REVIEW - Quantum of Solace

I know this review is late, but I'm playing catch-up here.

As Quantum of Solace begins, you wonder if the action is ever going to let up. We go from one action set piece to the next, all with the Bourne-style jittercam we all know and love, with precious little time to catch our breath and get acclimated. It's a little thing called in media res, and pretty much all the Bond films use it. It's pretty great as a structuring device. And since Quantum of Solace is pretty much a direct sequel to Casino Royale, structurally I guess you could look at Casino as an Act I for Quantum. They really are one long movie, content-wise.

But for some reason (lack of sleep?) I was amazed at how from the opening of Quantum it just never lets up; I don't think there's more than three minutes between each action set piece until like half an hour into the film. The pace seemingly never takes a break until we're so neck deep in plot that M absolutely has to stop Bond from killing people so they could talk about it.

From there the film gets into international intrigue, a supposed environmentalist is actually doing terrible things behind the scenes, etc., but honestly the plot really isn't the plot. James Bond is pretty pissed off about things in general is the plot. The rest is just a reason to get him here or there. I think there was room in this story for a more involved plot, like Casino Royale, but since this is either Act III to Casino or Casino was Act I to Quantum,...I have just confused myself.

Daniel Craig returns as the craggy-faced-yet-somehow-still-handsome secret agent 007, in a foul mood and seeking revenge for the death of Vesper Lynd and various other happenstances that the bad guys trouble him with. A lesser actor would just stomp around throwing stuntmen into breakaway furniture, glaring madly on occasion, maybe drooling a bit; but Craig has gone to the H. Ford School of Punch-Selling and Wry Comments. He's a good actor. Bond's still a "blunt instrument", but you can see in his eyes the flash of human-level intelligence, the gears turning.

He carries the entire film completely; his co-stars aren't really in the film all that much. The regular recurring characters pop in and out of the story as needed: M shows up with some exposition/dramatic tension; Felix Leiter has a bit of information here and there; Rene Mathis gets a few character moments; not much else. They're all pretty good, though I wished Jeffrey Wright's Leiter was able to do more with his character, but the point of Leiter in the film was that he couldn't do anything because of his retard boss, who was almost a plot twist himself: is he really as stupid as he seems?

Most Bond films follow the formula of two attractive females, a bad guy and a henchman. Olga Kurylenko plays a Bolivian with a chip on her shoulder and a general to assassinate, and Gemma Arterton is criminally underused as Miss (Strawberry) Fields of the British consulate, who apparently enjoys walking around La Paz in cowboy boots and a raincoat AND (apparently) NOTHING ELSE. This is a plot point that was sadly underdeveloped. Mathieu Amalric, who was so amazing in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has very little to do here apart from act like a shady businessman with a slight ego problem, but within the New Bond Universe he's at least one step closer to a Blofeld-style villain. His henchman does pretty much nothing except wear a stupid haircut and get tripped down a flight of steps. We are miles away from Richard Kiel or even Herve Villechaize on the henchman meter here.

I've read some criticism regarding the framing of some of the action sequences, and I was all ready to say "Yeah, whatever," but it's true. Some bits and pieces were tough to follow geographically. Usually it's an editing issue when this happens, but in the case of Quantum I think they could have used more wide shots instead of the constant tight close-ups of Daniel Craig's steely resolve. This is more than a minor quibble, but ultimately it didn't ruin the film for me.

Jack White and Alicia Keys do the opening theme song. It's okay. I think I actually liked Chris Cornell's work on the last one better; but really, without getting into a huge discussion of Bond themes, there's not much that holds a candle to the old Shirley Bassey stuff.

Ultimately, I thought Quantum of Solace was pretty okay, though not quite up to the high water mark set by Casino Royale. Here's hoping they can keep these films interesting without descending into Bourne-retread territory.