Quantum of Solace fails to live up to the promise of Casino Royale however I will try to view the film as an its own entity as much as I can. It would be a lie to say however that it wasn’t a huge disappointment. Casino Royale proved that you could do a reboot well and inject fresh, new energy into the franchise and hint at a more serialized storyline. QoS feels like an afterthought. There are some lingering vestiges of the prior film, but the plot pays these little more than face value as it pushes its own story forward. This would be fine if the story was engaging and interesting but it all feels lackluster and rote similar in vein to The World is Not Enough.
The film is trying to serve two stories so it has plenty of material to cover yet so much feels like filler given it has the shortest runtime in the franchise. Bond is recovering from Vesper’s betrayal and seeking revenge for those who led to her death and there is a super-secret criminal organization out there operating on a global scale. The opening interrogation scene with Mr. White sets the stage for this mysterious and influential shadow organization. But on reflection you realize, none of this makes sense. They have people everywhere including the personal bodyguard of the MI6, they do work for hire across the globe for any number or terrorists or would be dictators, yet no one has even an inkling that they exist, even as the CIA is dealing with them face to face. Also, every member we meet keeps talking up their organization and its abilities.
The other strand is Bond’s revenge plot and I don’t know what happened here. The film spends so much time telling us that Bond is running around in a frenzy killing everyone he comes across because he’s full of anger. Yet, that’s not what we see on screen. It’s debatable if he purposefully murders every lead he comes across as each lead requires yet another perfunctory action sequence that results in death for the bad guy. The action was used sparingly in CR but here it’s almost on a timer for when a new action scene is needed. Couple that with the frenetic editing where it’s unclear what is happening in the scene or where each person is in relation to one another, and it gets old really fast. The CGI is also a lot more blatant in these scenes which takes you out of the moment no matter how unique the sequence might be. I’m thinking of the aerial combat scene in Italy as an example.
Craig performs decent enough here but the twinkle that made him interesting to watch in his debut is gone. And while you could attribute that to what has happened to him, his whole performance seems more mechanical as he appears to be going through the motions. He mourns Vesper so deeply yet jumps into bed with the first woman he meets because Bond gotta bang. He comforts his dying friend(?) Mathis just to then drop him without a thought in a dumpster. I don’t blame Craig for this entirely as the script seems unsure if it wants Bond to be overwhelmed by this sense of loss or just a thoughtless killing machine. So Craig plays it somewhere in the middle where we get almost no emotion sand a lot of the deaths are results of circumstance and not intentional so you don’t buy the “Bond on a rampage” they keep telling us is happening.
I don’t have much else to say. The whole film felt like a slog and even the parts I could have used to elevate my opinion of it are squashed pretty handily. Mathis makes a welcome return and I actually really liked the scene between him and Bond on the plane. I wish they kept him around for longer because I liked the idea of this older spy who could serve as a mentor to Bond even while there is this hint of distrust between them. But no, not only does that scene have to end with some weird editing, he’s summarily killed in the next sequence. Speaking of, the editing was noticeable throughout the film and not in a good way. The multiple scenes of cross cutting were distracting but even in the quiet moments the camera cannot just be still and jumps from one shot to the next.
Camille was a serviceable Bond Girl and Olga Kurylenko does well with the material she is given. She’s just not given much to do. She disappears after her introduction and only reappears again because the plot requires her to. So I was fine that the film didn’t end with them in bed. It makes sense given he’s in mourning and they spend almost no time together. The scene where he comforts her in the burning hotel room was really well done. There was a more intimate connection there than you would get in a sex scene. This further highlights why the Fields sex scene was so out of place for this film but Bond gotta bang.
I’m going to give Quantum of Solace a 5/10. As I stated, it wasn’t just un-engaging but it almost works hard to rub you the wrong way. The script has its intentions clear but the building blocks to fulfill those intentions are either half-assed or completely contrary to what is actually happening on the screen. They took so much of what felt fresh from Craig’s first film and either dulled it down or eliminated it completely. I still think the theme song is one of the most laughable of the franchise. It’s not the song is horrible, it’s just so out of place. Shoutout to the Stana Katic cameo at the end!
Current Rankings:
1) On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
2) From Russia with Love
3) Casino Royale
4) Goldfinger
5) For Your Eyes Only
6) The Living Daylights
7) The Spy Who Loved Me
8) GoldenEye
9) Thunderball
10) Dr. No
11) Licence to Kill
12) Octopussy
13) Live and Let Die
14) Tomorrow Never Dies
15) You Only Live Twice
16) Quantum of Solace
17) The World is Not Enough
18) The Man with the Golden Gun
19) A View to a Kill
20) Moonraker
21) Diamonds are Forever
22) Die Another Day
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