"Casino" was the height of the franchise, "Quantum" was the pits.

Rating: 4/10 (20 November 2008)

Stephen King was going to name "Casino Royale" as his second favorite Bond movie behind "Goldfinger." For the purpose of the article he was writing he re-watched "Goldfinger." He came back to the article and decided that "Casino" was the best instead.
I, too, loved "Casino Royale". Craig made me believe he was a professional killer, which no other Bond actor has ever done. Practical, cold, exacting, properly motivated. The screenwriter and the director homed in on those stylistic elements that made Bond fascinating to watch, eschewing gadgets in favor of the potency and novelty of Bond himself and keeping the action sequences at least reasonably within the limits of suspended disbelief.
None of these qualities were present in the mess that was "Quantam of Solace." It becomes apparent within the first few minutes that this movie was made by a different, inferior director. The suspense, the spy fetishism, the coolness factor of "Casino Royale" just weren't there. The film consists of only three relevant parts. The first, we find out the boring fact that Mr. White isn't the head of a SPECTRE-like org, he's just a pawn of it. Then we get a tidbit about Vespa's boyfriend. 40 minutes of routine, seen-it-before, Jason Bourne-ripoff crap later, we get closure on Mathis' role from the first movie. Another 40 minutes of cookie-cutter plot and then we get a sleepy resolution to the Vepsa sub-plot from the first movie.
The plot revelations are unstimulating and uncreative. The rooftop foot chases and boat races are unoriginal, the antique propeller plane vs. modern fighter w/skilled career pilot nonsense is predictable and an insult to the intelligence and attention span of the audience. The shaky-camera routine is a poor substitute for skillful editing and direction, just as the last Bourne movie was. M is demoted from an implied seasoned, ex-spy cum agency head to a befuddled, subservient student of Bond.
I understand that the studio pushed back the movie as long as it did because it didn't believe it had enough time to come up with good script. They obviously didn't push it back far enough.