Two cents if anyone cares to read it. It's slightly longish. Forgive the grammatical errors in advance. 
A powerful and moving thriller, Quantum Of Solace is a carefully crafted and thoughtfully executed and edited cerebral near-masterpiece of the series. It is a remarkable film full of parallel story lines, mouth-watering juxtapositions, stark visual contrasts and poetic symmetry which elevates itself far above the capacity of most films in the genre to which it belongs. Though a blockbuster made for the masses, Quantum is the boldest Eon step yet which asks its global audience to come along – brain fully on – for every brave step of its stylish thrill ride. Nearly every choice made exists for a reason.
It is a fact that lots of things during pre-production weren't sorted out properly. First of all Paul Haggis was on a writer strike during the writing process. He's mentioned in the main title sequence, but his polishing wasn't even properly finished. So the Bond producers hired director Marc Forster, while the screenplay wasn't properly finished. Marc Forster already mentioned in an interview that he was quite annoyed by that.
Then there was composer David Arnold who first started out with a more romantic music score to 'Quantum Of Solace' and who also wanted to bring back a famous name. But, as so often, only a few months before the premiere, Sony put forward Alicia Keys and Jack White to do the theme. At that stage the film wasn't even properly edited, leaving composer Arnold with lots of guess work. He also had to come up with new compositions that were much rougher-edged.
In the old days, only the main title designer Maurice Binder, had to do some guess work, while that was really the last part of the film that needed to be sorted out. With 'QOS', TOO many important aspects weren't sorted out completely, like having an actual finished screenplay before filming! Hence the editing process. The first attempt was done by Matt Chessé. But at a very short notice Richard Pearson came onboard, making the editing process more of a mishmash.
So while you say 'Quantum Of Solace' is a carefully crafted and thoughtfully executed and edited cerebral near-masterpiece of the series, I think that's wrong. 'QOS' faced many production problems, similar to the production of 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. Deadlines weren't reached, the director qouldn't start with a 100% finished screenplay, too many people have been brought on board to finish something, hence the two editors who clearly had a different opinion.
Speaking of James Bond, Daniel Craig as 007 is a tour de force in Quantum, whether he’s killing in self defence or as payback, spying, taunting/drawing out the enemy, making audiences smile or chuckle with countless moments of humour via lines and mannerisms, or cradling allies at death’s door.
Countless moments of humour?? You must be joking. I've seen my first James Bond film in cinema since 1989's 'Licence To Kill' and I still remember during what particular scenes the crowd was laughing out loud: The tank breaking a wall in 'GoldenEye', the hilarious Q-scene in 'GoldenEye', Bond on the backseat of his BMW 7 in 'Tomorrow Never Dies', Molly Warmflash and Moneypenny arguing in 'The World Is Not Enough', "Must be a premature form of the millennium bug"-line in 'TWINE', Moneypenny having an orgasm in 'Die Another Day' (Allthough cheesy, the public was laughing like hell) and many others.
'Quantum Of Solace strips down too much humour. A good example is that little old lady in Siena. Her box with Italian pastry and olive oil falls when Bond is footchasing the MI6-leak. It should have been a funny scene, but the music completely underwhelmed that scene. The ONLY humurous thing I saw, was the hotel scene with Miss Fields. But even with that one, I didn't heard much laughter.
Not a single James Bond performance comes close to matching what Mr Craig and 007 do on screen. Not in From Russia With Love, not in Casino Royale, not anywhere.
This is sheer exaggeration. I'm so sorry, but saying that all previous Bond performances are worse compared to classic films like 'From Russia With Love' and many other of the Connery installments is IMO a blasphomy. Saying that Craig's performance in 'Casino Royale' is worse compared to 'Quantum Of Solace', shows that you have a lack of understanding of Fleming's actual novels.
Indeed, there are five outstanding performances in this film: Mr Craig and Dame Judy aside, Giannini as Mathis and Amalric as Greene are outstanding – as you’d expect from stalwarts of European cinema – but the major surprise in Quantum is Olga Kurylenko who is stunning on almost every level.
While outstanding, I think 'M's role has become to large. Back in GoldenEye 'M' was still a short cameo. 'M' wasn't afraid of sending Bond to his death. But now we've arrived in 'Quantum Of Solace', in which 'M's role has changed from that of a competent, secret MI6-boss in an overcaring mother who is basically compromising her Majesty's secret service to such an extent that I would advice PM Brown to cut down fundings on MI6. I mean, WHY travelling to all these places. It's frustrating to know that MI6 isn't a secret service anymore, but more of a detective agency.
Dominic Greene is a sheer wimp IMO. Greene's screentime is nothing compared to seeing Le Chiffre beating the hell out of Bond's scrotum. Then I still think Mr White looks more menacing in the opening of 'Quantum Of Solace'.
The twenty-nine year old Ukrainian’s portrayal of Camille is surpassed only by Diana Rigg’s 1969 performance in the Bond Girl stakes and the character – complete with scared back, heart and mind – is based on a recently found Ian Fleming manuscript from a here-to-fore hidden safe at Goldeneye in Jamaica. Fleming had been experimenting with physically and emotionally challenged female characters and Camille is the hub at which the spokes of Milena Havelock, Honeychile Rider and Gala Brand meet. So single-minded is her approach that Eon gives us a first for the series. Indeed, Camille is the only main character from which the abundant humour in the film is wholly absent.
Wrong again. Allthough you are right that Ian Fleming was experimenting with complex female characters, it wasn't the actual character of Camille. With Diana Rigg's performance of Tracy, I think Maud Adam's role as Octopussy, Domino Derval, Elektra King, Pussy Galore and especially Vesper Lyndt are victorious over Camille. And, why is it that you failed to mention Vesper Lyndt? She's a classic character that starts of as a very self-confident, bitchy female, but slowly evolves into an uncertain frightened girl. I didn't see that kind of complexity with Camille, who was out on revenge from the first first moment we saw her.
Contrary to critical opinion, there is a fair quantum of humour on display in Solace. Some of it is ancillary: Note the old Sienese lady losing her day’s groceries from the top of the stairs as Mitchell rushes past, or the hilarity of the old Bolivian taxi driver as Mathis tries talking to Carlos, subtitles over subtitles. Note too Bond’s mannerisms as he tosses aside keys or a cell phone or kicks aside a limb allowing the elevator door at the Grand Andean to close, or the way he hands off a “sea sick” Camille in the arms of a Haitian vacation resort attendant.
It is exactly that little old Sienese lady that didn't worked in this film, because of wrongly cued film music and too much focus on the foot chase. In fact, there's not ONE scene in 'Quantum Of Solace' that made the cinema audience say "Wowww!" or "WTF. Hilarious
!". The torture scene in 'Casino Royale' is a marvellous scene, that makes my stomach turn, while at the same time it made me laugh like hell. I didn't have that experience with ANY of the so called humurous scenes in 'QOS'. Sorry.
And then, of course, there are the priceless lines: 007 suggesting to M that he (paraphrasing) ”doesn’t really like dwelling on the past and neither should she” after she asks him of the fresh killing of Slate in Haiti; or the “that wasn’t very nice” line a couple of seconds after Camille tries to shoot him for being her would-be assassin, or the brilliant delivery of the "sabattico/lotterias" line at the Grand Andean check-in; or of him inviting Fields into the bedroom to help him find the stationary. Just to name a few.
Nice lines, but certainly not as memorable as Sean Connery saying in 'Thunderball' "I know a little about women". I must agree though, that that "sabattico/lotterias" was funy, but perhaps the only funny line in the entire film. Hence the fact that in my cinema, no one catched that line, as it was spoken out in a foreign language.
Yes, there are wonderful little moments in this film which has more to do with character and dialogue and ‘spying’ than it has to do with “action”. In actual fact - and once again contrary to ill-informed opinion – the set pieces in Quantum, quantitatively, comprise a *minority* of the bullet-like run time. And they – all six of them – exist for a reason.
'QOS' could have been extended with 10 or 12 minutes. Just to give 'Quantum Of Solace' a more polished feel.
“ACTION”
From the very opening shot, where the camera pans over the northern Italian lake of Garda towards an Alpine tunnel pass in the region of Lombardy, we get a sense of impending menace to come, accompanied by the increasing tension of David Arnold’s strings. And as soon as we’re into the lightening fast edits of a suited man in an Aston Martin making Fleming-like “racing changes” as he desperately avoids traffic while under machine gun fire, we know that we’re undeniably into the start of a new James Bond adventure.
I really liked the opening of the film, but I think it could have been extended. I really did not like the shaky cam shots, as I wanted to see more of the henchmen's faces and especially more about James Bond's face as well. It all....finished too soon for my part.
Mr Craig told interviewers that this story begins with a James Bond who is in “turmoil” and “confused”. The quick cuts and camera work of these first few minutes echo this sentiment as 007 – in an angry and embattled frame of mind – desperately fights for his very existence…desperate to live to find his measure of comfort and place in a bewildering world.
I disagree. The only scene I really saw James Bond struggling with his feelings, was on the plane with René Mathis to Bolivia. Seeing Bond getting drunk with his Martini's was more emotional than an action-packed car chase. I think we all agree with that. Because I didn't see any emotion on Bond's face when he opened the car boot. On the contrary, it was one of those rare funny moments.
The twisting and turning and the falling upside down against the background of global meridian lines of the above noted colour palette in the Main Titles continues this sentiment.
Huh? You gotta be kidding. Main titles are only there to link it to the experience of Bond. While the gunbarrel sequence is gone, it is that particular aspect that the Bond producers didn't want to change. And they were right off course. Having said that, I think Danny Kleinman's attempt in 'Casino Royale' was superior to MK12's main title design.
Bond's confusion under little rest gets elevated as he finds out that Vesper’s Algerian boyfriend’s death has been fabricated and that the mystery organization does indeed have people “everywhere”. And when we get to the climax of the foot chase – sumptuously and attentively juxtaposed against the proceedings of the Palio di Siena cultural and sporting event - the editors and director engage in blisteringly fast cutting to echo these sentiments as Bond dangles upside down (literally and figuratively) in another desperate attempt to get to his ‘armour’ and blow Mitchell into oblivion.
Well, I wasn't thinking of our beloved Vesper Lyndt, when Bond was hanging upside down. Sorry.
The killing of Slate in the hotel room in Haiti illustrates just how lethal Our James can be, especially if he’s about to be sliced open by a stiletto. It’s a very brutal yet *stylish* kill: Note the way Our James holds on to the palm of a quickly dying Slate’s hand to check his rapidly diminishing pulse. Lovely!
I think Craig's style of killing people is far from stylish. It reminds me a bit more of George Lazenby's hand-to-hand fights. But stylish? Mwaah, I think the manno-a-manno fight between Scaramanga and Bond was both witty, clean and stylish.
The boat chase at Port Au Prince “exists” because Camille holds the key in the chain that links Slate to Mitchell, Mr White and a banker called Le Chiffre…and his first immediate impulse would always be to keep her alive to further the investigation. Besides, she’s hot and in danger. And he wouldn't be Ian Fleming’s James Bond if he didn't try and 'save' her.
Yes, that boat chase exists. But it misses the carely drafted screenplay the boat chases from 'Live And Let Die' and 'The World Is Not Enough' had. Be honest now. What boat chase was more fun to watch. The one from 'TWINE' or the one from 'QOS'. I choose the London boat chase....
The 'shoot out' during the performance of Tosca at Lake Constance in Bregenz exists to bring 007’s reveal – which in turn tricks the enemy into revealing itself – to a logical conclusion as Greene’s thugs try to hunt down the man who’s just compromised Quantum’s plans for the Tiera (a combo of terra and Siera Club?) Project. The juxtaposed set piece - with its parallel storylines of treachery and secret covenants and killings - also exists to illustrate that Eon can indeed produce a work of enduring cinematic art. The piece, with its mind-blowing visuals, writing and execution as David Arnold’s memorable Quantum/Night At The Opera cue segues into Puccini's rousing Te Deum, must surely rank as a new high point in the Incredible World Of James Bond. It is doubtful Hitchcock could have done better, let alone Terrence Young or Lewis Gilbert or Martin Campbell.
I loved the Opera scene. It was perhaps one of the better written parts of the film. Perhaps also because I love classical music. But here the music from David Arnold is finally more suitable. I love the slow music that brings Bond into a climax. The thing I didn't like was, again, Bond's way of killing a guy. To kill Guy Haines bodyguard was plain stupid and unnecessary. By jolly, he just uncovers a plot there. It's more fitting to question that man than simply throwing him off the building. You know that Bond did the same with Sandor in 'TSWLM'. But sjee, that circumstance was a bit different. You clearly saw Bond loosing from the big Sandor, while Haines bodyguard is just a bodyguard.
About QUANTUM then. I found the crime syndicate less menacing than SPECTRE. To make it look more menacing it would be much nicer if Mr White killed another QUANTUM-member in the audience.
Is Quantum Of Solace the Best James Bond Movie Ever? I imagine for many around the planet it likely is.
Yes, I already saw that. It's a new brand of Bond fans that really thinks 'Quantum Of Solace' is the best Bond film ever. I'm not one of them.
Edited by Gustav Graves, 19 November 2009 - 05:39 PM.
