Truly a damp squib after the success of Casino Royale

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2008)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Opening up where the last film left off, Bond (Daniel Craig) is caught up in a car chase in Italy, which, being Bond, he manages to escape. He reaches his destination and a villain who's come along for a ride with him is to be shaken down for information. But the mysterious organization Bond wants to know about has eyes and ears everywhere and another dramatic scene unfolds as he is broken free. Anyway, there's a new villain on the scene in the shape of Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) who MI5 have surveillance on. Bond is assigned to keep tracks on him and his apparent plans to pillage the water supply of the South American country of Bolivia. Sensing he's getting too close to the case, M (Judi Dench) assigns Agent Strawberry Fields (Gemma Anderton) to bring him back in. But Bond sticks on the case, and as he goes about his business, he appears to have blurred the line between agent and villain. As he is suspected of criminal activity, are his actions being motivated by duty to queen and country...or is he acting on his own personal vendetta?
Brosnan's tenure was up. The last story in Ian Fleming's original creations had been reached and all that was left was to go back to the beginning. This was the perfect chance for a new Bond. A sharper Bond. A Bond with edge and sass. A more raw, real Bond. A Bond for the new ages. He was a bit stiff and humourless. Made Tim Dalton seem like Jim Carrey, in fact. But he had undeniable presence, a sense of suaveness, a gritty, hard nosed Bond that looked like he meant business. His name was Daniel Craig. And his film was Casino Royale. It went over my head first time but on second viewing it was clear Bond had been brought back with a bang. It's even more clear when faced with something as unremarkable and disappointing as Quantum of Solace.
After another dismal, unmemorable opening song, we're back in business in terms with what Bond's meant to provide. The action, from the car chases, gun battles, stunts and hand to hand combat are all top notch, but with such little heart and substance to guide it along, it all gets boring after a while. The apathetic story makes things even more droll, and the overall lack of heart going on here really makes things bad, even with Paul Haggis, the acclaimed writer of Million Dollar Baby and director of Crash, on hand. Performances wise, Craig retains his presence in the lead role, even trying to loosen up, awkwardly quipping off the obligatory Bond one liners and the odd off beat quip here and there. But Amalric is a weak villain with no edge and even worse is Gemma Anderton and her ridiculously named Bond girl character. Though she gets mercifully brief screen time, her performance is so wooden she makes more impression *mild spoiler* as an oil saturated corpse on a freshly made hotel bed than in person. Olga Kurylenko as the main Bond girl also fails to add substance to anything.
In a day and age where lengthy 'blockbuster' films are drawn out with lots of back story, QOS deserves some praise for being the shortest Bond film ever. But, after the massive impact of Casino Royale, this only ends up going further to show the lack of effort and heart that's been put into this very disappointing second outing for Craig. **