The name's Bond, James Bond....or is it?

Rating: 7/10 (2 November 2008)

Martin Campbell's reboot of the James Bond series, Casino Royale, received praise and criticism in equal measures for the fact that it steps away from the James Bond trademarks. This film continues down that path and actually moves things even further away from the Bond tradition. I have to say that I'm not the biggest Bond fan myself and so this didn't bother me too much; but I won't be surprised to find that many Bond fans are not Quantum of Solace fans. As a thriller in its own right, however, the 22nd Bond movie is action packed and entertaining; and certainly a lot better than its title! The film follows on directly from Casino Royale and features James Bond attempting to find revenge for the death of his love who died at the end of the first film. He sets out to get to the bottom of the organisation that was behind her blackmail and intelligence links him to Haiti, where after hooking up with the beautiful and feisty Camille, he is lead to ruthless "charitable" businessman Dominic Greene and discovers a plot by the shady organisation known as 'Quantum' to take control of the world's most important natural resource.
The lack of gadgets is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of differences between the classic Bond film and this reboot. Daniel Craig is a million miles away from the likes of Sean Connery in terms of looks and persona; and his Bond is not even similar in character. While still suave, this James Bond at times comes across more as a highly trained assassin than a secret agent; and only one scene that sees James give British Intelligence the slip in a hotel really reminded me of the resourceful spy seen in the older Bond films. The plot really allows the lead character to show his darker side; but in essence the film is just a collection of stunt sequences and kill scenes; which while undoubtedly entertaining, it not what most people will expect from a Bond film. However, in its own right the film certainly has a lot of positives. The cinematography is gorgeous and this is more than matched by the beautiful locations; which include Italy, Haiti and South America. The best thing about it for me was the casting of Olga Kurylenko as the Bond girl. Again not the typical Bond girl, but she sure is nice to look at! Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) takes the directors chair and is actually more geared up towards providing the action scenes than I thought he would be; but several of them are edited together badly and lack tension as a result. The film attempts to tie itself to the rest of the Bond series by way of a Goldfinger-style death scene; and while it's undoubtedly very cool, it doesn't really fit in with the rest of it and comes off like an afterthought. So to surmise - is The Quantum of Solace an entertaining action thriller? Unquestionably yes. But is it a James Bond movie? Unfortunately not.