That's more like it Mr. Bond

Rating: 8/10 (2 November 2008)

2008 has been a very good year for films, starting off strongly with films like No Country for Old Men, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood, then to early action films like Cloverfield and I Am Legend and big summer blockbusters such as the Dark Knight, the Incredible Hulk and Iron Man. Quantum of Solace is another fine addition to the films of 2008 and the Bond franchise.
Quantum of Solace is the first Bond film to be a direct sequel to the previous film. It takes one hour after the events of Casino Royale and the actions starts straight away with an car chase in rural Italy before taking Mr. White who was shot in the leg at the end of Casino Royale to a secret underground location in Siena, Tuscancy. There Bond and M question Mr. White, and mocking them and tells MI6 that 'we have people everywhere', before escaping. With the little information MI6 has Bond goes to Haiti to find a possible contact with Mr. White's organisation. It is there where Bond meets Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a Bolivian agent and a woman who is seeking revenge against General Medrano (Joaquin Cosío), the former director of Bolivia, and seeks to reclaim his former title. In Haiti, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a member of the Quantum organisation promises to aid Medrano in his coup, in exchange for a piece of worthless land in the middle of the country. Greene is able to get the support of the CIA, promising the American cheap oil for their non-involvement. However, Quantum has a wider ambition, and have their fingers in a lot of pies, and the organisation has a lot of important members of government, intelligence and business. Greene claims to be a environmentalist, buying up large parts of land in South America for reforestation projects, but he is really trying to control the world's most valuable resource, water.
As well as Bond's mission to stop Greene's evil scheme, Bond is also on a personal mission of revenge for Vesper who killed herself at the end of Casino Royale. She had ended up working with Quantum to save her Algerian boyfriend, but ended up trying to protect our hero. He blames them for Vesper's betrayal and her death. He is willing to do anything to get revenge, including seduction an innocent young woman, and going rouge from MI6.
After Casino Royale, the obvious choice for director would have been Martin Campbell, but he was unavailable and the producers of Bond like to change directors to give each film a fresh feel. Marc Forster was picked to direct, an excellent Swiss director who had a good reputation for character films and a Bond fan, but Quantum of Solace was his first action film. Dan Bradley was hired as second unit director, famous for his work with the Bourne Trilogy and help with the action scenes. Forster did not copy Campbell's director and made his own film in his own style, which worked a very well. His style was fresh and different to Bond franchise. Paul Haggis was kept as a writer, another man credited for the reboot of the Bond franchise. Mark Kermode, the film critic on Radio Five Live claimed that the plot made no sense, however I beg to differ because I thought that it was a tight thriller, trying to take the most realistic view possible about how an organisation could try and dominate the world and as the film said water is the world's most valuable resource. Many experts claim that in 21th century that it is very likely that they will be wars over water, including in Central Asia and the Middle East. Forster also decides to add to the realism by making the villain more human, having no scars or having a God complex or anything, just making him a ruthless business man.
The acting is of a high standard, Daniel Craig and Judi Dench offer strong performances as usual, and they were good performance from many of the other actors like Amalric, Kurylenko and Gemma Arterton.
They are some more traditional Bond elements in this film, such as the scenes in the horse-race and the opera and Forster pays homage to previous films like Goldfinger, the Living Daylights and even Moonraker. The film has a very sixties feels to it, but there are no gadgets and the film is also very comtempoary. The CIA is not shown in the best light, willing to support a director in their own backyard, but at least Felix Leiter does at least over a more moral voice. There are also elements of the Bourne films in this film. As well Quantum of Solace is more action packed then Casino Royale, but you need to see Casino Royale first to get the background to it.
They are three faults with the film. First I thought the film was a little too short and could have been about 10 minutes longer. Second the editing is also needing a bit of work, loosing track of some of fighting, but it was still very intense. Finally the theme-song was really awful!
Quantum of Solace isn't as good as Casino Royale, but its a very strong film and a good second place to Casino Royale and an excellent follow-up. A very strong 9 out of 10.
Finally to all haters of the Daniel Craig Bond, or seeing Bond as a gritty realist character, I'll put it to you this way: Quantum of Solace is a masterpiece next to Die Another Day.