12 replies to this topic

[Vauxhall]

Sorry that this is fairly rushed. I'm sure I've forgotten some of the points I was going to make... Anyway, my review:

In many ways, QUANTUM OF SOLACE has stressed to me just how good CASINO ROYALE was - not because it was markedly inferior, but because it served as the absolutely perfect companion-piece to the previous instalment in the series. Loose ends were tied up and new ones were unravelled to be pursued further down the road in the series.

Many regarded CASINO ROYALE as a huge gamble in the series, but QUANTUM OF SOLACE further breaks the mould of the traditionalists and further risks are taken. The first being the appointment of a director such as Marc Forster - an artist with no previous experience of the action genre. Visually, he and cinematographer Roberto Schaefer, create a stunningly beautiful movie. The editing style for some of the action sequences (mainly the opening car chase and Haiti boat chase) was not to be personal liking, as I struggled to register what was actually going on, although admittedly the fact that I was craning my head from the third row of the cinema did not help matters.

Although some of the dialogue felt clunky (perhaps in need of one further polish), and there were some isolated instances of astonishingly wooden delivery of lines, the script seemed on the whole to function perfectly effectively. The plot and some of the dialogue is very mature for a Bond movie; this is clearly a movie intended for intelligent adults - with some strong signs of political discourse and allusions to the current geopolitical global situation. What did come as a pleasant surprise to me was the generous amount of humour and the reaction of the audience laughing openly. This is certainly not the humourless movie that some reviewers would have led us to believe.

The highlights for me among the ‘major sequences’ were the Bregenz opera sequence and the Siena rooftop chase, although ironically, I felt in both cases that the cutting of shots between the backdrop set pieces (the Palio and Tosca) were perhaps slightly overcooked. Daniel Craig and Judi Dench both triumph and turn in tightly-wound performances in their respective roles; Dench, in particular, is presented with her most extensive part in a Bond movie and consequently delivers her best performance. Craig has made good on the potential displayed in CASINO ROYALE, and proved himself as the definitive Bond. The most enjoyable parts of the movie for me are when we get the chance to see Craig show off his stellar acting chops - the cradling of Mathis, consoling of Camille, meeting with Felix and the finale with Yusef being the key scenes I would highlight to exemplify this.

The unrelenting pace of the film felt slightly unrewarding for me, but I’m not yet exactly sure why that was. Perhaps it was merely because I looked forward to the calmer, more reflective scenes so much. Another slight disappointment was the very limited screen time for Felix and Fields in particular. Despite that, there was great development in the character of Felix Leiter, which will allow him a greater role in future instalments, I would hope. Mathieu Amalric and Olga Kurylenko were both very solid and clearly accomplished actors, as we know from their previous work, but I feel that neither was truly given the scope by the script to bring truly memorable characters to the screen. Aside from Craig and Dench, who I’ve previously mentioned, special mention should be made of Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis who shows us all what a truly wonderful actor he is. It’s a shame that we won’t have him back; but his two series performances are both firmly cemented as classics in my mind. On the flipside, the door being left open for the return of Mr White greatly excites me.

On the other technical aspects, he titles were decent, but nothing mind-blowing. The highlight of MK12’s work for me was the unique fonts they used to announce each location in the movie. It seems silly, but for that alone, I’d welcome them to return and present BOND 23 in the same way for us.

I’ve said several times on the forums that the gunbarrel is not a massively important feature for me, and it doesn’t bother me where it is and even if it’s there at all. I felt that the positioning of it was slightly jarring after the poignancy of the terrifically acted confrontation with Yusef, and subsequent debrief with M. Having said that, I appreciate what they were seeking to achieve by placing it in such a symbolic position. Not being a gunbarrel connoisseur, I’m probably not very well placed to comment but the actual execution wasn’t particularly to my liking; the walk across was extremely fast and businesslike. I’d hope for a more relaxed delivery for BOND 23.

Oh and a little note for those of you concerned that the ending of the movie and the confrontation with Yusef sounded too similar to THE BOURNE SUPREMACY; there was a slight change, with the location of the finale switched from Moscow to the more remote city of Kazan, Russia.

Overall, certainly in my top ten Bond movies and inching towards my top five, as quite simply, as a piece of cinema, QUANTUM OF SOLACE is fantastic. I’ll give it somewhere between 7/8 out of 10 for the moment, but I certainly feel this movie needs repeated viewing. I get the feeling there will be subtle nuances of brilliance here that we have the joy of discovering, through the satisfaction of repeated viewing.

[bondrules]

Great review Vaux!

I certainly like your conclusion:

I get the feeling there will be subtle nuances of brilliance here that we have the joy of discovering, through the satisfaction of repeated viewing.

[sharpshooter]

A good balanced review, Vauxhall.

[ACE]

Sorry that this is fairly rushed. I'm sure I've forgotten some of the points I was going to make... Anyway, my review:

In many ways, QUANTUM OF SOLACE has stressed to me just how good CASINO ROYALE was - not because it was markedly inferior, but because it served as the absolutely perfect companion-piece to the previous instalment in the series. Loose ends were tied up and new ones were unravelled to be pursued further down the road in the series.
Many regarded CASINO ROYALE as a huge gamble in the series, but QUANTUM OF SOLACE further breaks the mould of the traditionalists and further risks are taken. The first being the appointment of a director such as Marc Forster - an artist with no previous experience of the action genre. Visually, he and cinematographer Roberto Schaefer, create a stunningly beautiful movie. The editing style for some of the action sequences (mainly the opening car chase and Haiti boat chase) was not to be personal liking, as I struggled to register what was actually going on, although admittedly the fact that I was craning my head from the third row of the cinema did not help matters.

Although some of the dialogue felt clunky (perhaps in need of one further polish), and there were some isolated instances of astonishingly wooden delivery of lines, the script seemed on the whole to function perfectly effectively. The plot and some of the dialogue is very mature for a Bond movie; this is clearly a movie intended for intelligent adults - with some strong signs of political discourse and allusions to the current geopolitical global situation.

The highlights for me among the ‘major sequences’ were the Bregenz opera sequence and the Siena rooftop chase, although ironically, I felt in both cases that the cutting of shots between the backdrop set pieces (the Palio and Tosca) were perhaps slightly overcooked. Daniel Craig and Judi Dench both triumph and turn in tightly-wound performances in their respective roles; Dench, in particular, is presented with her most extensive part in a Bond movie and consequently delivers her best performance. Craig has made good on the potential displayed in CASINO ROYALE, and proved himself as the definitive Bond. The most enjoyable parts of the movie for me are when we get the chance to see Craig show off his stellar acting chops - the cradling of Mathis, consoling of Camille, meeting with Felix and the finale with Yusef being the key scenes I would highlight to exemplify this.

The unrelenting pace of the film felt slightly unrewarding for me, but I’m not yet exactly sure why that was. Perhaps it was merely because I looked forward to the calmer, more reflective scenes so much. Another slight disappointment was the very limited screen time for Felix and Fields in particular. Despite that, there was great development in the character of Felix Leiter, which will allow him a greater role in future instalments, I would hope. Mathieu Amalric and Olga Kurylenko were both very solid and clearly accomplished actors, as we know from their previous work, but I feel that neither was truly given the scope by the script to bring truly memorable characters to the screen. Aside from Craig and Dench, who I’ve previously mentioned, special mention should be made of Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis who shows us all what a truly wonderful actor he is. It’s a shame that we won’t have him back; but his two series performances are both firmly cemented as classics in my mind. On the flipside, the door being left open for the return of Mr White greatly excites me.

On the other technical aspects, he titles were decent, but nothing mind-blowing. The highlight of MK12’s work for me was the unique fonts they used to announce each location in the movie. It seems silly, but for that alone, I’d welcome them to return and present BOND 23 in the same way for us.

I’ve said several times on the forums that the gunbarrel is not a massively important feature for me, and it doesn’t bother me where it is and even if it’s there at all. I felt that the positioning of it was slightly jarring after the poignancy of the terrifically acted confrontation with Yusef, and subsequent debrief with M. Having said that, I appreciate what they were seeking to achieve by placing it in such a symbolic position. Not being a gunbarrel connoisseur, I’m probably not very well placed to comment but the actual execution wasn’t particularly to my liking; the walk across was extremely fast and businesslike. I’d hope for a more relaxed delivery for BOND 23.

Oh and a little note for those of you concerned that the ending of the movie and the confrontation with Yusef sounded too similar to THE BOURNE SUPREMACY; there was a slight change, with the location of the finale switched from Moscow to the more remote city of Kazan, Russia.

Overall, certainly in my top ten Bond movies and inching towards my top five, as quite simply, as a piece of cinema, QUANTUM OF SOLACE is fantastic. I’ll give it somewhere between 7/8 out of 10 for the moment, but I certainly feel this movie needs repeated viewing. I get the feeling there will be subtle nuances of brilliance here that we have the joy of discovering, through the satisfaction of repeated viewing.

Lovely stuff, Vauxhall . You make some interesting points. Glad to see you liked it.

[MkB]

Glad you liked it too, Vauxhall!
I, too, believe QoS will easily support repeated viewings and age beautifully!

[HildebrandRarity]

... QUANTUM OF SOLACE further breaks the mould of the traditionalists and further risks are taken.

... The plot and some of the dialogue is very mature for a Bond movie; this is clearly a movie intended for intelligent adults.

... I’ll give it somewhere between 7/8 out of 10 for the moment, but I certainly feel this movie needs repeated viewing. I get the feeling there will be subtle nuances of brilliance here that we have the joy of discovering, through the satisfaction of repeated viewing.

... Good!

... Excellent!

... Wonderful!

Thank, Vaux...

[Vauxhall]

Thanks for the nice words guys. Glad you liked the review!

[DamnCoffee]

Brilliant review Vauxhall.

[BoogieBond]

Thanks Vauxhall. Liked that review.
I more or less echo your favourite highlights.
What did you think of the boat chase ? I didn't care for it that much, but I guess it was serviceable as action scenes go. I agree some of the editing is manic in both the car and boat sequences.

[Vauxhall]

What did you think of the boat chase ? I didn't care for it that much, but I guess it was serviceable as action scenes go. I agree some of the editing is manic in both the car and boat sequences.

Yeah, I wasn't a massive fan of the boat chase. I didn't feel that it served much of a purpose, plus the fact that Bond went to the effort of saving Camille from Medrano, only to leave her on the pier before questioning her, so that he could move after Greene seemed strange. Like you said, a serviceable piece of action, but nothing groundbreaking or particularly memorable.

I've just seen the movie for the second time (in a strangely empty cinema for a Friday evening) and I've got a few more thoughts, which hopefully I'll be able to get together later this evening. Second view pretty much cemented my original thoughts that it's somewhere between 7.5 and 8 out of 10.

[Vauxhall]

Apologies for the delay, but I've had a busy last week. I had a few things which I noticed on second viewing that I wished to add to my review, although I've naturally forgotten some of them now...

I'm fairly sure that as Bond cradles Camille, shielding her from the fire, somewhere in the audio mix is the faint sound of a child crying, harking back to the death of her parents. Perhaps a bit cliched, but an interesting enough touch.

Having missed most of Bond's escape from the hotel first time around (due to being busy explaining some aspects of the plot to my friend), this struck me as a particularly iconic and memorable scene. The leap over the balcony is done with such smoothness by Craig, and is astonishingly not ungainly.

Gregg Beam is a fantastic character, and surprisingly developed for such a small role. I enjoy that, for someone employed in the CIA, he is apparently very fearful of foreign countries and is distinctly unsettled when outside his comfort zone (as evidenced by the scene in the makeshift CIA office in La Paz).

Other touches will probably come back to me, but I also loved Bond snapping the handle off the bathroom door after relieving the Quantum member of his gift bag at the opera, and then casually tossing it away. Very reminiscent of Bond discarding the keys of the crashed Range Rover in the Ocean Club car park in CASINO ROYALE.

[bondrules]

I'm fairly sure that as Bond cradles Camille, shielding her from the fire, somewhere in the audio mix is the faint sound of a child crying, harking back to the death of her parents. Perhaps a bit cliched, but an interesting enough touch.

QoS, like you said initially Vaux, after further viewings, helps to notice even more instances of brilliance....I am thrilled to know about this one. Thanks.

[marktmurphy]

Other touches will probably come back to me, but I also loved Bond snapping the handle off the bathroom door after relieving the Quantum member of his gift bag at the opera, and then casually tossing it away. Very reminiscent of Bond discarding the keys of the crashed Range Rover in the Ocean Club car park in CASINO ROYALE.

See also his chucking away of his phone after he's spoken to M- nice stuff.