Quantum Of Solace Review

[DixieKong]

I personally think Quantum Of Solace is the worst James Bond film. Yes, even worse than Die Another Day. Whereas Die Another Day went out of its way to be a Bond film to the point of overkill, Quantum Of Solace goes out of its way to NOT be a Bond film. Quantum Of Solace feels more like an unofficial Bond film than Never Say Never Again. Bland characters and locations, Bourne-inspired action scenes, a plot that's difficult to follow, no humour, and just no Bond feeling whatsoever. Why the producers decided to green-light this is beyond me. As Alan Partridge would say, "Stop getting Bond wrong!"

I have a book written by David Giammarco simply titled For Your Eyes Only, that gives an in-depth look at the Bond films from Dr.No to Die Another Day. In it, there's an interesting quote from Roger Moore. He says, "To me, the Bond situations were so outrageous that I had to treat the humour outrageously as well. The audience all knows James Bond is going to win. I know I'm going to win. So it became rather a wink at the audience, saying, 'Hey, look at this! How are we - not how am I - how are we going to get out of this now?"

And that was the fun part of the Bond films, because even though you knew he would win, it was always interesting to see how he would get of his bizarre and dangerous situations, whether it was by using gadgets, various skills, or his wits. With Quantum Of Solace this isn't the case, since the action scenes are so chopped up and shaky that it seems like Bond is moving at the speed of Sonic The Hedgehog. That elevator scene, for example, was laughable. Bond is handcuffed in an elevator with four bad guys, so you would think this would be an interesting fight for him, but it isn't. Instead there's a quick blur of animation, the bad guys all fall to the floor, and Bond is free. The elevator fight between Bond and Peter Franks in Diamonds Are Forever is far better, and at least there's a struggle and not a one-sided fight.

This so-called "reinventing" of the Bond series has done nothing but remove all the fun and awesome qualities that made the Bond films so enjoyable, and has split the fan base. I constantly see Classic Bond fans and Modern Bond fans arguing on the forums. After Die Another Day, the producers should have simply went for a more balanced approach for the next film, instead of rebooting the series altogether. This dark and dramatic approach isn't appealing for everyone.

If Pierce Brosnan's Bond career had been better, and had he really left his mark in the series like Sean Connery and Roger Moore, it would have been very interesting to see how well this new direction would have went. Because between coming in right after the poor quality of the Brosnan era, critical praise and aggressive studio marketing, it seems Daniel Craig has much more going for him than Timothy Dalton ever did.