Movie review - Quantum of Solace

Woah ho ho!!! This is a movie that grabs you by the scruff of your neck right at the beginning and doesn't let go until the ending credits! Picking up literally right after Casino Royale, we follow James Bond's search for explanations and vengeance for Vesper Lynd and on the way we pick up two more storylines involving the control of natural resources.

I've read a few reviews saying that this is possibly one of the worst Bond movies ever. I disagree. While it is definitely not as good as Casino Royale, it's certainly not as bad as say A View To A Kill. Okay sure, the story is a bit of a mess - Quantum is actually three storylines - Bond's revenge story, Camille's (Olga Kurylenko) revenge, and hunting down the villian of this piece, fake environmentalist Dominic Greene (Matheiu Amalric). It definitely lacks the clarity of CR and the linkages don't really add up until the second half. It probably also doesn't help that you need to be really familiar with CR for it to make any sense. Having said that, once you think about the story, you realise it was all blended very cleverly together and unveils and evil organisation (QUANTUM) setting the scene for a good company of villains for future stories - hopefully no more media moguls starting wars just to sell newspapers!!!

One common criticism I've come across about Quantum is that the plot merely serves to link a number of action sequences and that it's become more like the Bourne Trilogy. To a degree, that's true. The new action Bond definitely owes a debt to Bourne as seen in the *gritty* quality of the fights seen in the use of everyday objects as weapons, the quick editing, the quick change in locales, etc. The editing was sometimes an issue as I did find it hard to distinguish who was Bond in these dirty fights. There are a lot of action sequences compared to the other movies and given the short (106 minute) running time, it might seem like a continuous fight.This wasn't an issue for me, although dancinghula might disagree so I guess it's a matter of perspective.

So onto the bad things...The villian Greene, was certainly slimy but not as interesting or badass as LeChiffre, Blofeld, Jaws and so forth. The only reasoning I can see for his actions is that he's a greedy opportunist. Gemma Arterton was pretty much a waste other than to bring Bond back to the 'good ol' days' of Bond girls who had weird names (Strawberry Fields), slept with Bond (fair enough), and died in strange ways (covered in oil - call out to Goldfinger!). Also, I miss Mr Moneypenny!

I'd like to finish by making a comment about Daniel Craig's wardrobe in this movie. Designed by Tom Ford, it is fantastic!!! There were points where I was thinking during the movie *wow, that's a great shirt/suit/tie*, particularly his outfit in the last scene, pictured below. Mmmm-mmm! The Pom says it's all down to the man wearing the suit (methinks he has a case of the man-crush for Craig), but if you put a good man in a shit suit, he's still a man wearing a shit suit.

(Source)

So yes, an action packed movie from the get-go which kicks off like an angry mule with an awesome car chase through the tunnels of northern Italy (Aston Martin DBS vs Alfa Romeo!), and keeps on punching (like Bond himself) throughout the movie. Actually, I lie - the movie does suck in one major place: during the opening credits. I loved Chris Cornell's song for Casino Royale, but I really hate the song by Jack White for Quantum. It's terrible.
7.5/10