Not Terrible, But Not the Best

Rating: 6/10 (10 November 2015)

This film's predecessor, "Casino Royale" is my all time favorite Bond movie, and I loved it from the first time I saw it in the theater. That being the case, I was pretty excited when "Quantum of Solace" came out a couple of years later, only to be very disappointed with the film. I'd only watched it one other time since then and had a similar reaction, but I decided to give it another shot in preparation for "Spectre".
That said, expectation has a lot to do with whether or not one enjoys a film. If you go into this movie expecting a "Casino Royale", you're going to be thoroughly disappointed. If you go into it not knowing much about it and expecting it to be a terrible movie (as I was this week given my recollection of my first two viewings), you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. This movie isn't terrible, and there are far worse films in the spy movie genre. But it does have its flaws.
For starters, "QoS" is a direct sequel of "Casnio Royale"--a rarity for the 007 franchise, as most movies in the series usually are standalone scripts. "QoS" departs from this, and sees Bond exacting revenge on the secret organization that was behind Vesper Lynd's demise in the earlier movie. That being the case, it does help things if you've seen "Casino Royale" lately--indeed, if you don't recall much about the latter, you won't be completely lost in "QoS", but you also won't be well served in understanding the gist of the story.
Still, no matter how recently you've seen "CR", "Quantum" is a film that doesn't tell its story as effectively as its prequel. The villains are thrown at you in a somewhat haphazard way, and unless you give the movie your full attention--no distractions or nothing else on your mind--then you may get halfway into things and find that you're a bit lost. I had to go check the film's wikipedia page halfway into the movie to make sure I understood what was happening with certain antagonists.
All in all, this is to say that this installment of 007 commits that most egregious of errors for filmmaking: It sacrifices good storytelling for dynamic action sequences. Yes, the action scenes are dramatic and compelling in this movie, but the film just doesn't tell its story well, and as such it is a far stretch from "CR".
Still, while this is a real problem for the film, its a problem that is not as overt as can be the case in some other action flicks. The plot is just good enough that it warrants a 6/10 stars--but again, that's only if you can keep up with what's going on.