A Quantum drop in quality

Rating: 7/10 (3 December 2008)

Following the successful "reboot" of the James Bond franchise with 2006's Casino Royale, Daniel Craig has returned to the role of Bond with the follow-up, Quantum of Solace. For everyone salivating over a second entry of the new, stripped down Bond film series, Quantum of Solace may prove to be a bit of a letdown. While hardly a poor entry in the Bond oeuvre, it is a significant step down from Casino Royale, with a bit too much emphasis on action and not enough on character.
Picking up almost immediately from where Casino Royale left off, Bond has captured Mr. White (Jesper Christiansen) and brought him in for questioning by Bond's superior, M (Judi Dench, once again). What Bond and M quickly discover is that the organization that White works for, known as Quantum, has far ranging influence and are using their powers to topple governments in order to gain a foothold wherever they deem financial lucrative for them.
Bond follows clues that lead him to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a key player in Quantum, who is helping to destabilize the government of Boliva in order to install a dictator, General Medrano (Joaquin Cosio), to allow them to control a valuable natural resource. Accompanying Bond on his mission is Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who has a personal score to settle with Medrano, while Bond is also set on revenge for the death of his love from Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd.
Quantum of Solace, much like Casino Royale, has thrown many James Bond staples to the wind: gone is the utterance of "Bond, James Bond", absent are the goofy gadgets, and Bond's sex drive has been ratcheted down significantly (he beds a mere single woman in the film). This is a Bond film more in the mold of the recent Bourne series, not taking a lot of down time from action to let the narrative breathe. This proves to be unfortunate, as one of the things that distinguished Casino Royale was the depth it devoted to character development over just action sequences. Quantum of Solace is almost wall to wall action sequences, with a snippet of dialogue here and there, and only lip service paid to Bond's search for vengeance for the death of Vesper.
One of the film's other key flaws is the over-edited action sequences. Director Marc Forster and editors Matt Chesse and Richard Pearson have taken a page from the Michael Bay book of film-making and made sure to keep the cuts fast and furious, reducing some of the action sequences to barely decipherable collages of random objects in motion. If action is your main focus, at least make it coherent.
Daniel Craig proves once again to be a good choice for the role, with plenty of physical appeal and a nice sense of confidence in the role. Mathieu Amalric is something of a mixed bag as villain Dominic Greene, not up to par with many of the more flamboyant Bond villains, but still menacing and creepy at times. Olga Kurylenko is attractive and has a bit more substance to her than many Bond girls, proving to be a bit more of a sidekick than love interest.
Overall, Quantum of Solace is something of a minor disappointment, coming on the heels of the very strong Casino Royale. But compared with many of the outlandish entries in the years of Roger Moore, it would be difficult to identify it as a poor entry in the franchise. We can only hope that the next entry rides a little closer to Casino Royale's high mark.