Excellent Character (Bond) Development :) !!! / So-So Movie :(

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 2008)

Let me start by saying that this is my first review, and I must have read 50 or more before feeling compelled to add my 2 cents. All the other reviews are spot on, and all capture what is missing from this movie as opposed to Casino Royale - namely an interesting plot that doesn't rely on action sequence to action sequence. But before I get into the movie let's talk about about Bond. And it is here, that I feel I can add something that none of the other reviews have brought up.
No one has mentioned, that this Bond (Daniel Craig) has only had 007 status for maybe a year. He receives 007 status in CR. This movie, QoS, takes place immediately where CR leaves off. This Bond is becoming, "Bond, James Bond". This is like "Batman, The Beginning". We are seeing how Bond turns into the character we all know so well from the pre-Daniel Craig movies. I wish the movie itself would remind the audience of this fact, too. All it would take is a simple line from M that, "you don't know everything... you've only had 007 status X number of months."
So that being said, all the complaints about, Daniel Craig being rough around the edges and not having the suaveness, the classic lines, and the humor of Connery, Moore, or Brosnin are relevant - and are also timely for this Bond. He is not supposed to at this point in his character development. Which brings us to the title, "Quantum of Solace," which reflects Bond gaining a quantum of solace in his character from this adventure.
I am a huge fan - seen every movie and have read almost all of Ian Flemming. This Bond, Daniel Craig, is truly the Bond from the books. He is ice-cold, highly skilled, independent, and inexplicably loyal. As stated above, in this movie he gains a quantum of solace. Yet not too much, and notice that in this movie (the first time ever out of any Bond movies - yet not the books) he kills the villain with premeditation and not out of self-defense. Here Bond easily captures Greene, and instead of bringing him in to Mi6, he sadistically goes out of his way to revenge Fields and leave Greene to die in a desert with only a can of oil to drink and bad guys hunting him down . I Love It! / Awesome! This Bond is the heartless, vengeful, killer he is in the books. And Daniel Craig, with his ice-cold blue eyes, has this mastered. But what about his sexual/romantic side that is the other 50% of James Bond.
Well after Vesper, he has shut down any possible romantic emotional feeling. He won't let himself be hurt again. And that is why the Fields character is so important to Bond's character development. He never takes her seriously, and because she is just an "underling" he can easily dismiss her and any emotions for her (which there are very little). Yet she is the only girl he has sex with in the movie. He does not have sex with Olga Kurylenko (the female lead). Yet it is Kurylenko that he has so much in common with (revenge, both are agents), and spends so much time with and saving and rescuing. We see him break down in one scene and give her a Sean Connery hard kiss - and that's it. He won't open up to her and let himself be hurt again. This is key to his character development. We need to see Bond use Fields as an object and not open up to a true equal like Kurylenko.
Daniel Craig is awesome as the Ian Flemming Bond and I can't wait to see him grow into the Bond I grew up with. I do miss Q, and the gadgets, and the witticisms, but I am patient and look forward to this development over the years. I just hope the writers actually have this in their plan.
As to the movie itself, read all the other reviews. They are right on. Too much hand held camera action (blame the crew hired from the Bourne movies to work on this one), so-so villain, simple or confusing plot (I still can't make sense of it). Also a "Bond treat" would have been nice. Throw in a "shakin - not stirred" please!
p.s. The Opera Scene is one of the best action scenes from any Bond movie. The scene is also accurate on how bad guys have meetings. They really do it at public places with high tech gear as opposed to a conference room in an office building or remote island or fortress. ALSO, the action is relatively quick, uncomplicated, ruthless (innocent people are killed), and made even more gruesome as there is no sound other than the music from the opera Tosca.