Cut to office shot as Bond confronts said badguy traitor, cut back to bathroom (and grittiness), cut to famous barrel shot and boom blood flows as the strings and guitars rumble up as Chris Cornell begins You know my name  and I am already excited.

The familiar opening Bond seqeunce isn’t forthcoming… no Maurice Binder like silhouetted, naked females with silhouetted, firing guns. Daniel Kleinman (title designer for the past 5 Bond films including this movie) takes the path less followed and goes for a much more abstract approach - playing on the aesthetic of casinos, cards and poker while using more subtle allusions to mathematics and chance (Mandelbrot), violence/death (the shooting and blood factor) and love and the loss of it (hearts, bloody veins). Kleinman was inspired by the original cover of  Ian Flemings book - and used those visual cues to guide the 2006 movie.

I think the success of this sequence lies in the perfect choreography of the graphics with Cornell’s ripper track. The song is epic, intense, and a good character insight into Bond. The graphics are strong, bold, playful and beautiful without feeling trite, forced nor over stylised (where most previous Bond graphics have strayed).  The use of the simple Century Gothic over the geometric patterns and background is also really strong.

There is an interview with Daniel Kleinman about this approach here @ commanderbond.net