Despite its impressive action set-pieces and solid performances, "Quantum of Solace" staggers through a drought of creativity.

Rating: 6/10 (24 February 2020)

Movie-goers are not kind to "Quantum of Solace." The second Daniel Craig film sandwiched between two of the greatest movies in the entire Bond canon and crippled by the Writers Guild of America strike is considered by many to be one of the worst James Bond movies ever made.
I don't hate "Quantum of Solace", the performances are pretty good across the board and the action set-pieces are thrilling (even if they're ruined by the abysmal editing.) It's not a great film, as it has a heap of flaws beneath its shiny exterior, but "Quantum of Solace" is definitely not one of my least favourite 007 films.
The cast in "Quantum of Solace" are mostly great. Daniel Craig is excellent as ever, he brings a boiling rage to the character whilst also excelling in the moments that require him to be more suave and charismatic. Dame Judi Dench continues to be exceptional as M, laying the groundwork for her magnificent character arc in "Skyfall." I also really like Olga Kurylenko as main Bond girl Camille, her arc throughout the story is dark and compelling and she has one really captivating character moment during the finale. It's also worth mentioning that Jeffrey Wright is easily the best Felix Leiter in the series, he's cool, likeable and has phenomenal chemistry with Craig.
Mathieu Amalric's Dominic Greene (the main villain of the movie) is... ok. He's weedy and understated but he's also kind of boring. He's not very memorable and he's not scary or intimidating, so he might not be an awful Bond villain, but he's undoubtedly one of the least remarkable.
The action in "Quantum of Solace" is one of its saving graces, everything from the nerve-shredding opening car chase to the superb plane dogfight and the explosive finale are violent, dramatic and stirring. We'll get to how the editing affects the experience of watching these sequences later, but despite that, the action in "Quantum of Solace" is incredible.
Unfortunately, that's where my compliments for "Quantum" end, so let's move onto the negatives.
My biggest criticism with "Quantum of Solace" is it's absolutely atrocious editing. The action sequences are choppy and borderline unwatchable at times due to the constant cuts. It's a shame because it's clear that a lot of hard work went into making the various fight scenes and chases as exciting as possible, but when the camera is bouncing and spinning all over the place it's really difficult to enjoy the sequences. The use of so much shaky-cam and quick-cut editing was an obvious attempt to capture the gritty style of the "Jason Bourne" movies, but "Casino Royale" still managed to create hard-hitting, Bourne-esque action without resorting to cinematography that looks like the filmmakers placed a camera in a washing machine!
There are also some bizarrely pretentious moments of editing scattered throughout "Quantum", such as weird fade-outs just before the third act and the overly flashy and distracting location title cards. I don't mind directors bringing their own style to a Bond film, as "Skyfall" proved that a 007 instalment can be both an adrenaline-pumping thrill-ride and a magnificently constructed Oscar-contender, but the visual style of this film is so scattered and confused that the strange editing choices really stick out.
I think the main criticism most viewers have with "Quantum of Solace" is how messy its narrative is. We watch the characters go from location to location but there isn't really any sense of purpose to the proceedings and the antagonist's main objective is downright dull, which causes almost all of the scenes featuring the villains to become instantly forgettable.
Its common knowledge that the production of "Quantum of Solace" was a disaster as the film was made during the Writers' Strike, which completely upended the movie's production (Daniel Craig had to write sections of the script himself.) So even though the dialogue is unimaginative and the story is confused, it's understandable why the film is the way it is.
One of the main staples of the "007" franchise are the original songs that play over the opening titles, performed by some of the most popular artists of the day. With songs like "Nobody Does it Better", "GoldenEye" and more recently Billie Eilish's "No Time to Die", these songs do a terrific job of building hype for the films and by tying into the underlying themes of said films. Sadly, Jack White and Alicia Keys's "Another Way to Die" is a mixed bag of a song.
I'll be honest, I really like the electric guitar rendition of the Bond theme at the start of the song (I actually think all of the background music is quite good), but the lyrics make absolutely no sense and the "singing" from Keys and White sounds more like a domestic feud than a James Bond song.
It doesn't help that the opening titles that accompany "Another Way to Die" are incredibly generic and bland, whereas "Casino Royale" featured a stunning montage of playing card symbols integrated with some awesome animated fight sequences, the "Quantum" titles feel like a step backwards.
The last thing I want to talk about concerning "Quantum of Solace" is a deep problem that runs throughout the whole film, that being that this just doesn't feel like a James Bond film. It may feature an Aston Martin, a secret evil organization and a megalomaniac antagonist, but none of the signature panache and sophistication that you'd expect from this series is to be found here. "Casino Royale" did such a stellar job of taking the established traditions of the Bond series (e.g. the "Shaken, not stirred" line and the gun barrel scene) and giving them a contemporary update, whilst also staying true to what made those tropes so fantastic in the first place. This film, on the other hand, doesn't use many of the iconic cornerstones of the franchise, which makes "Quantum" feel more like a Sylvester Stallone revenge flick than a bombastic Bond movie.
In conclusion, "Quantum of Solace" is a film with some outstanding aspects, the performances are note-worthy and the action is splendid. It's unfortunately undermined however by the poor editing choices, weak story and lack of Bondian flair, which brings it well below the high-bar set by "Casino Royale." It's not a terrible movie, but it is a disappointing one.