Fails on Every Level

Rating: 2/10 (26 March 2011)

*Contains Spoilers*
The plot wasn't a confusing one but I really didn't care about it that and lost so much interest in Quantum of Solace that at times I wasn't too sure what was going on. Despite being widely acclaimed, the same happened for me with Casino Royale. It got to the point where in some cases I did know who characters were, and when I did, I neither liked or disliked them.
I tried to like Daniel Craig, I really tried, but he is an awful James Bond. Critically he has been well received as Bond but every car chase, ever fight, ever action scene I found myself wanting Craig to end up being the one thrown off a building.
He doesn't have any the charm or charisma that James Bond should have and everything about him is far too serious; the scene in the hotel with Fields pretty much sums up everything that is wrong with Craig's Bond. Fields turns up to arrest Bond if he goes rogue but ends up in bed with him, this is nothing out of the ordinary except it just happens; there is no charm from Bond, no cringe worthy lines, no character interaction. It just happens.
Bond going rogue is nothing new but throughout the entire film he actually felt like the bad guy and I actually ended up liking Greene far more. James Bond shooting and killing two perfectly innocent Bolivian policemen is not the James Bond we have come to love over the years, rogue or not, it's not an excuse. James Bond is actually the most unlikeable characters in this film.
Although I think there was meant to be, there is no Bond girl in Quantum of Solace. Olga Kurylenko played the part well but like everybody else in this film, it wouldn't have made any difference if she wasn't in it.
Gone are the totally over the top action scenes which have been replaced with far fetched chases and gun fights that are trying too hard to come across as realistic. Gone is any humour, gone is everything that I loved about James Bond.
I think this is the core problem with Craig and the past two Bond films, and perhaps it's not Craig's fault, but Bond is trying to become realistic. It fails on every level.
There are so many things wrong with Quantum of Solace, most not Craig's fault but it isn't helped by my dislike for him as James Bond.
I'll watch pretty much any film through to the end if I've started watching it, and Quantum of Solace was no different but for a good part of it I just wanted it to end. From the awful song at the introduction to the ending credits I don't think I enjoyed it at any point and I wanted the good part of a couple of hours back.