Underrated

Rating: 8/10 (28 September 2014)

I want to start off by saying that this movie was awesome! I am extremely confused as to why so many people seem to dislike this movie, as I think it is the best in the Daniel Craig Bond series (Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall). I was not previously a Bond fan, so I haven't seen any of the older Bond films (although I tried watching one of the Pierce Brosnan movies and got bored). Critics are upset because there is too much action in the movie and it portrays Bond as an action hero. That doesn't make sense to me. James Bond IS AN ACTION HERO! The name Bond is synonymus with action. Not only was the movie action packed, but it had a clear and consistent plot throughout that was unique and meaningful. Casino Royale and Skyfall both dealt with terrorism which, at least in Skyfall was somewhat repetitious since it isn't anything new, whereas Quantum deals with some terrorism, but many dictatorships and political schemes to gain land and profit. These elements were incorporated into the plot in a way that made it very realistic and believable. The villains were focused on large world-affecting schemes, which made it believable, unlike Skyfall where the villain not only showed up halfway through but his life goal was to get revenge on his former boss even though he probably could have aimed for world domination or something a little more larger scale (also I wasn't particularly impressed by Bardem's performance). Even Casino Royale, which I thought was great btw, was somewhat forced with so many scenes that could almost work as stand alone films. Here the climax was clear and rewarding. In Casino there were around 3 or 4 climaxes dispersed throughout the movie, and in Skyfall the climax was tremendously underwhelming.
People seem to think that this Bond has become a rip-off of Jason Bourne. The only real similarities are the fight scenes. I have always thought of Bond as the government backed version of Bourne, and even Casino had similar action to the Bourne saga. Any good film will borrow elements from other films once in a while.
Another thing that people don't seem to understand is that this is a DIRECT CONTINUATION of Casino Royale. It is a SEQUEL not meant to be a stand alone movie, they go hand in hand. Casino and Quantum are equivalent to Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 or Matrix Reloaded & revolutions. Some plot points in this movie are dependent on Casino, which is fine, there is nothing wrong with back-to-back sequels.
My Film Studies teacher believes that Skyfall is much better because of subtle film techniques of parallelism and color schemes. He says Quantum doesn't have that. To me what matters more is whether or not the film is entertaining and meaningful. I wouldn't have even noticed the color schemes if he didn't point it out. If you agree with me on that then you will love this movie. I thought it was fantastic.