Quantum Of Solace (2008)

QUANTUM OF SOLACE (2008)

Continuing my lead up to Skyfall, I watched Quantum Of Solace with suitably high expectations after my enjoyment of Casino Royal. While those expectations weren’t exactly met, I still managed to enjoy ‘Quantum’ despite it having its fair share of negatives. Although I might be a bit heavy on those for what my final rating is, I have to say the movie was pretty entertaining. Some issues with the writing of the film may have contributed to these problems arising, but that cannot be used to excuse some of the more substantial obstacles.

Carrying on from Casino Royale after Bond captures a suspect (by shooting him in the leg), there is an attempted assassination towards ‘M’ (Judi Dench, pictured below). This reveals that a new network of rich people, with nothing better to do than be evil, have in fact infiltrated the company and so no one can be trusted. While Bond attempts to catch the escaped assassin, he finds connections between these new ‘baddys’ and the ones that indirectly caused Vesper's death in Casino Royale. The man of main concern is Dominic Greene, who uses environmental conservation as a cover for obtaining barren land in Bolivia, which he has other plans for. ‘M’ questions Bonds stability and believes he is driven by revenge towards his last ‘bond girl’s death. He utilises the help of a retired agent and a woman with a mysterious past to help bring down Dominic Greene and exact his vengeance for Vesper.

What do you mean? THIS IS MY HAPPY FACE. 

Or at least that’s what I thought the storyline was; it was a little unclear and muddled at times. Right off the bat we get a car chase, involving many expensive cars getting blown up and tossed around while Bond keeps his cool scowl. As expected, all the actors do great jobs in their characters- especially Judi Dench once again, who we get some more of this time (she gets some of the movies best lines). I did like the new ‘bond girl’ more, even if she has a past that seems a little tossed in. The film is very enjoyable overall, and there are absolutely no lulls or chances for boredom to creep in at all; Casino Royale did have a few of those moments for me. I did actually enjoy this move a lot, and although there are too many problems that Casino Royale didn’t have, Quantum Of Solace still entertained me more than thoroughly.

"I'm going to shoot you in the face. Then I'm going to have sex with you. No, wait, that's not right, let me try again...I'll tell you my name, THEN  Ill do those things. Yep, that sounds about right"

It’s pretty clear as the movie moves along that there is much, much more frenetic action in Quantum Of Solace. Car chases, boat chases, plane chases, shoot outs, lots of explosions and everything in between is on show. These scenes suffer from over-editing to the point of confusion and come off as very choppy and confusing. Its makes these long stretches of action hard to follow; something Casino Royale definitely got right with its action, as they where edited perfectly. There are just too many of these sequences in a movie that is forty minutes shorter than ‘Casino’- there is more explosions and damaged property in ‘Quantum’s first half an hour than in Casino Royale’s entire two and a half hour length. Some of these are intercut with unrelated, and frankly unimportant, background events. This ‘artful’ editing choice only makes them more chaotic and could have been omitted all together.

The pricey looking cars that are featured in the opening chase. Well, before they where destroyed.

The way Bond decides to sleep with an associate- he doesn't know- so quickly, without any buildup or flirtatious conversation, tarnishes the oddly likable character that we saw in Casino Royale. I really don’t care if this is something past Bonds have done or not, I didn’t like it regardless. James Bond kills people even more relentlessly this time around, too much I’d say. His character doesn’t seem to have grown at all from Casino Royale, and becomes completely unlikable when he disposes of a friends body in a dumpster. He does reclaim this likability back, but I’m not sure why the filmmakers wanted us to dislike him so much in the first place. Little things like this make his character seem like, well, a bit of a douchebag at times, even if he is attempting to do something good in the process. These actions would not have seemed so out of place if Bond were given a chance to show that he is in fact Vengeful. We hear ‘M’ say it, we hear other characters say it, but Bond isn’t given enough time between explosions and bullets to show this sufficiently. This makes the previous blind acts of violence seriously lacking reason. James Bond does learn his lesson, sort of, at the end, and I really hope this translates into Skyfall.

Well SOMEONE just got some James Bond desert action, although you would think they might seem a little happier.

The big bad guy this time doesn’t seem particularly threatening. As I mentioned prior, Quantum Of Solace is quite a lot shorter than Casino Royale, with this being a bittersweet change for me. It doesn’t, like I said before, allow for boredom to set in, but while the action has been upped, dialogue and characterisation have been reduced. This no doubt contributed to the villain needing depth and more menace. The atmosphere is also given a back seat in Comparison to Casino Royale’s. Where it should have been brooding and dark we get more explosions. It keeps the serious tonality of the previous movie, but is devoid of humorous sprites that are part of the Bond films (which 'Casino' kept to it's benefit). And off course more gloriously eye-twitching product placement, although a lot more of it gets blown up in Quantum Of Solace.

Camille (Olga Kurylenko), aka the new 'Bond girl' featured in Quantum Of Solace.

I know it seems as if I’m being overly negative, but I really did enjoy ‘Quantum’. Most of its problems may be traced back to a writers strike, but then again, some- like the increased action- are very common amongst sequels. From what I have heard thus far, Skyfall is a much better film that Quantum Of Solace, with some even praising it as surpassing Casino Royale. Ill get around to watching that one soon, and post my review up in a few days!

3/5

Recommended classification: 12+ for frequent moderate action violence

Quantum Of Solace's trailer: