We are in a very different place to what we were 2 years ago. Casino Royale had been given rave reviews by the press, Daniel Craig had been hailed the best actor to inhabit the role since Connery and some critics were proclaiming him the best yet and well known Bond aficionado Graham Rye had delivered a 10/10 review. He had been long known to have more time for the Connery films than anything else so his review of Royale was high praise indeed. Fast forward nearly 2 years later to when the 22nd Bond film Quantum of Solace has been presented to the press and the reviews have been mixed to say the least, yes there has been raves but for 2 good reviews there's been 2 bad reviews. Rye also delivered a damning 1/10 and declared it Quantum of the Souless (catchy). Mark Kermode's angry rant was also another strike against QOS.
So is Quantum of Solace any good? I can only give you my opinion and I'm not as eloquent as Zorin and ACE so all can say is what I feel. From the start this is no Royale but I'm not sure it's supposed to be . I don't mind admitting that I thought all was in place for Craig to top Royale but alas Quantum will have to remain just a great entry instead of the second coming although I think if suffers from the fact it has to bookend Royale and that film had the dramatic weight to it, this is really just a continuation of the story.
This is a first for the series as QOS picks up only an hour after the closing events of Casino Royale when Bond has put a bullet in Mr White's leg and introduced himself and Bond is looking for revenge for the death of his lover Vesper Lynd or so the impression is given, there is a bit more than just a revenge story here and Craig's Bond continues to develop throughout
First off It would be wrong to say that Casino Royale did not take a page from the Bourne series and Quantum of Solace wears that influence a little more blatantly, not surprising really considering Dan Bradley is the 2nd unit Director, well known for his action set piece in that other spy series. I guess it easy to get angry about the comparrisons and try deny it I know I have tried to but quite a few of the action sequence bear the hall mark of the Bourne films.
The opening pre title sequence is an adrenaline rush of a car chase and there's no explanation for who it is is pursuing Bond all I can say is you better of watched it's predecessor or you might wonder what the hell is going on, this is not sequel which will pander to the audience and takes for granted you aware of certain facts as soon as it starts, not the usual treatment of a Hollywood blockbuster. Its over before you know it, yes bit of a blur, the fast cutting somewhat disorientating but maybe that was the point, the Bourne films have the same effect on me but it's one brutal chase. It's only by the time Bond arrives in Sienna we realise Bond has a passenger in his boot, Craig gets his first chance to display his deadpan wit to his passenger and the film freeze frames and gives way to MK12's opening title credit sequence. A throw back to the Maurice Binder style, reinstating the babes writhing about and Craig's Bond shooting is gun alot, it's impressive and MK12 give it their own slant using the desert as their back drop they also havea unique way of changing the font for each title when we enter a diffrent country throughtout the film, it's refreshing and a first for the series but yes I prefered Daniel Kleinman's brilliant love it or hate titles for Royale. I'm not one of the haters of Jack White's theme but it does seem to edited rather strangely to fit into the title sequence's time frame.
The complaints that this film does not slow down are not without merit. No sooner has Craig bought Mr White in for questioning and Bond is off pursuing a member of MI6 that even M is flabergasted to find out is a member of the organisation which Mr White says "has people everywhere".
The drop back of the Sienna Palio Horse race while Bond pursues MI6 double agent Mitchell is a new presentation for the series and after leaping over roofs and balconies comes to a climatic show down crashing through a cathedral glass roof, it's most probably the money shot of the film and looks most impressive. Bond and Mitchel both grappling to see who can retrieve their guns is full of tension with only one obvious winner, Bond returning to find White having escaped.
I do think it would have been nice to slow it down a bit the amount time taken to get from the roof top sequence in Sienna a lead from Mitchel takes them to London to a high tech MI6 headquaters to the brutal hotel room fight were Bond yet again ends up killing someone, a running joke throughout the film. Bond then meets Olga Kurylenko's Camile who mistakes him for an assasin and realises her lover Dominic Greene has paid to have her killed by the man Bond has just killed.
There is a brief moment of dialogue to introduce the villain Mathieu Almaric's Dominic Greene and we get a good bit of the plot through converstions betwenn Greene and Camile and Joaquin Cosio evil General Medrano, it's not the usual exposition we're used too it requires you concentrate before we go at full throttle into the exciting Hati speed boat chase with none of the usual series bloat, Bond goes from bike to boat in no time.
If your looking for the usual signposted Bond plot forget it, Mark Forster expects the audience to work a little and those complaints there is no plot were unfounded to me it's just Bond's journey is the parmount concern to the film and Forster isn't afraid to let everything become background for that reason.
Although the villains plot goes as thus as far as I can see, Quantum will overthrow the current Bolivian Gouvernment and help instate Medrano in exchange for a supposed barren piece of desert land. Although Quantum somewhat more devious than Medrano's thinks. The moment we see Medrano realise the the outcome of the deal gives Alamaric a real moment to really shine in is underwritten but effective role, his lines of dialogue to Cosio's General show his pure delight in informing him of the situation Medrano now finds himself in and has no other decision but to take it.
Craig is the main concern, It is his film and to be honest it a relief to see a film like Royale was before which is about Bond rather than being a device to get from one bang to the next littered with cliches and no surprises. He is one intense Bond but has a skill for delivering some great dead pan lines, his moments with Arthertons's Fields have some great moments of humour, unfortunatley reviews only see humour when it the usual corny smut so you'd think from some peoples view the film was devoid of it, it isn't, it's just not pasted on with a trowel like some have come to expect.
The Bregenz Tosca Opera sequence is indeed a highlight. Members of Quantum including Greene and the escaped White are here to communicate the latest developments in their latest scheme in what they think is secret but Craig's Bond makes it perfectly clear as he announces to them they should really find somewhere else to discuss their plans, again Craig utilising that deadpan delivery before we go into an imaginative shoot soundtracked by Tosca with Forster utilising a touch of Coppola & De Palma in his execution, there will be those who thinks it has no place in a Bond film but it give the series a new look and shakes up the stale formula.
Events ensue recalling Spy Who Loved Me of all things, Bond fans should spot the reference, it's not difficult, after the Tosca sequence which see Bond told to come in for a debriefing by M which he naturally ignores and is declared a rogue agent with all his credit cards and passports suspened, Greene has not only manipulated the CIA including Gregg Beam a brilliantly slimey David Harbour and his colleague one Felix Leiter a returning Jeffey Lewis who is uncomfortable about geting into bed with Greene who tries to use the CIA to get rid of Bond.
The film slows down when Bond has to retain the service of his former collegaue Rene Mathis, a returning Giancarlo Giannini, Bond suspected him a traitor after events in Royale, it's your own fault if you don't watch it again or remember the events, this film very much hangs on you knowing what happened, it's a sequel for pete's sake.
Bond enlists Mathis's help to get close to Greene & Quantum, a nice piece of dialogue between the both of them recalling some pure Fleming. Bond and Mathis then head for Bolivia for Bond to be met by Consulate employee Fields who has orders to put Bond on a plane back to London.
The moments between Bond & Fields are brief but sprinkled with some nice humour and the bed scene is surprisingly played off camera. Maybe part of Bond trying to shake off Vesper's hold on him and not really gone into to much and maybe could have been developed more as Fields character like most are underwritten.
Mathis gets Bond an invite to a Dominic Greene fundraiser and ends up hooking up with Camile again, saving her from a likely dispatching by Greene after she embarasses him, Then we get to close the book on what side Mathis is on, it's subtle and quite touching and some might not see the first time round.
The following Plane sequence is thrilling and contains lots of fast cutting closing with the spectacular free fall moment, Bond & Camille get a chance to reflect for a moment and then he discovers Quantum & Greene's real goal and motivation.
The much publicised Goldfinger homage is no where near as copycat as the media might have let on, it's alot darker and isn't just an impressive set piece it helps to tell Bond's story and try and throw M off the real goal of Quantum's scheme the oil reference is misdirection and Bond tries to communicate this.
The film is short and it shows Forster intended to be like a bullet and it hurstles to it's explosive climax, Forster isn't showing everything, Bond's torture of Greene to extract information is shown off screen and we get a morsel of the details Greene has given up before Bond gets his answer although you have a feeling he hasn't got revenge because of his motivation towards duty although it may seem somewhat misguided to some, he does learn from his mistakes and his treatment of Greene & Yusef make this clear.
I guess the idea of withholding what Bond knows from the audience could be annoying to some but maybe the witholding of this is going to pay off in a future entry and not necessarily the next one, yes it answers quite a few questions but it also isn't afraid to leave some open and present some more, (Mr White ?) this after all looks like the beginning of Bond's pursuit of the elusive Quantum Organisation.
As I've already said this is Craig's film and he dominates it, he doesn't get the wide emotional pallete that Royale afforded him but he's still developing athough you get the impression by the end of the film things might well start to lighten up as the Bond personality we all know will start to emerge, Camille tells him there is something horribly efficient about him. The moment he disable a whole lift full of agents and then manages to avoid capture to be confronted by M, he tells her he needs to see it through is a highlight for me and her exchange with Rory Kinnear's Tanner gave me a warm smile, she does trust him and she's willing to put herself on the line for him to prove her right. Dench has never been better and the developments with her relationship with Craig's Bond make me want her to continue as M at least for another entry, her and Craig have an electric chemistry and Camilles' line about her being his Mother rings true. Dench's a diffrent kind of M to Bernard Lee's but it's just right for this time and is nothing but a plus to the development of her relationship with Her Agent, as she so well puts it.
Olga Kurylenko doesn't get the breakout performance of Eva Green as Vesper but she can rightly stand next to Green's & Diana Rigg's Tracy as one of the best of the series, yes the script could have ellaborated more on her character but she impresses throughout, a great future hopefully is assured for this actress with the right roles.
Mathieu Alamaric's Dominic Greene like Olga's Camille is underwritten but he does fine with his role, from the moment he appears he exudes an oily charm but a dark intelligent mind is at work underneath and he comes across as one of the most viscious Bond villains of the series, recalling a young Roman Polanski as some have already mentioned. His exchanges between Cosio's Medrano are a highight especially the final one as mentioned earlier.
The return of Giancarlo Giannini as Rene Mathis, Jeffrey Lewis as Felix leiter and Jesper Christensen as the mysterious Mr White are dividends for the movie, Christensen gets a chance to really un-nerve M in his brief interrogation and definitely begs for more exposure in future entries. Giannini's Mathis is a diffrent one to Fleming's and the script writers have different ideas with is situation but Giannini gives him gravitas the heroes & villains line evokes Fleming and his last exchange between him and Bond is a touching coda to their relationship. Wright's Leiter once again could do with more screen time but makes the most of it, the obvious disgust on his face when his superior Gregg Beam played with slimy arroagnce by David Harbour is happy to deal with Greene's obvious villain is spot on, the line exchanged between the 2 after they land in Bregenz touches on the fact this Bond era is willing to get a little political and is echoed again in an Exchange between M & Tim Piggot Smith's Secretary of Defense. Wright is the series best Leiter to date and I really hope he gets a chance to develop because he seems least lackey of Bond of any of the acors who've portrayed the CIA agent, even Jack Lord's initially cool Leiter emerges as a Bond inferior by the end of Dr No, something Wright doesn't give the impression of and there is no reason why they can't be on the same level and his brief and only exchanges between Bond make for an amusing phone call as well as a very brief drink together.
It's not clear who is responsible for what when it comes to the script, Neil Purvis & Robert Wade's script was apparently re-written by Paul Haggis. Yes it's more economic than Royale's and maybe it's the fact the dialogue at times is better than Casino's that I wanted more.
As for the humour which supposedly not on display, Craig's Bond is becoming extremley adept at delvering the same kind of lines which Richard Maibum armed Connery with in the earlier entries yet Craig to me does even more effectively and they aren't corny or forced like Connery's later ones became.
David Arnold's score shows him finally trying to break free of the usual Barry lite rip offs, it's not paticularly memorable like a Barry score and I wonder if anyone will ever manage but it drives the film along, the use of percussion and guitar are an interesting addition to his style. The Bond theme is again saved to the credits as his more controversially the Gun Barrel but to me it makes perfect narritive sense to do this, the tone of the film just wouldn't have sit right with a moment with Monty Norman's John Barry arranged all guns blazing theme but I do want my JB theme moment next time.
As for the original ending leaving the film in a cliffhanger type state that Royale did, I think the decison to give the story it's conclusion with Bond's final sign off gives the series a chance to maybe lighten things a little, Craig has already talked of being happy with the elements returning but he wants them to be part of the story not tick box list of cliches that the previous Bond's tenure thrived on.
With Michael G Wilson stating they will start looking at ideas early 2009 and hints of Moneypenny & Q returning the tradionalists maywell get there wish, as long as it's not at the expense of the work Craig & EON have done to develop the character then I'll be happy. I've a feeling like Licence to Kill, Quantum of Solace will be a controvercial entry in the series which will polarise fans but there is no denying it was a brave experiment that in my view is pulled off.
4/5
Edited by bond 16.05.72, 02 November 2008 - 06:48 PM.
