Quantum of Solace - Review
Daniel Craig - James Bond
Daniel Craig is by far my favorite James Bond. I was very excited to hear that he would be playing the part in Quantum of Solace, and also the next Bond film. I know that many people do not like this new Bond and prefer a more “old school” Bond actor, but for me Craig is great. I really feel that he brings a lot to the world of James Bond. Now that Craig has become James Bond, I haven’t been able to accept him in any other films, I think some of you may agree with me.
However, one thing that is not fine with me is how much they have screwed around with the new generation of James Bond. Changing the actor is one thing, but taking away the gadgets, taglines, and high-tech cars is not cool. I understand that times are changing, and I understand it has been a long time since the first James Bond, but you just can’t screw with an epic series. This is bigger than just screwing with the Star Wars trilogy (Which was also wrong).
Let me ask you this, what is the most memorable part of James Bond? Perhaps it is his introduction, “Bond, James Bond.” Well guess what, it is nowhere to be found in Quantum of Solace. Another memorable line is of course “Shaken, not stirred.” This is included in the film but spoken by a bartender, and not James Bond.
How could this happen? Quite possibly the two most memorable movie lines of all time were cut. I am not talking about some tagline from a crappy sequel that is going to bomb, we are talking James bond. If you ask someone on the street what film character says “Shaken, not stirred” I will guarantee that 9 out of 10 people will know the answer is James Bond, even people who are not Bond fans will know the answer. This was a huge disappointment for me. I for one am a huge Bond fan, and I just feel like those are elements that have to be worked into the film, no matter what. Cutting those two lines was like having Christmas without a Christmas tree. Sure, it is still Christmas, but it just isn’t the same.
The other two problems I have with the Quantum of Solace is the fact that James Bond doesn’t use any high tech gadgets, or have a luxury car packed to the max with weapons. Yeah, I know there is no more Q, but there has to be some way for Bond to aquire an awesome gadget, or at least an Ashton Martin with enough firepow to eliminate a small town. Yeah, I know Bond had a pretty cool cell phone, and MI6 did have an amazing computer system, but it just isn’t a Bond gadget.
James Bond
Now that I have gotten past my gripes about Quantum of Solace, maybe we can look at the positives.
The story was excellent. It was action packed but what not really a typical Bond story. The story picked up right where Casino Royale left off and hit the ground running. Towards the begining of the film I felt things were moving a bit slow, but once it got rolling, there was no stopping it.
The action flowed with the story very nice, but like I said it was very quick moving. Be sure to pay attention or you may miss something. This may be one of those films you need to watch twice to really “get it.” Personally I am going to see it again anyways, but not everyone is in love with movies like I am.
As I previously stated it really wasn’t a typical Bond film. There were many things I didn’t like, but it really wasn’t all bad. This Bond film really focused on Bond’s revenge. I thought this wouldn’t make a good Bond story, but man was I wrong. Not only was the story excellent, but I loved seeing what made Bond, Bond. I feel that this was a very important film for the franchise.
To be entirely honest this was the hardest review I have ever written. I wanted to write this lastnight after the screening but I just couldn’t. It was hard for me to decide if the omission of key Bond elements was enough to ruin the film for me. I did like the film, and I am glad it happened. As I said before I feel it was a very important step, and has really given some insight to Bond. It is still dissapointing though to sit and watch, and wait for the tagline “Bond, James Bond.”
So what is the final verdict? Quantum of Solace was a good James Bond film that I recommend everyone to see. But be prepared to be a little dissapointed. It isn;t the best Bond film, but I think it really set’s things up for another great film. Hey, you can’t win them all.
Think of this film like The Two Towers right after The Fellowship of the Ring. Fellowship can stand on its own as a film, Two Towers falls short of that (except for the special edition of the film). Watched back to back, Two Towers is bolstered and made better by Fellowship.
If you watched Quantum DIRECTLY after Casino you would think that this four hour movie is badass.
Yes exactly what I was gonna say Filmbook,,, this sounds like its part two of a continuous storyline…
I remember hearing that this was the last of the short stories Ian Flemming wrote,,,
Stan was the ending an obvious sequel (to be continued) ending?
Nice review for a second there I thought you hated it. :-)
How were the chase scenes. Didn’t he have a bad ass car?
@Film Book
I couldnt agree more. If Quantum of Solace, and Casino Royale were combined i would have had no complaints. I just think that every James Bond film should contain at least one gadget, and the catch phrases. But I do think it would blow me away to watch them back to back,
@790
Haha, no I didnt hate it. Overall I really enjoyed it. It really meant more to me being able to reflect back on Bond’s personality in the older films, and finally be able to see where it all comes from.
Yes, the ending is open for the sequel, and Craig is returning for another installment.
There were 3 very distinct chase scenes. An opening car chase, featuring the Bond traditional Ashton Martin (one trademark that wasnt cut thank god), A boat chase, and a foot chase. The only thing that would have made the chase scenes better would be the addition of a cool weapon or gadget.
Quantum of Solace is entertaining at least… a fantastic job with the styling and picture quality, but the movie as a whole could stand to lose six or seven fewer chase scenes
sure, why not. Take the action out of a Bond film. Great idea.
Daniel Craig is the sexyest man ever. and he is like 10000000 years older than me
I think I’ll watch “Casino Royale” again, just before seeing this.
Stan does this film give you any hint that you might just be a jump or two away from the “Dr. No” story? In tone, I mean, not story wise?
To be completely honest I didnt catch any hint towards the Dr No story. Perhaps I should rewatch Dr No just to be sure. It has been a while since I have seen it.
Since this is the start of a new James Bond series maybe he hasn’t yet picked up the tagline “Bond… James Bond,” which I am glad they left out as it is predictable and was over done. Also maybe they are trying to make the Bond series more believable (removing the gadgets, high-tech cars, and the ridiculous plotlines), as well as making the character, like most normal people, not drink the same drink for the rest of their life. The Bond series is evolving, change what you believe Bond to be or be prepared to be didappointed for years to come.
Stan, I think Crossby nailed it,!!!
:-)
I see this as a whole new rebirth of the franchise. Just like the New Doctor Who series!!!
Yeah I just got back from seeing it and it was great!!
“Stan” on the gadgets, I got the impression that Bond simply didn’t have time… The entire film is a grand chase.
Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers
Ahead !!!!!!
He did have that handy HK223 assault rifle. I loved the way he took out those bastards in the first chase.
Yeah this totally felt like the middle of a story arc. In this chapter he has to come to grips with the loss of Vespar. I liked how he was using the excuse to go after the main villain,(I think his name was Mr White.) Because one of his henchmen almost killed “M” at the beginning of the film…
He was really just super pissed that Vespar was dead as he kept uncovering information that she had died to save him.
I thought this film was better than the first one as we are seeing the evolution of James Bond, as these 2 Daniel Craig Bond films are a completely fresh beginning.
I think the gadgets and uber villains are going to only amp as we continue in the sequels.
Also,,,
The wake of dead has got to be record setting in this film. When Bond asks you who you work for? You better tell him !!! Or he will kill you!!! Bond doesn’t take any shit in this film… He makes Jack Bauer look like a humanitarian… :-)
watching Casino Royale again, and I have to say that its better than Quantum afterall.
I forgot how well done this movie is!!!!
But Quantum kicks ass!!
Great sequel and I’m gonna try to see it again.
I agree with 790 on this one man, it was way too “busy” to have any cool gadgets. And maybe they just don’t feel right putting them in there with Q dead and all. I don’t like this one more than Casio but it is still pretty badass as far as nonstop action from beginning to end. I think there was a total of 2 minutes without anything really going on so it gets my approval for another installment if they will be anything like this one.
Oh and Stan, its Aston Martin, with no H….LOL, sorry I had too man, I have been away too long.
Well I checked it out this week and the Sony C902 mobile phone was a good enough gadget for me! Was there anything you couldn’t do with it? Let’s see it GPSed Bond to a couple of places. Fingered, transmitted and downloaded all the bad guy profiles. It was also a high security scramble phone that seemed to work everywhere no matter what. Gee was the thing a cell phone or a new super small satellite phone? What does this tell us? Maybe technology is so powerful now, everybody or anybody can own enough of the right gadgets to be a spy. How did you like Microsoft’s new table top touch sensitive computer?
Gadgets aside, I think people have been judging this movie way too harshly. I do think that greater impact could have been had out of the score. The homage scene was missing the music necessary to give it the punch it deserved. They need to fire the composer, sadly he didn’t deliver like in “Royale.” The action was good and although the skylight crash was a bit of a stretch, unlike others, I found it was made up for by the interesting instances of misdirection. I thought a certain person was going to get trampled by the horses for sure! Which no doubt was suppose to be a nod to the rink and race scenes “In Her Majesties Secret Service.” There was an additional action scene that was an obvious nod to a stunt in “Moonraker” which didn’t come off as well this time.
I never felt rushed through the expository, read, talking head scenes. I thought they were intelligent and to the point. They even wrote in an explanation of M’s actions to a CIA phone call, that would have been a little confusing about how she handled it otherwise. CIA’s go to guy Felix Leiter is in this one too. I liked the grittier slightly hostile attitude towards Bond, who’s seemingly operating like a loose canon in our hemisphere this time around.
Stories about hydraulic despotism are interesting to me, so while some might have been put off by the story, I was quite comfortable with it. I also thought the final face to face off was satisfying. It vindicated Bond’s actions and explained why the signature Kill-Shot was at the end as well. Not a perfect Bond movie but certainly worth 3 1/2 out of five shaving for disappointments in the scoring and for the clumsy skydiving scene.
OK. Perhaps my last comments were really a review of Casino not having seen QoS. Now I have seen it and there are so many problems with it I do not know where to begin. All the chases are herkey, jerky, shaky stuccato film clips. You can never really see what is going on. This is contrary to the taditional Bond flick replete with detail. And if Craig is gritty, moody, mean & vindictive one can still see a path by which he becomes a cooler if not cold uber-professional agent with a dry, sardonic sense of humor. This Bond clearly appeals to a feminine perspective that escapes me. I understood him not becoming ‘involved’ with the other women in the 2 flicks as having high standards and was at least relieved to see his response to Fields as, what we would term a normal orientation! (The women seem to love that Bond does NOT ‘hook up’ with the main girl in either film and broods ceaselessly like a forlorn Hamlet for his unrequited lover from Casino). Even the opening chase, usually one of the best, is almost visually incomprehensible. Car chase, rooftop chase, sewer chase, apartment knife fight chase, boat chase, plane chase, Chase-Morgan, certainly they all were purloined from the Bourne genre but somehow Bourne’s were more believable.
The opening graphics were not as bad as I feared, but were definitely not 007 quality. Far too much of Craig shooting his Walther PPK .380; (don’t make me go into why that is a problem). We have grown accustomed to the sultry, sexual/sensual and awesome graphical intro to the Bond films. This one was not of the same caliber. Ditto on the theme song. It was not a good as past songs but I was fearing worse and it was actually passable relating somewhat to the general theme of the film. The barrel scene was placed at the end of the film. I prefer the beginning but in either case it should be presented with high quality graphics and punctuated with 007 theme song riffs. It was not.
Lots of chases. Most are barely watchable. I actually liked the reference to the traditional 13th century Italian Palio horse race in which the riders can use their longer wooden canes to encourage their steeds or discourage their opponents; and the actual event was supposed to be occurring outside of the chase area.
The knife fight was lame. How did the baddie die anyhow? Please tell me not with the little pair of cuticle scissors Bond had. And if the death blow was to the only wounded area shown, the left jugular, where did all the blood go as Bond let him ‘bleed out’. Not to worry the details because we are soon introduced to THE BOND GIRL. Well, a little anti-climatic because she is not quite as attractive as we are used to although she has very pretty lips. The rest of her seems strangely disproportionate for some reason. It’s also strange that she would return to the baddie who just tried to have her whacked. That has little probability for success for someone who we later learn is “Bolivian Secret Service”. Oh well, not to worry, we are off on another chase, this time with boats. It is perhaps the best done but for the last scene in which the grappling hook is somehow thrown onto the rubber speed boat and flips it from the front of Bond’s boat over the top to the rear…… can’t quite figure the physics out on that one. Not to worry, we’ve docked and Bond mysteriously hands the unconscious maiden who he has just rescued over to a dock attendant…what?
Well were off to track this baddie and somehow reconnected with the GIRL in Bolivia where we eventually learn that the baddie, Mr. Greene of the evil Greene corporation in conjunction with the even eviler Quantum Criminal Consortium LLC has concocted a plot wreaking with the venom of true corporate greed, evil capitalism and nefarious financier-ship; to wit, steal all the fresh water in where? Why Bolivia of course and sell it back to them Bolivians at double the price! MUAHHAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh). We learn at a big party that times are tough in Bolivia because it is costing a weeks wages for an average Bolivian to buy a gallon of clean water! As I remember, the average Bolivian earns about $0.25 per day making the water cost about $1.75 a gallon; pretty much on par with market values in Cleveland. Perhaps this is not the best country for our get richer quicker scheme.
No matter, we are off to the evil opera where the evil baddies are meeting to plan, well, evil. This is where we juxtapose a modernistic version of the Tosca operatic bloodshed whilst Bond dabbles in the real thing dispatching the body guards of the evil biggies who, now discovered & uncovered, are making a hasty retreat for the exits faster than attendees at an Al Gore speech.
No matter, while in Bolivia we are matroned by the closest thing to a real Bond girl, agent Fields. Unfortunately we never really figure out what is beneath that trenchcoat although it appears that Bond does. Also unfortunately for Fields and us, she is quickly eliminated by the baddies in what can only be termed as a ‘crude’ theft of the Goldfinger modus operandi. I would have expected more of a mess but why waste camera time on the slickened Fields when you can spend it on bathroom scenes with….who else….M of course. Perhaps the most difficult what seemed to be15 minutes of the film (as if minutes were hours Mr. Spock) was watching M in her bathrobe apply & remove cold creme. The threat itself would have sent Mr. Greene permanently into pro bono philanthropy. Not finished with us yet, M draws her bath and the tension in the theater built noticeably as we all began to fear that we would be greeted with an au natural scene of her slipping out of the robe into the tub. Fortunately we were spared that experience (wait for the unedited version coming to DVD soon!). However, it just calls into question what fob with a mommy complex of some sort is calling the shots in these films.
M continues to demonstrate why she should not be “M” vacillating from suspecting Bond to needing him back in 00 some 4-5 times during the movie. We did get a glimpse into the possible personality of M’s hubby when he meekly announced, “the calls for you dear on your private line”. Whatever.
M may welcome Bond back with open arms or have him captured or killed, no matter, the BOND GIRL is rescuing Bond in her getaway car, a 1964 VW Beetle. I guess the Bolivian Secret Service does not get to roll like the 00’s in MI6. At least it was a 40HP!
No matter. We are now off to a hotel in the middle of a high plains Bolivian desert. Time to charter a plane…no, not the little Beachcraft Bonanza that would actually be faster and more maneuverable. Choose the DC-3 with a load of cargo on board. Watch out though, you’ll get shot down by the Bolvian Air Force in a single engine Cessna. I guess the BAF doesn’t get to roll like the 00’s at MI6 either.
No matter because they are both jumping out of that crate with the only parachute. Somehow everything turns out ok after wrestling for 10,000 feet with the BOND GIRL & parachute falling at 120 MPH because the chute opens 20 feet off of our LZ, a nice big soft slab of granite. BTW, the BOND GIRL walks for miles on granite stones in her bare feat…she’s a hearty lass.
It’s off the hotel to find the baddies. The hotel, located in the high plains desert of Bolivia, is called the Plaza del Sol. It is completely self-sufficient and powered by…solar….no you idiot, hydrogen fuel cells. In fact, each room appears to have its own hydrogen fuel cell and its accompanying hydrogen supply tank. The maids must make your bed and refill your hydrogen tank when they replace the shampoo in the bath, I guess. Naturally the hotel, located in the high plains Bolivian desert is made substantially of steel & stone. Unfortunately, the steel & stone in Bolivia is not quite as durable as the steel & stone you and I have grown to love as we discover when Bond causes a baddie car to crash through a wall igniting a hydrogen tank. The rest of the hydrogen tanks ignite sequentially. Darn it, I hate when that happens, you just can’t get good hydrogen tanks anymore. Again, unfortunately, the Bolivian steel & stone burns more like paper mache. Bond battles the Greene baddie but aborts to rescue the BOND GIRL who is caught up in her own subplot vendetta too trite to be explained here. Mr. Greene escapes into the desert only to meet a cryptic fate induced by other unknown baddies and Bond’s 10W-40 payback for the treatment of luscious Agent Fields.
You would be better off waiting for this to hit DVD. At least then you can slo-mo or replay the chase scenes making sense of them, spend more time with the slick Agent Fields and most importantly, FFW or skip over M’s bathroom escapades. You have been warned.
I think I must have blacked out during the M bathroom scenes….
After reading your comments S, I think I’m having second thoughts about this being in my top 10. Lol,,,
Awesome post S! I think you have removed all doubt for me too! Thanks