James Bond is Back, and That's Something to be Thankful For

Rating: 8/10 (9 December 2008)

Bond movies traditionally come out right around Thanksgiving. This year, "Quantum of Solace" was something Bond fans can truly be thankful for. Contrary to popular opinion, I liked it more than "Casino Royale." I liked it more than "Die Another Day." (Maybe not more that "The World is not Enough", but since that was the first Bond film I saw theatrically, it has sentimental value for me.) All in all, this is the best experience I've had going to see a Bond movie in a long time.
After seeing CR, I wasn't sure whether or not I liked Daniel Craig as Bond. Thanks to QoS, I have to say I still don't rate him as highly as Sean Connery or Timothy Dalton, my two favorite Bonds, but I now fully accept him in the role, and he may even be squeaking into a three-way tie for third place with Pierce Brosnan and Roger Moore. In CR, Bond was portrayed as a "blunt instrument", starting out as an elite Double-Oh agent and slowly evolving into the martini-smooth super-spy we've all come to know and love. QoS continues that evolution. 007 is now on the smoother side of blunt, a thug that looks dashing in a tuxedo and has a taste for the finer things in life. He also has a very dry sense of humor, more apparent than in CR, but not as over the top as in the Brosnan films. Basically, he's awfully close to the character in Ian Fleming's novels.
Like CR, QoS represents a break from tradition concerning the older movies, but at the same time feels more like a traditional Bond film. Bond never introduces himself as "Bond, James Bond", but he never has to. He never orders him martini "shaken, not stirred", but it's implied. And these catch phrase didn't occur in all of the earliest Bond movies, either. All of the other elements are there: the beautiful women (Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko), the beautiful cars (the Aston Martin DBS), and a vast organization bent on world domination.
Unfortunately, the movie's weakest moments are the action scenes. While CR director Martin Campbell has some experience in the genre, QUANTUM director Marc Forester ("Finding Neverland", "Stranger than Fiction") is more used to directing dramas. While some of the action scenes are inventive, the decision to film all of them using a shaky "Cloverfield" handy-cam approach was a mistake. The most inventive action scenes would have been improved by a more traditional steady cam approach, while the shaky cam doesn't really add anything to the more conventional scenes.
On the other hand, the character scenes really work well, and simple scenes, such as Bond spying from a tall scaffolding or shimmying across the wrong side of a balcony to avoid capture, become the film's best action moments. The movie is filled with welcome references to the older movies and Fleming novels (including an unmistakable "Goldfinger" reference). The Bond girls are great. Olga Kurylenko is beautiful and exotic, while fresh-faced Gemma Arterton's younger Bond girl steals the show, even as a secondary character. Her innocence and vulnerability make her unique as a Bond girl, and she's one of the best Bond women in a long time. Matthieu Almaric's villain is one of the least impressive in the series, but that also makes him one of the most realistic. Jack White and Alicia Key's duet "Another Way to Die" is one of the best Bond theme songs ever. And the classic gun barrel, as in CR, appears in a way that makes it new and exciting again.
Finally, QoS's short run time, just under two hours compared to CR's massive just over two-and-a-half, is brief and sweet and ends just in time not to overstay its welcome. All in all, despite the flaws I could pick out, I left the theater grinning like an idiot.