Overly Complicated For A Bond Film

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2009)

Daniel Craig IS the new James Bond. He cemented that position with his opening volley in the 2006 release of CASINO ROYALE. A bit more hard edged. A bit more gloomy. But just as dangerous, Craig gives us a Bond we're probably going to enjoy for several years to come. We get the same tough guy here in QUANTUM OF SOLACE but with a story that has problems.
The good is that it picks up right where we left off with Casino Royale. We learn that a secret organization threatens the very government that Bond works for. Even to the point of shots being fired at M (Judi Dench, CRANFORD) by one of her own double-00s.
Bond, still pining and hating his old love Vesper, finds himself enjoying his work too much. Killing is becoming a habit ...and M and her superiors don't like it. But when Bond begins to dig up dirt on political higher ups, M pays quiet attention. It all starts in a third world country and Bond's fascination with a beautiful girl (no surprise there) named Camille (Olga Kurylenko). She's after the man who killed her family. Bond's after whoever it was who shot at M. Their two paths intersect in an unusual way: Bond feeling sympathy for her and wanting to help her get revenge. Her feeling a unique pull towards Bond's unflagging search for truth, regardless of the cost. All of this is taken up by an evil man named Mr. Greene (Mathieu Amalric, MUNICH) who's trying to control the world's most valuable resource (I won't give that away) while giving super-politicos whatever they want. But Bond is on to him, and with his help, Bond aids Camille in getting her revenge, while also getting Bond closer to Mr. Greene.
The biggest issue with the film, however, is the multiple threads that intertwine with Bond's actions. They are confusing in the extreme, making the watcher wonder what, exactly, is going on at various times. For instance, during a scene when Bond has to kill a man who happens to work for the British government, we never learn why this man got involved in the first place nor even who he was working for (clandestinely speaking). There's also a hotel that runs on fuel cells that goes boom! yet we don't know why this hotel is out in the middle of nowhere nor what fuel cells have to do with the storyline (yes, I know that fuel cells run on hydrogen, which can be gotten from water, but it still doesn't explain why it was out in a desert and not, say, along a river valley or near the ocean). There are other threads that also lead nowhere, but I'll leave you to discover what they were should you choose to watch this.
But make no mistake, it IS an action-packed, 007 flick in the vein of what we've come to expect from Bond films. But it's a bit overly complicated. Something to be aware of.