Casino Royale...film opening analysis

I think that the opening for the action film 'Casino Royale' is particularly good, as it attracts the audiences attention and leaves them wanting to watch the rest of the film. The sequence begins on an empty street at night and includes a low angle shot looking up at a building, which the audience immediately assumes will be important in the next part of the film. the darkness and emptiness of the setting creates tension for the viewer. In the first few seconds, a car drives towards the building and then stops outside, which tells the audience the character in the car will be an important one in the rest of the film as well as the building shown. The car is black which follows on with the darkness theme which already exists. Some text reading 'PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC' appears at the bottom left hand corner of the shot. This establishes the setting and the location for the next scene. Another low angle shot shows a man getting out of the car and shutting the door; which is the first sound we hear in this scene. This is a low shot and the lighting is mostly dark but is illuminating the mans face. The light also illuminates the scenery behind the man so we can make out it is a row of flats/offices/just tall buildings. As the man walks away from the camera, the shot goes straight to the building that was behind the man. The shot is a low shot, and shows the man in the lift that is going upwards from the camera. There is then a close up of the mans face with half of it in light, half in darkness. This represents that the man has two sides to him and subconciously we think this. As the lift is still getting higher, we look at it from slightly above. The man looks undisturbed and calm as the camera is still on a close up and viewing the lift from above, therefore showing the building as if it is going down. Numbers then appear on the screen as it is the lift going up and this creates suspense. There is a long shot showing the man walking towards something and the shot includes machinery and a narrow walkway. The same man then walks into a room that is dark, but the light that is coming in is causing shadows on the objects in them, making them look bigger and overpowering. The man again is been shot in a close up and the light is again illuminating half of his face. The darkness of the room makes the audience focus on the characters. There is then a flashback to one of the characters who is in the room, and another man who is not. They are in a toilet cubicle fighting which makes the audience wonder why they are fighting, and who the other man is. The other man then gets killed. When the flashback is over, we go back to the other room where the two characters are. One of them points a gun at the other one which created suspense for the audience. Then the man who was pointing the gun gets shot, which is a shock for the audience, no one saw it coming.