Quantum of Disappointment

Rating: 6/10 (14 November 2008)

Today, as I re watched Casino Royale, I can't seem to shake the feeling that that movie was indeed better than I had judged. With brings me to Quantum of Solace, to which I had never felt so indifferent about it during it's full 2-hour run.
The director and producer must've thought it was a good idea to make a movie that would be fit for our favorite Austrian turned California governor and Bruce Willis, except that they forgot that Arnold and Willis were generally very colorful, in here we have a stone faced Daniel Craig who takes himself so seriously that the movie at points feels un-intentionally funny as it provides some embarrassed laughs.
Anyway, the first shocker would be to learn that this movie takes place just a few hours after Casino Royale, I'm impressed at how Bond magically goes from the occasional screw-up into a perfect fighting and killing machine, British spies do make the world safe,'cause in this world, CIA agents are worthless pencil-pushers with mustaches that spout endless platitudes and are willing to work with nefarious organizations just for a taste of black gold.
But anyway, Bond becomes the perfect killing machine and all it took was to snuff out his Vesper and in the process sets out on the hunt for the organization Mr. White works for and in the process uncover that terrible conspiracy by it's leader, the new Bond villain Greene, or at least standing in for an actual villain.
Be prepared for some action, shooting, flirting, a bit of tought interrogation, intense close quarters combat and no endless card game in sight, I thought it was a pretty good thing, but like I said before, I felt so indifferent to the whole thing. Every action set piece looks calculated, sometimes unnatural(like the hotel in the desert that seems to have explosions set on cue) and just too flashy. Not is to say that it's bad, far from it, but underwhelming.
As an action movie, The Dark Knight overshadows Quantum of Solace because TDK feels like a heavy and dramatic roller-coaster ride, while QOS is a tamer, less exciting and often predictable ride.
Like I said, the set pieces are unexciting and have a feel of dejà vù, as it they tried to much to make it feel like the older Bonds of days passed. It also hurts this movie's chances that the opening theme song is perhaps one of the worst I've heard in years, what were they thinking? I miss Chris Cornell's intro from Casino Royale.
Also part of the blame falls on the actors as well, I concede that Daniel Craig's Bond is what he makes it to be, a cold and efficient killer, but his entire motivation for this quest is revenge and the trailers make it seem like he's losing it, when you see the actual movie, he feels so calm and restrained, it feels more like a routine job than a personal quest, no offence to Craig. By contrast, Judi Dench's M is so distrustful of Bond that she will jump to conclusions on the slightest twitch, I wonder,why does she let him be on the force at all, since Bond to him, does nothing but steps on everybody's toes and kill off the people whom he's after? In short, if you miss on Casino Royale, Bond's motivations are very unclear.
The bond girl this time played by Olga Kurylenko has considerably less screen time, just barely more than her previous 2 movies, based on video game properties. But her screen time was worth it, it was enjoyable, she was hard-hitting, expressive and had no-nonsense attitude about her mission, which is also a personal vendetta as we later discover.
Dominic Greene fails at the highest level, you want to pass off this character as the owner of an evil eco-friendly company(That surprised me, I never thought they would go there) as a bad guy, nay... the leader of that terrible organization? Not that I didn't enjoy the twist, which is really was he is after, but other than that, he feels like a stand-in for the real bogeyman.
To cut this short, Quantum of Solace is a decent if underwhelming action movie. To watch this, I would advise watching Casino Royale first, or else it will feel like a generic action movie.