Overall, very disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (20 November 2008)

I have been a James Bond fan ever since seeing Doctor No in the winter of 1963, shortly before my 12th birthday. Very soon thereafter I read all the Bond novels written up to that point, and absolutely loved the way Sean Connery, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, and Desmond Llewellyn brought to life the characters of Bond, M, Miss Moneypenny, and Q. Overall, these actors and characters were fairly representative of the characters in the novels. Well, I am totally fed up with the trend in several of the recent Bond movies to have Bond be so disobedient and rebellious. As I remember it, 007 was argumentative with M only once throughout all of the novels .... after Bond was captured by the Russians after the end of the novel You Only Live Twice and before the beginning of The Man With the Golden Gun. And he had been brainwashed by the Soviets!! Otherwise, Bond was completely loyal to M (and the feeling was mutual!), almost like a devoted son to a father. Well, that is all out the window in several of the movies of the last 20 years, including this one. "Quantum" has excellent action, but trying to follow the twisted plot became very difficult without subtitles. My advice is to wait until DVDs are available, then put on the subtitles.