Bond takes a backslide

Rating: 4/10 (15 November 2008)

I can say I have not been as disappointed in a film in a long while as I was in "Quantum of Solace." From start to finish, the film was just plain poor. QS is plagued from start to finish with hyper-kinetic editing reminiscent of a Jason Bourne film. The on-screen action is difficult, if not impossible, to follow. The plot is muddled to the point of being incomprehensible. Water? Oil? Sand? Neal Purvis & Robert Wade have proved that, without an Ian Fleming novel to follow, they should not be allowed to craft any more Bond screenplays. All of the usual Bond elements that devoted viewers expect are either non-existent or sublimely sub par. The opening title and theme song? Poor. The Bond girl? Unnecessary. The villain? Ineffectual at best. At least the film does not turn into a self-parody like the latter Moore-era films. Daniel Craig is a terrific actor, but his Bond is trapped in a constant state of "Dalton-esque" peevishness.
One scene sums up the entire film. There is a shot of a young woman laying stretched out on a bed, dead and covered in crude oil. It is a blatant slap at the famous "Goldfinger" scene in which Jill Masterson was covered in gold paint. The symbolism here is striking. The franchise, once a precious metal in the film landscape and saved from death by the far-superior "Casino Royale," is now being blackened and polluted as one of so many brainless action films of the current era. This fan can only hope that "James Bond Will Return" to glory with the next installment.