Quantum Of Solace

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2008)

Almost immediately after the final scenes of "Casino Royale" James Bond 007 (Daniel Craig) brings the shadowy Mr White (Jesper Christensen) to a secret location to be interrogated by M (Judi Dench). This triggers a global hunt for the members of a secret organisation, QUANTUM, and a key player, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric). But Bond's mission is compromised by his own impulse for revenge, feelings which are mirrored by a young woman he encounters with Greene, Camile (Olga Kurylenko)...
Credit where credit's due: "Quantum Of Solace" starts fast and furiously and for the most part never lets up. With a typical Bondian car chase through the mountain roads of Italy leading into one of perhaps the most controversial Bond themes with its quick brass section, and into a short dialogue scene which leads into a chase across rooftops into another dialogue scene which leads into another fistfight which leads into another dialogue scene...you get the picture.
The first direct sequel to a Bond film, "Quantum Of Solace" does suffer slightly as I don't believe you can just watch it as a stand alone film - you definitely need to have seen "Casino Royale" to understand what the heck's going on sometimes. The dialogue is, for the majority of the film, as fast and furious as the action scenes. You have to really pay attention to what everyone's saying or else you're left five minutes previously and still wondering why that guy was killed and who these people are, etc. This is why I watched it twice - and as a result I enjoyed it more the second time of watching as I understood more about what was going on.
Usually enjoying a film more the second time you watch it means that it's a very good film. But "Quantum Of Solace" seems to have become a real Marmite film - you're either gonna love it or you're gonna hate it. No point in laying the blame on Daniel Craig's shoulders. The best Bond since Connery and before Brosnan shattered his own legacy with the appalling "Die Another Day", Craig's Bond takes the character to dark new places only hinted at by Dalton's brave but doomed two attempts. Showing little remorse at killing possible, helpful leads but softening when a friend is lying dying in his arms or a young woman mirrors his own sense of loss and anger at the death of loved one - truly, this is as close to Fleming's Bond that the screen incarnation will ever dare to get.
The rest of the cast perform very well, in particular (and perhaps brilliantly) there is a tour de force performance by Judi Dench, whose M has evolved over the six films she has appeared in to be so much more than Bond's commander; infuriatingly she gets most of the film's best lines. Kudos to to Olga Kurylenko, whose Camille is possibly the most interesting Bond girl we've had in a while; however there is perhaps a danger that her character will be seen in later years as possibly more one-dimensional, especially when placing her next to Eva Green's superior Vesper from "Casino Royale". Mathieu Almaric does as well as he can in the villain role - though the diabolical, take-over-the-world plot that often accompanies the villains takes a large side-step for Bond's own personal mission of vengeance. Now that this storyline appears to be over, perhaps these will come back into the forefront.
The film takes an interesting direction towards the final few scenes, however; it quietens, it slows. This is a Bond who has (aparently) come full circle, come to wake up to the reality of what he's doing, how he's living. This is no doubt thanks largely to the interesting choice of director, Marc Foster, whose work I have enjoyed very much but never really pictured him as a Bond director. Still he shows great skill in the action scenes and is very art-house-lite on the dialogue scenes.
You can't call this film a return to form - thats what "Casino Royale" was. Sadly, though, you can't really call this film a worthy continuation of the form. It is let down by its pace. Characters are wasted as a result, in particular Gemma Arterton's Agent Fields, who is probably the most stereotypical Bond character in the whole film, and thats saying a lot. It is also let down by its relationship with "Casino Royale" - the ghost of Vesper haunts it mercilessly. But it's not as bad as some people suggest. It's a worthy addition to Craig's legacy, and hopefully will only be a slight dud when looked back in years to come, and not a great clunker as most of the Moore films seem to be. Good effort - just not great.
7/10