Quantum of Solace (08)
directed by Marc Forster
***1/4
disappointing
I was never a James Bond fan. That is, not until Casino Royale came along, with its gritty, realistic thrill ride, captivating plot and thoroughly impressive Bond. Some of that's still here, and Quantum is definitely an improvement on the franchise before Casino. But it suffers from serious flaws and as such may end up being just as forgettable as all of those Pierce Brosnan installments.
hits
First, what works. Daniel Craig continues to deliver dynamite as James Bond. I remember years ago being a little disappointed that he had been chosen over Clive Owen for the new Bond. Disappointed no more. Craig has a slow-burning intensity that he carries into each scene — we know this guy's more than some playboy with hi-tech toys. He's entirely believable in some of the most physical action scenes outside Bourne or Eastern Promises. And, for the ladies' sake, he is of course a powerful physical presence.
Judi Dench is great, too, as M. In fact, she seems to be getting better each Bond movie. Part mother figure, part elusive intelligence, she can control any scene with her steely eyes and beguiling voice. I can't think of any other movie where this kind of relationship exists between a man and a woman. It's fabulous.
And the action scenes: they're breathtaking. Bond wrestles a man through a glass-plate window and the two fall a storey down while the camera follows them. He rides a motorcycle off a pier and onto a nearby boat, again with the camera following him. I don't know how you can fake this kind of stuff. It's exhilarating.
misses
However, the film falls short. Let's start with where we left off: the action scenes. Some of them are brilliant. Some are not. Like the opening chase sequence, which gives us nothing we haven't seen before. It doesn't even use the advantages of the Bond look & feel: dynamic, seductive, compelling. Instead, it works with rapid cuts and veering camera angles. I couldn't even tell what was happening most of the time. Unfortunately, the same sense of lostness crept in again in some of the other action scenes.
Lostness? Did I mention that? It's what I felt almost the whole way through the film. The same writers stayed over from Casino Royale (a smart move), but for some reason, they seem to have lost their knack for storytelling (a bad move). The earlier film had a simple, powerful core to it (the showdown in Montenegro), with startling jumps out of that plot to immediately engaging (or even wincing) scenes. Quantum purportedly has a core to it, but it's theoretical: Bond is trying to figure out whether to take revenge for Vesper's murder. The last film had a menacing villain; this one has great French actor Mathieu Amalric playing...some guy...who's doing something...that must be bad. Oooohh.
blanks
One of the cool aspects is that this film starts about an hour after Casino Royale has finished. But you feel like your understanding of what's going on is just as muddled as Bond's mind must be after getting beat up, nearly killed a dozen times and getting over his girlfriend's murder/suicide. Why again is he following this Bolivian-girl-played-by-a-Russian-actress? Who is this Greene fellow, and how again did MI6 discover his group? Who is this guy Bond digs up in Italy, and why exactly would he trust him? This girl sent by the British Embassy — is she as dumb as she looks? One very clever move, among all these plot questions, is including American CIA agents among the plot's villains, a first I've seen in a film like this.
Ultimately, I was left a little puzzled. I was hoping to leave the movie all psyched up, ready to dance around the room and pretend for the next few days that I was a secret agent and someone was after me. I just didn't get that. Most people didn't. Which is why, I'm embarrassed to admit, Martin Campbell (Casino Royale, The Mask of Zorro) made a better Bond movie than the far-more-talented Marc Forster (Quantum, The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland, Stranger than Fiction, Monster's Ball). A shame, but there it is.
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