The last lines say it all...

Rating: 2/10 (3 March 2013)

"Casino Royale" is an expertly crafted, intelligent, well-written, action-packed and just plain brilliant reinvigoration of the Bond franchise, with Daniel Craig as the best of all the Bonds that have come before. "Quantum of Solace" has none of those things. If you weren't already privy to the knowledge that this film shared a number of crew members from the Bourne movies - 2nd unit director (AKA the person that does the action scenes), editor, etc - it becomes pretty obvious within (literally) seconds of the opening of this film. (This Bourne-ishness reaches a ridiculous zenith during a scene in which Bond changes into a jacket that looks remarkably similar to the one Matt Damon wore in "Bourne Ultimatum". I swear, this moment provoked me to shout at the screen: "OH COME ON!") But whilst the action scenes in Bournes 2 and 3 are equally as frantically edited and shot as the ones in "QoS", they were much easier to follow and get swept up in. In "QoS", the action scenes (of which this film is almost exclusively filled with, for lack of a coherent plot to adhere to) are just too quick, too frantic, too incomprehensible and entirely pointless. To add insult to injury, the astounding practical effects work of "CR" is here replaced by frequent (and obvious, and shoddy) CGI work, which completely takes you out of the film. Though that's not the only thing that does that to the viewer. The writing is quite unspectacular, with character motivations murky and unclear, barely any memorable dialogue, and the supposed plot of the film being almost entirely non-existent. I can tell you the good parts of the film in just this paragraph: David Arnold's score and the Four Tet song at the end (but NOT the opening theme song), the cameos from directors Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron (spot them if you can), and the unexpected appearance of Stana Katic from "Castle". That is literally it. And all of that is why the film's final lines are so pertinent. M says: "Bond...I need you back." Bond replies: "I never left." Oh, yes you did, James. Really, you did. (P.S. - There's an argument to be made that Christopher Nolan has been subtly remaking "QoS" in every film he's made since it was released. Or maybe I'm just going mad...) ((P.P.S. - Thank god for "Skyfall".))