I Understand The Effort...But Don't Like It

Rating: 3/10 (11 March 2017)

For 40+ years, from Dr. No to Die Another Day and Sean Connery to Pierce Brosnan, the James Bond formula remained basically the same: The gun-barrel opening, a lot of action, Bond says a few catchphrases ("Bond, James Bond" and "Shaken, Not Stirred"), Bond gets the girl, and the film ends with the James Bond theme pounding in the background.
A few years ago, however, a new Bond (Daniel Craig) brought a new formula (prequel) to the Bond franchise with Casino Royale, a gripping film that satisfies action fans as well as provides all the traditional Bond landmarks (albeit some in their inaugural forms) as described above. As Casino Royale ended, audiences were left feeling as if the "Craig Bond" was well on his way to becoming the Bond we know and love.
The trouble is, the ending of Quantum of Solace does the EXACT same thing...with little to no character development to back it up. For a basic plot summary, Bond spends the entire film trying to gain a measure of revenge for the death of Vesper, his girlfriend, in Casino Royale. A lot of fast cars, unbelievable chase scenes, and M-defying later, and supposedly Bond has reconciled his past and now able to move forward.
Unfortunately, nothing particularly engaging happened during that time to make me believe as if Bond really is a changed man. I think the problem is that Craig is never really allowed to wildly emote in a vengeful fashion...he harbors the same stoic expression the entire film. I would have loved to have seen a Matthew Fox-esque emotive rant that LOST fans have come to appreciate, but it just never happened. The strange thing is that it wasn't just overshadowed by the crazy action scenes...those were pretty much balanced for a Bond film. Just no emotion whatsoever.
Thus, while I appreciate this film's goal of trying to allow Bond to move on from his greatest tragedy, it just doesn't work. I would actually rather see a Bond film such as "Tomorrow Never Dies" or "The World Is Not Enough", installments that were heavy on the schtick and light on the plot, than this heavy film that didn't really get me excited until the Bond theme blared before the end credits.
Die-hard Bond fans will watch this film regardless of what I say, but this is a movie that you can skip and really not miss any of the early-Bond character development that was so compelling in Craig's first Bond effort.