Quantum Of Solace (PG-13)
Mike:
Tonight we are reviewing Quantum of Solace
the latest James Bond movie in the long running series.
Scott was unable to join me tonight.
What did I think? This is a good Bond movie and great action film. I don’t think it is quite as good as the previous film Casino Royale, but it keeps Bond on the new track set up by the last film. In fact this movie starts off almost immediately after Casino Royale ends. You don’t have to have seen the last one for it to make sense, but it would probably help. If you haven’t seen Royale yet, what are you waiting for?
The title is taken from a little known Bond short story that has no bearing on the plot of the film. The original short is about Bond at a dinner party. The title Quantum has a double meaning; in that it is the name of the evil organization that bond is combating. QUANTUM is the new SMERSH or SPECTRE. Fans of the Ian Fleming novels will know what I mean.
The biggest disappointment of this film is the villain. Mathieu Amalric plays Dominic Greene, a wealthy businessman who secretly belongs to Quantum. Unlike Le Chiffre in the last film, he doesn’t seem that evil or scary. He does not seem to be a large threat to Bond throughout the film. If you look at the organization Quantum as the real villain of the piece, then you may be able to make a case for good villain. They are a secret organization that MI6 doesn’t know anything about and that scares them. When they claim to be “everywhere”, it soon becomes apparent that they might be.
Another criticism I have is the camera work during the action scenes. Like the last two Bourne movies they choose to use handheld “shaky cams” to film the action. This combined with lots of quick cuts, often makes it hard to tell what exactly is going on. Sometimes the movie seems more like a new Bourne movie than a James Bond film. This is good news for Action adventure fans, but maybe not such good news for loyal Bond fans.
The great news is that we get plenty of chases; a car chase, a boat chase and even a plane chase. In fact the movie starts off in mid car chase as Bond manhandles Aston Martin DBS. Also there is no shortage of hand to hand fight scenes and the body count starts to rack up pretty quickly. To the point where it seems like there will be no one left to question. Like most Bond films, this one is a travelogue of sorts as we travel from Haiti to Austria and Bolivia and beyond.
As in the previous Bond, there is a definite stab at realism as opposed to the gadget laden affairs of the past. All of the gadgets seem to be things that are available in the real world, even if they may be out of most people’s price range. I can’t wait to have one of those CNN type touch screen computers that are one step away from the Minority Report future.
The best non action scenes center on Daniel Craig as Bond and Judi Dench as M. Both are obviously fine actors and give the best performances here, whether they are together or separate. Craig creates a Bond, who acts as if he has no feelings after his betrayal in the last film, but may actually be on the revenge mission that M accuses him of. Dench ‘s M worries about Bond’s motives and struggles with whether to call him back in or let him do what he does best. Craig shows once again that he may be the best Bond yet.
One note about the Bond theme, I’m sure that somebody may like the Jack White /Alicia Keys creation, but it’s not me. After the powerful Chris Cornell theme the last time around this one is a real letdown. They would have been better off having Keys do a ballad in the style of Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger theme. I can’t imagine many people are going to be humming this one.
This is director Marc Forster’s first foray into action, but he shows that he can handle it. I can easily add this to the list of his films that I like along withFinding Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction and The Kite Runner.
I give this movie 3 stars out of 5 overall and 3 stars as an action adventure movie. As fun as this movie is I find myself wondering where Moneypenny and Q are hiding.
