Released: November 2008
Director: Marc Forster
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Distributor: Colombia Pictures
Cast:
Daniel Craig: James Bond
Judi Dench: M
Olga Kurylenko: Camille
Matthieu Amalric: Dominic Greene
Giancarlo Giannini: Mathis
Gemma Arterton: Strawberry Fields
Jeffrey Wright: Felix Leiter
I’m a huge fan of the James Bond movies. Whether it’s Sean Connery, Timothy Dalton, or Daniel Craig playing the character, each movie has something very interesting going on. There is always a villain that’s up to no good, and it’s Bond’s duty to take them down, while getting the girl in the process. Sure, it’s formulaic, but it works. After Pierce Brosnan’s disastrous final turn as James Bond, Die Another Day, the franchise was at a crossroads of sorts. Die Another Day got slammed critically for a lousy story line and some pretty atrocious CGI. So, the filmmakers took a step back and decided that the next Bond film would be a re-boot of sorts. Instead of having an established and experienced Bond, they opted to show the character at the very beginning of his career as 007. Casino Royale was released in 2006 to world-wide critical acclaim with Daniel Craig as James Bond. While people fussed over the fact that he had blond hair, his performance was extraordinary. The film was less hokey and more gritty than the previous films. It ended up being one of the best Bond movies ever made. Obviously, the film made a boatload of money, so there was no doubt a follow-up was going to happen. 2008, we have that follow-up in Quantum of Solace.
Quantum of Solace picks up right where the previous film left off with James Bond on the run from Mr. White’s thugs. After a speedy chase through the mountains, James Bond ends up at a MI6 safe-house so they can interrogate Mr. White about the people he works for. In a first for the franchise, we have a movie that is an actual sequel to the previous film. As a result, the story takes some very predictable turns as Mr. Bond is basically killing his way up the food chain. He’s on a mission for revenge and he’ll be damned if anybody is going to stand in his way. In Casino Royale, we have an interesting look at James Bond before he becomes….well, James Bond. He’s being reckless, making mistakes and ends up nearly getting himself killed in the process. In Quantum, he’s basically on a rampage, not thinking about the consequences, and while he was pretty green in the first movie, it doesn’t work as well here. If we had time to allow this whole situation to develop, it may have worked a little bit better. We are dumped right into the situation and it just moves us along at a very frenetic pace. In most action movies, I wouldn’t mind that, but this is 007. It takes more than an hour and a half to really flesh out the story and the characters. They’re just not developed enough for us to give a damn about. The movie also throws so much at you, it’s hard to process everything.
There’s a subplot with a mysterious organization called Quantum that’s not fully explored. This character, Mr. White, claims he’s a part of this world-wide terrorist organization that nobody knows about. That’s a fact that one of the characters mentions later on in the movie. I think the film-makers were going to try for a S.P.E.C.T.R.E-style organization, and it just didn’t pan out. We also have a subplot involving a girl, Camille, who is also out for revenge, as it were. She’s gorgeous and she can hold her own in a fight, so having a strong female presence is awesome. The same can’t be said for Gemma Arterton, who shows up only to be killed in a Goldfinger-fashioned way. If you’re trying to reinvent James Bond, you really don’t want to be throwing in a whole lot of throwbacks to previous, and better entries in the franchise. Just saying.
I mentioned in my review of Skyfall that each Bond film needs a memorable villain. I meant it. Most of the movies do, but Brosnan’s last three efforts as Bond had some pretty lousy villains. In Quantum of Solace, we’re given a corrupt Bolivian general and a wimpy pasty-faced baddy who looks more like an accountant. Is this the best that Marc Forster could come up with? These guys are bottom of the barrel and generic villains. I’m more interested in the organization of Quantum, but like I said, that plot-point hits a dead end. I don’t know if that will be addressed in Spectre, but I really hope so. Acting-wise, it’s fine. Daniel Craig is still amazing as James Bond, Olga Kurylenko can hold her own, and Judi Dench is fun to watch as always. The movie isn’t boring, I’ll give it that, and as an action movie, it works just fine. It just sucks as a 007 movie.
That brings me to another issue: The action. While it is crazy and it is non-stop. It’s really hard to see what’s going on, because the editors clearly went to the Michael Bay School of Editing. That means the editing is hyper-fast and it makes things really hard to follow. I don’t know what Marc Forster was trying to accomplish by employing that kind of editing, but it doesn’t work. Not in a James Bond movie. Even at their worst, the James Bond movies are still very entertaining, even Die Another Day. Quantum of Solace is easily the worst entry in Daniel Craig’s movies. Yeah, it can be fun at times, but there are so many problems here, that its hard to recommend as a James Bond picture. Thankfully, Skyfall ended up being absolutely fantastic, and I will recommend that and almost any other James Bond movie over this one, except for Die Another Day. Worst. James. Bond. Movie. Ever. I came down hard on Quantum of Solace, and so did a lot of people. That being said, it’s still not a bad way to spend two hours, but there are better Bond movies out there. Quantum of Solace gets a 7/10, just because Daniel Craig still kicks ass.