Inferior, but not bad

Rating: 6/10 (5 November 2015)

"Quantum of Solace" is a James Bond movie from 7 years ago. I am a great fan of the franchise and also of Daniel Craig's take on the role, so I was very excited when I watched this one shortly after it opened in theaters. I remember I was extremely disappointed. Now, over 5 years later, I gave it another watch and I must say I am not that disappointed really this time. It is a decent little movie, even if it is clearly inferior to "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall". I thought it was time to give this one another watch with "Spectre" about to come out. "Quantum of Solace" is a pretty short Bond movie, it stays clearly under the 110-minute mark. This is not a criticism though as these films usually manage to be more essential. What I really did not like about this one here, however, is the song by Jack Black and Alicia Keys. In my opinion, it is the worst Bond song in history and such a letdown after Chris Cornell's amazing contribution to the previous movie.
The director here is the German-born Marc Forster and he was probably picked because of his good jobs on "Monster's Ball", "Finding Neverland", "Stranger than Fiction" and "The Kite Runner". However, his work on Bond is underwhelming. The story is not too different than usual. Bond spends most of the movie in Italy, but we also see him in Russia and Haiti this time. The ending was actually in Russia and it was possibly the best part of the film. Everything in-between was decent as well, but somehow there was not a single moment or scene that was truly great and that's a rarity in Bond films for me. I like Mathieu Amalric as an actor, but I am not so sure if I liked his turn as a villain here. He never seemed really on par with Bond unlike LeChiffre or Franz Sanchez in previous films. Olga Kurylenko is easy on the eyes, but her revenge story did not do too much for me either. There was just nothing new about it somehow and she also does not seem like the greatest actress to me. In my opinion, Gemma Arterton stole this film in terms of Bond girls.
My final verdict is that you really have to love Bond in order to appreciate this film here. I do and that is why I liked it, even if I like "Casino Royale" and "Skyfall" way more. Talking about Skyfall, there is also no really epic location in this one here like the castle or like the Casino in "Casino Royale". Craig's worst Bond probably and only a good watch if you really dig the franchise. Not a great surprise Forster did not return.