Quantum of Solace Review [4]

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 11.25.2008

Better late then never, Shawn S. Lealos checks in with his thoughts on the latest James Bond adventure

Directed by Marc Forster
Written by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade

Daniel Craig ... James Bond
Olga Kurylenko ... Camille
Martin Amalric ... Dominic Greene
Judi Dench ... M
Giancarlo Giannini ... Mathis
Gemma Arterton ... Strawberry Fields
Jeffrey Wright ... Felix Leiter




It says a lot about the James Bond franchise that it has such dedicated fans. When Pierce Brosnan stepped down and Daniel Craig stepped into the tuxedo of Agent 007, web sites went up decrying the choice because everyone knows James Bond isn’t a blonde. However, Casino Royale provided a shot of adrenaline the floundering franchise so desperately needed. After invisible cars and ice castles, something needed to be done to make the Bond franchise relevant again. It had been a joke for far too long.

Casino Royale did what For Your Eyes Only did over twenty years ago. After Roger Moore went into outer space and had laser gun fights, they turned around and gave him a down and dirty adventure story that reinvigorated the series. Casino Royale did that and so much more. People like to act like Bond is copying the Bourne Trilogy, but the truth is there would be no Jason Bourne if there was not a James Bond first. It may be copying the shooting style and the hard as nails hand-to-hand combat from the newer franchise, but at the end of the day this is still James Bond.

Quantum of Solace takes place immediately following Casino Royale. During an interrogation of an enemy spy, Bond and M are attacked and both barely escape with their lives. In the way of almost every Bond movie, he must go native and stop the bad guys on his own. M (Dench) doesn’t know who she can trust anymore, although something tells her Bond might be that one person. But with the new world order, the CIA as well as foreign governments and dictators are all enemies. When Bond runs, British agents become the enemies as well and, as with the best spy stories, Bond finds there is no one left he can turn to for help.

I will take this opportunity to give props to Jeffrey Wright, who took over the role of Felix Leiter in the last movie and continues to reinvent the character that was at one time Bond’s best friend. He is almost perfect with his low key performance and his ability to help Bond without compromising his own standing in the U.S.A.

While Casino Royale seemed to start over from scratch, eliminated jokey subplots including Q and Miss Moneypenny, the franchise seems like it is working the some old standbys back into the mix. While Casino Royale was almost completely without gadgets, Quantum of Solace reintroduced some lighter fare including a nifty camera that takes pictures of people, refocuses and then sends immediately to headquarters. Speaking of headquarters, they have a nice setup that looks like something straight out of Minority Report. The producers know Bond fans want these gadgets and the sexual innuendos and they get a little of each in this outing.

The evil organization Bond faces off against is called Quantum and might be a precursor to SPECTRE. The group includes members that range from high ranking government officials to wealthy businessmen. It is the ultimate evil because its members are primarily protected at all levels of government. Just as SPECTRE was the evil organization that usually pitted Bond against one member plotting for world domination, Quantum sets up Bond to battle with a businessman named Dominic Greene, a man who wants to take over much of the planet, not for the oil the governments who cater to him want, but instead to become the most wealthy and powerful man in the world by controlling all the countries resources.

The comparison of Quantum to SPECTRE is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to homages to Bond’s past. There is a wonderful scene in the film that pays brilliant homage to a scene from Goldfinger, substituting oil for gold. It is a fantastic shot that made me smile and remember that iconic scene from the greatest Bond adventure ever filmed.

Greene is a bad guy that fits in well with villains of Bond’s past. People may argue his plan for domination is not very threatening but it matches up well to past baddies. He seems very similar to Dr. No from the very first Bond movie. If you remember right, Dr. No only wanted to end the U.S. Space Program by disrupting takeoffs. The fact that he was a part of SPECTRE and was simply using his genius to get more power makes me believe even more that Quantum is a new version of SPECTRE.

The Bond girls are exactly what you would expect from the franchise. Camille Montes is the spunky Bond girl who has a score to settle and Strawberry Fields is the girl seduced by Bond who will meet a tragic end. Despite the changes to the feel of the new Bond movies, there is still a structure followed pretty closely and the stylings of the Bond girls have not changed much at all.

There are some problems I have with this newest Bond film. The camera work, which is lifted directly from the Bourne franchise, can be overwhelming at times. I understand why they feel it necessary to do it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I have never seen anything in director Marc Forster (Stranger Than Fiction, Finding Neverland) that prepared me for what I saw in the first two action sequences of the movie. One thing I love the most about Bond movies are the car chases, planes chases, boat chases, foot chases - hell, give me a chase scene and I’m happy.

However, the first two chase scenes, a car chase and a foot race over rooftops, left me underwhelmed. It’s not the fact that there was not enough action in the scenes, but the fact that the action was impossible to follow. I would guess that Forster, a man who usually shoots character dramas was simply copying what he saw in the Bourne films, but without the understanding of what makes that style great. If you shoot a frantic style, without understanding how that style can work with the chase narrative, you get what you have here in the opening car chase.

However, once the frantic opening comes to an end, the camera remains fairly competent for the rest of the movie until the final climax in an exploding building. The story is another in an important step in the progression of James Bond as a person and we start to get the sprinkling of the gadgets we love - not invisible cars but useful spy tools. Daniel Craig fits comfortably into the role of Agent 007, passing off just the right amount of charisma with a great sense of danger, the recipe that made Sean Connery the perfect James Bond. He will kill you just as soon as look at you, and that is the 007 I love the best.

The 411: What both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace seem to be doing is to set up James Bond in the new world he finds himself living in. With the death of Vesper in the last movie, and his eventual opportunity to deal with that loss, we see the seeds being planted for the James Bond we all know and love. It is what they tried to do with In Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but with a new direction and a more focused storyline it should work much better than that botched attempt at what should have been a great character arc. I look forward to where the franchise goes from here and hope they continue to look into the secret organization that is Quantum and build what might be the next SPECTRE. It is not as good as Casino Royale but, with the exception of GoldenEye, is still one of the best Bond films in many, many years.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]