A mixed bag; the actors and the character bits deliver, but the action sequences (mostly) do not

Rating: 6/10 (9 November 2008)

"Quantum Of Solace" opens rather poorly: a potentially great car chase in Italy is undermined by the lack of establishing shots, the jerky, rapid editing and the ultra-tight close-ups. Sadly, (after an uninspired song & titles sequence), this pattern continues for the rest of the action sequences: the stunts are great and the special effects convincing, but when you can't see who is doing what to whom, they feel like a bit of a waste. And the first half of QOS seems to follow the globe-trotting minimal-dialogue action-action-action pattern of "Tomorrow Never Dies". Thankfully, after Marc Forster gets this initial bombardment of action out of his system, he settles down a little and the film becomes more balanced. Forster is considered a character director, not an action director, and he proves that here: the small character moments are handled much better than the big slam-bang action sequences.
Daniel Craig forms, along with George Lazenby, the duo of the most physical Bond actors to date. One stunt in particular, jumping from one building to the top of a moving bus to another building, is straight out of a Jackie Chan movie ("Police Story 2", I believe). He is also good in the serious dramatic moments, but he still needs some work on how to milk his comic dialogue. Olga Kurylenko is a very good Bond girl. She is beautiful, tough but not superhumanly so, and shares many common traits with Bond (a dark past, an angry mood, guns expertise, not to mention a knack for coming out of a battle with a lot of cuts!). I actually felt a stronger connection at the end between her and Bond than between Bond and Vesper. The scene where she is surrounded by flames and scared and Bond tries to comfort her works better than the similar "shower scene" with Bond and Vesper in CR. Gemma Arterton is a wonderful secondary Bond girl, but severely underused; in any case, every minute she is on the screen represents the strongest link of QOS to the past Bond movies. Mathieu Amalric is a major upgrade on the completely unthreatening Le Chiffre; Amalric has the perfect accent and facial features for his slimy role, and he's not afraid to go one-on-one against Bond when the circumstances demand it. Jesper Christensen steals the film with only 2 scenes, just like he did in CR; he also has the best line in the film: "Tosca is not for everyone!". More of Mr. White, please. To say that Judi Dench and Giancarlo Giannini are as solid as ever would be redundant - so let me just add that Jeffrey Wright makes unquestionably the deepest Felix Leiter that has ever appeared in the series. Probably the only disappointment in the cast is Anatole Taubman as Elvis, who is only memorable for his laughable wig (I've seen the film twice now and I honestly don't even remember what happens to him!).
Is it better than Casino Royale? In my opinion it has a better girl, a better villain and better dialogue (no "I have no armor left" or "little fingers" here), but Martin Campbell's direction was smoother and less pretentious, and the poker game was terrific. I give them both a 6/10. Let's hope Craig's third Bond film finds the ideal balance between all the necessary Bond ingredients - the balance that no Bond movie after GoldenEye has quite achieved.