It's Bond, but not at his greatest.

Rating: 7/10 (16 November 2008)

Quantum of Solace would leave some fans of the last addition, Casino Royal somewhat disappointed. Quantum picks up shortly after where Casino ends, and if you like explosives and chase scenes you will not be disappointed. They have car chases, boat chases, plane chases, foot chases... WHEW!! I was out of breath after the opening sequences. For me, it was akin to Shoot Em Up, but without the humor that Shoot Em Up carried. All in all, it was a fabulous midway ride, but for me it just lacked something.
The all new Bond (Daniel Craig) slowly brings you to the bad guy's focus way into the movie, but it's not really the plot. The plot is that there is a need for closure from the death of Vesper that he wants to deny almost to the closing. Otherwise, there are a lot of politics and environmental observations that play out like a Washington video game. Mathieu Amalric makes his English debut (Mathieu is a veteran French actor with scored of film to his credit) as the arch villain. He brings a certain charm that sometimes makes the Bond character look stoneish. The "Bond Girl" Olga Kurylenko who also comes from French cinema and TV via the Ukraine, made her English debut in Hit-man and more recently Max Payne.
I did have problems with this film though. I couldn't give it a thumbs up for two faults I found in it's production and modeling: 1. The action sequences are edited in such short clips I found these segments hard to watch. Had the director (Marc Forster, an interesting choice seeing he has mainly done tamer films such as Kite Runner and Stranger Than Fiction) restrained the quickly formatted segments to allow for a little more devoted seconds, it could be easier to watch. I am not criticizing the scenes; contrary. I thought they were excellent. I would have just liked a little bit more time to be able to digest the action sequences so I could remember them better. The second problem I had was Bond himself. I know he was hurting and in denial, but for the most part he was just too stony. I had a hard time developing much sympathy for him.
But the film was well worth the price of admission. I went to see it once and then took my wife to see it again, so that in its self is a testimony to the production. The crowd was uncommonly quiet for a theater usually filled only to about 2/3rds capacity. We had to glare at some local spectators to get them to shut up, but eventually the movie took hold and you were flying down the rails of a cool roller coaster. -B