James Bond is Back in Action.

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2008)

'Quantum of Solace' opens oddly in the middle of a scene - a destructive high speed car chase along the Italian coast, all burning tyres, crashes and bullets. This is James Bond (Danial Craig) delivering the chief baddie Mr White to an MI6 safe house in Sienna. The problem here is that since the film does not re-cap the final scene of 'Casino Royale' (Bond tracking down Mr White to his Italian castle and shooting him in the leg), then unless you're familiar with the previous film, you'll be baffled as to what is going on.
The credits are the best ever for a Bond film, and they're followed by a breathtaking and dangerous looking chase through the sewers and across the roofs - Bond chasing M's bodyguard, who, it transpires, is a double-agent. It concludes with them crashing through a glass ceiling and fighting for their guns on collapsing scaffolding.
'Quantum of Solace' strips Bond of the iconography which defines the series: no Bond theme until the end, no gadgets (other than a nifty table in M's London office), no 'The name's Bond, James Bond', no Q and Moneypenny and the gunbarrell logo rather pointlessly appears at the end of the film.
The film also is hindered by the dullest scheme ever by a Bond villain - a plot to control Bolivia's water supply!! Whilst the MI5 heroes of the BBC's 'Spooks' week in and week out save Britain from cyber attacks, nuclear bombs, germ warfare, it hard to care about whether Domonic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) succeeds in becoming a public utility supplier. The film's attitude to world affairs is curious too - the baddies aren't the FSB or the Iranians or any of the obvious candidates, but a SPECTRE-like crime syndicate who, in the words of Mr White, "have people everywhere" and hold a meeting during an outdoor production of 'Tosca'.
And yet, the whole film moves at such a breathless pace between Europe, Hiati and Bolivia that it's always enjoyable. Craig is a hard as nails Bond and the best 007 to date; Olga Kurylenko as tanned and gorgeous as the avenging Camille and Judi Dench has a much expanded role as a globe trotting M.
But the reason people watch these films are the succession of set pieces and here they're delivered superbly: a speedboat chase: a plane chase: Bond and Camille jumping out of a plane with only one parachute between them and a climactic fight with Greene in an exploding hotel out in the desert.
The chief baddie Mr White escapes and, like Blofeld back in the 1960s, will no doubt re-surface in the next adventure. The producers have constantly re-invented Bond throughout the decades to keep the films fresh and interesting. On the evidence the series has a lot of life left in it.