Ian Fleming's Bond vs. Broccoli's/Wilson's Bond

Rating: 6/10 (25 May 2009)

It was the scene between the Foreign Secretary and 'M' that basically summarizes the secondary theme of the film: Villains are not any longer persons with black character treats. They are persons whose personalities have many shades of gray. Dominic Greene is off course the villain, but he's also an eco-philanthropist. James Bond on the other hand should be the positive action-hero, but instead kills more people than Dominic Greene does! The theme is furthermore highlighted by scenes of very poor Bolivian people who are literally dying to get some water. David Arnold's unoriginal Babel-like music stresses this fact as well.
Then there is the post-Bush CIA who cannot wait to see the current Bolivian government thrown overboard by Greene and Co. And MI6 meanwhile has become an incompetent secret service with so many leaks in its organization that it's almost a not-so-secret service.
Lot of this is off course quite realistic in the real world. Both Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson know how the world has changed since 9/11. The outgoing US government, the CIA, MI6: Ethics seem not so important anymore for them. Many films produced after 9/11 have had similar themes about the founding's of terrorism. One can think of 'Syriana', 'Lions For Lambs', 'United 93' and more recently 'The Kite Runner'. Also the Bourne films show us this criticism when the CIA wants to adopt operation 'Threadstone', no matter how bleak this will turn out for certain US citizens.
It is exactly the leading character from the Bourne franchise who perfectly succeeded at showing us the bleaker and grayer world of foreign politics and intelligence agencies.
But should Ian Fleming's character James Bond be used in the same way as Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne? It is true that since the start of the franchise in 1962 James Bond was more or less the same character. At times he was a bit darker and a bit grittier, but still a suave British spy. This was the case in 'The Living Daylights','On Her Majesty's Secret Service', 'From Russia With Love' and indeed 'Casino Royale'. But at times Bond also proved to be a funny Brit as well. 'Tomorrow Never Dies', 'Moonraker' and 'Live And Let Die' are good examples of such a Bond.
With 'Quantum Of Solace' however, the Bond producers did go too far in their ambition to set a new Bond-standard. Whereas 'Casino Royale' was, is and will be an instant classic in the future, the producers decided to go one step further in making Bond a villainous, bad- assassin using his fists instead of his high IQ. It was totally unnecessary.
Bond has always been a suave British agent, who only kills for Queen and Country if he needs to. But even in Fleming's first Bond novel he never threw a dead friend -René Mathis- in a dustbin. His Cambridge past would prevent him from adopting such disrespectful Jason Bourne-like acts. In Fleming's first Bond novel he's already quite a cool spy and never puts the British Secret Service in danger. But in 'Quantum Of Solace' MI6 has become an incompetent unbelievable detective agency. I would advice PM Brown to cut down money on Broccoli's and Wilson's version of MI6.
All other aspects in Bond's latest installment are there, but also quite blunted if I may say. Bond girl Camille is again a vengeful, kung-fu-like man girl who has been written as Bond's equal. It has been done before (Wai Lin, Jinx Jordan). But where are the real Bond girls who are not afraid of showing their feminine side? I do miss the Tracy's, Pussy's, Honey's and Vesper's of the Bond-franchise.
While 'Quantum Of Solace' lacks plot and a good developing storyline --It's one of the biggest weaknesses of the film. 'Quantum Of Solace' is depending way too much on 'Casino Royale's' storyline and adds a disproportional number of Bourne-like edited action sequences to it.-- the new crime syndicate QUANTUM could be a good starting point for the next Bond flick. Mr White is, luckily, still alive and he could easily be this century's Ernst Blofeld.
Unfortunately, 'Quantum Of Solace' will not be an instant classic in the near future. Film fans will always see this film as a trend follower, not a trend setter. And that's its biggest weakness. Bond films should be trend setters again, THE example for all other action-thriller franchises. James Bond will, hopefully, return in a real Fleming-thriller, not a Ludlum-thriller.
Rating as a James Bond film: 5.0/10.0 Rating as a general action thriller: 6.0/10