[Movie Review] QUANTUM OF SOLACE
I am no fan of the James Bond franchise. To me, the franchise is nothing but the same movie remade over
and over again. He always nails two chicks with weird names, one of whom always dies. He always has that martini, shaken not stirred. He always beats the bad guy and moves on to the next mission. It just doesn’t hold my interest, much to my dad’s chagrin. He’s a massive fan of the Bond franchise, and when I got him that Bond anthology DVD box set for his birthday a while ago, he nearly crushed my ribs from hugging me so hard. That being said, I did enjoy Casino Royale much more than earlier entries, and I will concede that Daniel Craig was pretty badass. I watched CR on DVD a few days ago to prep for QoS, and I was surprised that I actually liked it more this time around than the first viewing. That first scene between Bond and Vesper on the train is a classic. I was interested in seeing if they could keep up the good work with their second entry in the Bond reboot. I invited my dad to come along with me to an advance screening last night, and he ended up being sort of lukewarm to Quantum of Solace. Did I like it?
I have to say, like many critics have previously stated, QoS is a noticeable step down in quality from CR. That is not to say that QoS is a bad film, but it pales in comparison to its predecessor. At times, it felt like the makers of this film decided to watch CR, and remove everything from that film that made it work so well. An interesting plot? Poof! A great actress giving me a female lead who I actually give a crap about? Poof! A memorable action sequence? Poof! A cool villain? Poof! All of the finesse that made CR such a fun ride is sucked out of this film, leaving a series of action sequences strung together by a rather uninteresting plot and propped up by a lead who acts more like a Terminator than a secret agent.
QoS picks up shortly after the ending of CR, with Bond still smarting from the death of Vesper Lynd. I have to say right here that I sorely missed Vesper in this film for a multitude of reasons. Not only was she a great character in her own right, but she brought out that charming side of Bond that is noticeably gone here. That spark between the two of them provided some of the best moments of CR, but in QoS, Bond is almost devoid of all personality as he marches from location to location, blowing anyone and everyone away without an ounce of discretion, and the problem was that I genuinely did not care. Like Bond, the film loses its way and can’t decide what it wants to be about. There’s something in here about a group named QUANTUM with some evil yet stupid plot, the token villain named Dominic Green with some evil yet stupid purpose, and some random chicks floating around (Olga Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton) to provide some tits, but there’s nothing here to really hook me. As odd as this is going to sound, despite all of the explosions and gunfire, I felt a little…bored.
Let’s start with the good stuff first. Daniel Craig is still a great James Bond. Still reminds me of Gollum, but I can forgive that. He’s a hardcore badass bastard who I believed could kill a man with his bare hands one moment, and charm some poor unsuspecting woman into the sack the next. Even though he looks like friggin’ Gollum. Judi Dench is still a great M, and the relationship between Bond and M continues to strengthen. I particularly liked a scene following an attempt on M’s life where Bond subtly expresses his relief that she survived the attack. It’s a quick, subtle line that may fly over the heads of people not looking for it, but the way that Craig says it and the look on his face says a lot more than the line by itself could ever say. M truly is a mother figure to Bond, and nearly losing her along with already losing Vesper only serves to further piss him off. Jeffrey Wright is a welcome returning player as CIA Agent Leiter, as well as Giancarlo Gianni who works wonders with minimal screentime as Bond’s falsely accused ally from CR, Mathis. The actors are fine, which makes the lack of a compelling story even more painful to watch. I’m seriously having to strain to describe the plot of this film because, as short as this film is, they try to cram in a lot of information to the point that I was a little lost. The stuff about Vesper takes a backseat as Bond goes chasing after the bad guy who wants to control Bolivia’s water supply and has a hotel rigged with explosives in the middle of the doggone desert. That’s the big deal, water control? Sheesh, why don’t you grow some radioactive real estate off the coast of Metropolis? It’s a shame because the stuff about Bond’s vengeance quest is the best stuff in the film, particularly the final two scenes in the film where Craig does his best work in the entire film. Craig does a great job of portraying Bond’s rage over the Vesper situation without turning it into a melodrama.
Unfortunately, that’s where the good stuff really ends. Perhaps you guys will find the plot a bit easier to swallow, but I was paying attention and still ended up a little lost by the midway point. I’m not asking for a dumbed-down movie, far from it in fact, but I think that the film was unnecessarily convoluted, and while more action in a Bond movie doesn’t sound like a bad thing, here it makes it harder to follow the actual plot because there is more time made for explosions and not quite enough for proper exposition. The actors do their best, more than their best at times with what they have, but that isn’t quite enough. And as good as most of the actors were, there are still some performances that rubbed me the wrong way. Gemma Arterton as Strawberry Fields (jeez) was not good in this film, and I don’t get why people are talking about her as some great discovery. I’ve read reviews praising her as a throwback to the Bond films of old. Problem is, the Bond films of old are corny and campy, everything that the Bond reboot is trying so hard to avoid, so she sticks out like a sore thumb. Even worse, her character is absolutely pointless. She’s onscreen for maybe twenty minutes tops, and she serves no purpose except to spread her legs (clock how fast Bond gets her to spread ‘em. It’s probably a franchise record) and act as the catalyst for an admittedly cool Goldfinger homage. And the less said about her stupid name, the better. Olga Kurylenko doesn’t make much of an impression as Camille. She’s not a terrible Bond Girl (although she doesn’t really count as a Bond Girl, since she has the good sense to keep her legs closed), but Vesper Lynd is a tough act to follow, and Kurylenko can’t measure up to the great work that Eva Green did in CR. We get a bit more background on her than on a typical Bond Girl, and I did appreciate that they made her a stronger-than-average Bond Girl, but she didn’t make a lasting impression on me. It also doesn’t help that she doesn’t have 1/5 of the chemistry with Daniel Craig that Eva Green did. Mathieu Almaric’s bad guy was fairly weak in my opinion. Bugging your eyes and having an accent isn’t enough for me. Sorry, buddy. I also find it odd that M seems to have more lines in this film than Bond, but Craig’s Bond was never really much of a talker, anyway.
The action in this film isn’t bad, but it’s ultimately forgettable. There’s no standout action setpiece here. It’s all run/shoot/drive/explosion/rinse/repeat over and over to the point that I became numb to it. There’s never any real sense of danger because the situations become more and more ridiculous, yet Bond manages to get out of them with a few scratches on his face and some dirt on his pants. I just didn’t care. I can name off a bunch of bits in CR that I dug (free-running, airport, Aston Martin flip, stairway fistfight) and that felt like stuff I hadn’t seen before. Everything in this film feels like stuff that I’ve seen before. It’s been said a million times already, but a lot of this stuff did feel like a Bourne ripoff. I have no problem with ripping from the best, but at least let me see it. Once the action kicks in, the editor goes insane and cuts and cuts and cuts to the point that I could hardly tell who was driving what car and firing what weapon. Rather than being engaged in the action, I mostly sat back and waited for the scene to end to get me to the next over-edited action scene. It sucks that they chose to focus more on action and less on a strong plotline.
Overall, I was disappointed with the film, but that isn’t to say that it’s a bad movie. It isn’t bad at all, but it isn’t on par with Casino Royale. Hopefully for Bond 23 they will watch Quantum of Solace and reverse everything that they did here. I’m going to go ahead and give this a slim recommendation based on the work of the actors and a few scenes that I really dug, but if you’re going in expecting Casino Royale 2: Electric Boogaloo, I’d temper my expectations a little bit.
P.S. The opening credits song? Holy Moly, it sucks.
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9 Responses to “[Movie Review] QUANTUM OF SOLACE”
Seriously, that song is terrible.
when the opening song came up i wanted to eat my hand…
and btw..this bond will rape any other bond…wasnt sean connery a bond? if so then maybe not him but all the others hell yeah
the very first fist fight in the hotel room in haiti was the best part of the whole movie. that was the best fist fight in any movie ever….but too short
Quantum of Solace is entertaining at least… a fantastic job with the styling and picture quality, but the movie as a whole could stand to lose six or seven fewer chase scenes
it would have been great if bond ad the red head had a porno/sex scene….
and ONE more fight/chase scene but this one on a museum full of priceless artifacts
The redhead’s awful wig was also quite distracting.
dominik greens creepy ass face already took up all the room in the distracting department in that movie for me
LOL. I liked the song, but that’s probably because I’m a fan of Jack White. I even dug his work on the Cold Mountain soundtrack.
Without a doubt, Connery & Brosnan were the gold standard of Bond & my darkest days where during Moore’s farcical portrayal of our favorite 00. So I am pre-disposed not to accept Craig as a bone fide replacement. But even in both movies, Craig is not the problem, the producers & directors are. OK. Perhaps my last comments were really a review of Casino not having seen QoS. Now I have seen it and there are so many problems with it I do not know where to begin. All the chases are herky, jerky, shaky staccato film clips. You can never really see what is going on. This is contrary to the traditional Bond flick replete with detail. And if Craig is gritty, moody, mean & vindictive one can still see a path by which he becomes a cooler if not a cold, uber-professional agent with a dry, sardonic sense of humor. This Bond clearly appeals to a feminine perspective that escapes me. I understood him not becoming ‘involved’ with the other women in the 2 flicks as having high standards and was at least relieved to see his response to Fields as, what we would term a normal orientation! (The women seem to love that Bond does NOT ‘hook up’ with the main girl in either film and broods ceaselessly like a forlorn Hamlet for his unrequited lover from Casino). Even the opening chase, usually one of the best, is almost visually incomprehensible. Car chase, rooftop chase, sewer chase, apartment knife fight chase, boat chase, plane chase, Chase-Morgan, certainly they all were purloined from the Bourne genre but somehow Bourne’s were more believable.
The opening graphics were not as bad as I feared, but were definitely not 007 quality. Far too much of Craig shooting his Walther PPK .380; (don’t make me go into why that is a problem). We have grown accustomed to the sultry, sexual/sensual and awesome graphical intro to the Bond films. This one was not of the same caliber. Ditto on the theme song. It was not a good as past songs but I was fearing worse and it was actually passable relating somewhat to the general theme of the film. The barrel scene was placed at the end of the film. I prefer the beginning but in either case it should be presented with high quality graphics and punctuated with 007 theme song riffs. It was not.
Lots of chases. Most are barely watchable. I actually liked the reference to the traditional 13th century Italian Palio horse race in which the riders can use their longer wooden canes to encourage their steeds or discourage their opponents; and the actual event was supposed to be occurring outside of the chase area.
The knife fight was lame. How did the baddie die anyhow? Please tell me not with the little pair of cuticle scissors Bond had. And if the death blow was to the only wounded area shown, the left jugular, where did all the blood go as Bond let him ‘bleed out’. Not to worry the details because we are soon introduced to THE BOND GIRL. Well, a little anti-climatic because she is not quite as attractive as we are used to although she has very pretty lips. The rest of her seems strangely disproportionate for some reason. It’s also strange that she would return to the baddie who just tried to have her whacked. That has little probability for success for someone who we later learn is “Bolivian Secret Service”. Oh well, not to worry, we are off on another chase, this time with boats. It is perhaps the best done but for the last scene in which the grappling hook is somehow thrown onto the rubber speed boat and flips it from the front of Bond’s boat over the top to the rear…… can’t quite figure the physics out on that one. Not to worry, we’ve docked and Bond mysteriously hands the unconscious maiden who he has just rescued over to a dock attendant…what?
Well were off to track this baddie and somehow reconnected with the GIRL in Bolivia where we eventually learn that the baddie, Mr. Greene of the evil Greene corporation in conjunction with the even eviler Quantum Criminal Consortium LLC has concocted a plot wreaking with the venom of true corporate greed, evil capitalism and nefarious financier-ship; to wit, steal all the fresh water in where? Why Bolivia of course and sell it back to them Bolivians at double the price! MUAHHAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh). We learn at a big party that times are tough in Bolivia because it is costing a weeks wages for an average Bolivian to buy a gallon of clean water! As I remember, the average Bolivian earns about $0.25 per day making the water cost about $1.75 a gallon; pretty much on par with market values in Cleveland. Perhaps this is not the best country for our get richer quicker scheme.
No matter, we are off to the evil opera where the evil baddies are meeting to plan, well, evil. This is where we juxtapose a modernistic version of the Tosca operatic bloodshed whilst Bond dabbles in the real thing dispatching the body guards of the evil biggies who, now discovered & uncovered, are making a hasty retreat for the exits faster than attendees at an Al Gore speech.
No matter, while in Bolivia we are matroned by the closest thing to a real Bond girl, agent Fields. Unfortunately we never really figure out what is beneath that trenchcoat although it appears that Bond does. Also unfortunately for Fields and us, she is quickly eliminated by the baddies in what can only be termed as a ‘crude’ theft of the Goldfinger modus operandi. I would have expected more of a mess but why waste camera time on the slickened Fields when you can spend it on bathroom scenes with….who else….M of course. Perhaps the most difficult what seemed to be15 minutes of the film (as if minutes were hours Mr. Spock) was watching M in her bathrobe apply & remove cold creme. The threat itself would have sent Mr. Greene permanently into pro bono philanthropy. Not finished with us yet, M draws her bath and the tension in the theater built noticeably as we all began to fear that we would be greeted with an au natural scene of her slipping out of the robe into the tub. Fortunately we were spared that experience (wait for the unedited version coming to DVD soon!). However, it just calls into question what fob with a mommy complex of some sort is calling the shots in these films.
M continues to demonstrate why she should not be “M” vacillating from suspecting Bond to needing him back in 00 some 4-5 times during the movie. We did get a glimpse into the possible personality of M’s hubby when he meekly announced, “the calls for you dear on your private line”. Whatever.
M may welcome Bond back with open arms or have him captured or killed, no matter, the BOND GIRL is rescuing Bond in her getaway car, a 1964 VW Beetle. I guess the Bolivian Secret Service does not get to roll like the 00’s in MI6. At least it was a 40HP!
No matter. We are now off to a hotel in the middle of a high plains Bolivian desert. Time to charter a plane…no, not the little Beachcraft Bonanza that would actually be faster and more maneuverable. Choose the DC-3 with a load of cargo on board. Watch out though, you’ll get shot down by the Bolvian Air Force in a single engine Marchetti SIA1 (which I have been corrected on and is a fast little number) I guess the BAF doesn’t get to roll like the 00’s at MI6 either.
No matter because they are both jumping out of that crate with the only parachute. Somehow everything turns out ok after wrestling for 10,000 feet with the BOND GIRL & parachute falling at 120 MPH because the chute opens 20 feet off of our LZ, a nice big soft slab of granite. BTW, the BOND GIRL walks for miles on granite stones in her bare feat…she’s a hearty lass.
It’s off the hotel to find the baddies. The hotel, located in the high plains desert of Bolivia, is called the Plaza del Sol. It is completely self-sufficient and powered by…solar….no you idiot, hydrogen fuel cells. In fact, each room appears to have its own hydrogen fuel cell and its accompanying hydrogen supply tank. The maids must make your bed and refill your hydrogen tank when they replace the shampoo in the bath, I guess. Naturally the hotel, located in the high plains Bolivian desert is made substantially of steel & stone. Unfortunately, the steel & stone in Bolivia is not quite as durable as the steel & stone you and I have grown to love as we discover when Bond causes a baddie car to crash through a wall igniting a hydrogen tank. The rest of the hydrogen tanks ignite sequentially. Darn it, I hate when that happens, you just can’t get good hydrogen tanks anymore. Again, unfortunately, the Bolivian steel & stone burns more like paper mache. Bond battles the Greene baddie but aborts to rescue the BOND GIRL who is caught up in her own subplot vendetta too trite to be explained here. Mr. Greene escapes into the desert only to meet a cryptic fate induced by other unknown baddies and Bond’s 10W-40 payback for the treatment of luscious Agent Fields.
You would be better off waiting for this to hit DVD. At least then you can slo-mo or replay the chase scenes making sense of them, spend more time with the slick Agent Fields and most importantly, FFW or skip over M’s bathroom escapades. You have been warned.
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