Bond as Killing Machine

Rating: 6/10 (30 November 2008)

After being extremely disappointed with 'Casino Royale' (with an ordinary poker game as its primary action sequence), I was happy to see that the producers of Quantum of Solace decided to bring back 'Bond' to its action-packed roots. I am still trying to get used to Daniel Craig as Bond however. He's about the opposite of the urbane, sophisticated and witty character initially developed by the greatest Bond of them all, Sean Connery. Daniel Craig is closer to a Steve McQueen type but unable to capture McQueen's true 'bad boy' persona. Craig's interest in women is minimal (he spends a very short time in bed in Quantum of Solace). In this new version of Bond, he's a trained killer who rarely shows emotion (there is a brief scene where he cradles the head of an associate who's been shot) but for the most part, Craig's Bond is as cold and ruthless as the villains he's trying to hunt down. While not very handsome, Craig is in extremely good shape and handles all the action sequences with gusto.
There are plenty of excellent action sequences in Quantum of Solace which will keep you entertained. These sequences run the gamut from car, boat and plane chases to a dazzlingly choreographed face off between Bond and the primary villain's henchmen at an opera house.
Olga Kurylenko as Camille is a more proactive 'Bond girl' than usual. She seeks to take revenge on General Medrano (Quantum's #2 villain) who killed her family members when she was a child. Bond 'rescues' her when she finds herself alone on boat with the General and his goons. Later she's angry with Bond for 'rescuing' her, upsetting her plans to kill Medrano on the boat (it's never made clear how Camille could kill Medrano without getting killed herselfand also how would she have been able to kill him as it did not appear she was carrying a weapon).
Dominic Greene is the primary villain played by Mathieu Amalric. He's a sleazy businessman masquerading as an environmental crusader. Bond discovers that instead of trying to aid the local populace, he's dammed off all their water causing a drought. At the end of the film, Bond captures Greene and leaves him in the desert with a can of (what looks like) draino (presumably which he can use to commit suicide). I was expecting something more dramatic such as Bond destroying the dam and having the water cascade into the drought stricken area, replenishing the water supply and killing Greene in the process.
Judi Dench is excellent as usual as "M" but I still miss the wonderful gadgets Bond uses to defeat his opponents. The signature 007 music comes on at the end but why not use it at the beginning too? In a nod to be relevant to today, the opening theme song unfortunately is greatly influenced by rap music. It's basically a tuneless song and detracts from the film's opening.
For now, the James Bond franchise appears to be successfully emulating the non-stop action stunts of the Jason Bourne series. But the producers should be forewarned: start giving Bond more of a personality or the Bond fan base will start clamoring for Daniel Craig's replacement.