2 replies to this topic

[00Nothing]

It's here at last, if you live in the UK and certain parts of Europe that is, and it seems that everyone has an opinion on it. Reading comments from a large part of of members and other film critics, I felt compelled to put my own opinions out there, so here goes.

First of all Quantum of Solace is not as good as Casino Royale. Funny when I tell people that, their first response to me is 'so you were dissapointed then?'. No, not true. To me CR was off the scale great in terms of cinematic Bondage that any follow up was going to have a lot to live up to and QOS does so, it just misses hitting the area of greatness by a small measure particularly because with this film there is a small sense of business as usual coming off the heels of what was essentially a back to basics origin tale, a similar problem that befell this year's Batman movie The Dark Knight too if I may say so myself. The novelty of seeing Bond starting out in his career, falling in love and becoming the agent we know and love if offset here by continuing the Quantum story with a tale made up of action sequences, a villain with a cunning plan, copious amount of destruction and a high death count. It is essentially a Bond movie of old, only this time in the style that was set up in Casino Royale. The action is gritty, the stunts plausible (with one airplne jumping, parachuting exception). It does retain the psycholigical and emotional element that made CR so brilliant, and Craig does a fine line in grieveing revenge.

The film moves at such a fast pace that you find yourself wanting to pause for breath, especially in the first thirty to forty minutes that features at least four action sequences alone, and whilst the plot of a terrorist organisation planning to do something terrible with a natural resource feels like a throwback to the old days of Connery and SPECTRE (I've got a feeling Craig's Bond will be dealing with these goons for a couple more films to come), that's maybe the point. The climactic action sequence features the destruction of a gorgeous Ken Adam style set that seems to have been put together primarily for the fact that it would look gorgeous blowing it up.

A lot of the detractors seems to have hated the film for putting more style and spectacle to the forefront. It seems to me some of these critics have never seen a Bond film before. The film, to me, mixes the spectacle that one wants from a cinematic Bond, with the internal torment that one gets from a Fleming novel, something that the Dalton movies managed to do very well, although I have no doubt that QOS will do far better at the box office than LTK. Case in point. After the climactic action sequence, Bond tracks down Vesper's boyfriend and confronts him in his home, dressed in his best suit and coat and armed with a Walther PPK, a look of cold blooded revenge in his eyes, opening his heart about that happenned to Vesper. It sums up so much what I love about this film. Action, yes, complexities, also.

I have no doubt many will have a lot to disagree about this review, to be honest I felt myself rambling on for the last paragraph or so. If you were bored I apologise, and if some of this made no sense, I'm sorry for that too. I just wanted to write down some of my thoughts and feelings on this matter.

[Bond Bug]

It's here at last, if you live in the UK and certain parts of Europe that is, and it seems that everyone has an opinion on it. Reading comments from a large part of of members and other film critics, I felt compelled to put my own opinions out there, so here goes.

First of all Quantum of Solace is not as good as Casino Royale. Funny when I tell people that, their first response to me is 'so you were dissapointed then?'. No, not true. To me CR was off the scale great in terms of cinematic Bondage that any follow up was going to have a lot to live up to and QOS does so, it just misses hitting the area of greatness by a small measure particularly because with this film there is a small sense of business as usual coming off the heels of what was essentially a back to basics origin tale, a similar problem that befell this year's Batman movie The Dark Knight too if I may say so myself. The novelty of seeing Bond starting out in his career, falling in love and becoming the agent we know and love if offset here by continuing the Quantum story with a tale made up of action sequences, a villain with a cunning plan, copious amount of destruction and a high death count. It is essentially a Bond movie of old, only this time in the style that was set up in Casino Royale. The action is gritty, the stunts plausible (with one airplne jumping, parachuting exception). It does retain the psycholigical and emotional element that made CR so brilliant, and Craig does a fine line in grieveing revenge.

The film moves at such a fast pace that you find yourself wanting to pause for breath, especially in the first thirty to forty minutes that features at least four action sequences alone, and whilst the plot of a terrorist organisation planning to do something terrible with a natural resource feels like a throwback to the old days of Connery and SPECTRE (I've got a feeling Craig's Bond will be dealing with these goons for a couple more films to come), that's maybe the point. The climactic action sequence features the destruction of a gorgeous Ken Adam style set that seems to have been put together primarily for the fact that it would look gorgeous blowing it up.

A lot of the detractors seems to have hated the film for putting more style and spectacle to the forefront. It seems to me some of these critics have never seen a Bond film before. The film, to me, mixes the spectacle that one wants from a cinematic Bond, with the internal torment that one gets from a Fleming novel, something that the Dalton movies managed to do very well, although I have no doubt that QOS will do far better at the box office than LTK. Case in point. After the climactic action sequence, Bond tracks down Vesper's boyfriend and confronts him in his home, dressed in his best suit and coat and armed with a Walther PPK, a look of cold blooded revenge in his eyes, opening his heart about that happenned to Vesper. It sums up so much what I love about this film. Action, yes, complexities, also.

I have no doubt many will have a lot to disagree about this review, to be honest I felt myself rambling on for the last paragraph or so. If you were bored I apologise, and if some of this made no sense, I'm sorry for that too. I just wanted to write down some of my thoughts and feelings on this matter.

Not boring at all. You could be a fiction writer! I mean your writing style is very good.

[quantumofsolace]

Good review.

'The climactic action sequence features the destruction of a gorgeous Ken Adam style set that seems to have been put together primarily for the fact that it would look gorgeous blowing it up.'

Yes! glorious

Edited by quantumofsolace, 04 November 2008 - 07:16 PM.