Thanks for a great, insightful review. I'm going to be lazy and use some of your points to pontificate on.
Although I still maintain that the dogfight/freefall is a fundamentally Brosnanesque affair that doesn't belong in what is otherwise generally an appropriately gritty and Craigian motion picture. Along with the Haiti boat chase (which I found both extraneous and underwhelming), it's something I wish had been excised.
The dogfight didn't do much for me either, to be honest. Not sure why. But it didn't offend either. The freefall, on the other hand, was awesome! Agree on the boat chase. In general the coolness of the early action is replaced by "just ok" action later on (that's probably too general a statement).
..when Bond goes up to the door of Mathis' villa and---- you'll love this, I promise, Bond knocks on the door
I nearly died. It was beautiful. If I've misinterpreted this bit, I just don't even want to know.
I spotted that as well - it is the Bond theme: subtle but it is.
Dench ain't too shabby, either, although, c'mon, I did eventually start feeling that she's so ridiculously omnipresent, seemingly anticipating 007's every Bournian lightning-speed switch of location, that she must be a telepathic teleporter.
I disagree on this one. Sure, she's in the field too much, that much I'll agree on. To assume she's teleporting you have to assume Bond is travelling fast. In particular the final scene could take place days, weeks or months after the other events in the film. The final dialogue with M is good - but it does raise the question of whethe she was there when Bond went in or not. I think she was and let him go in first, but clerly the dialogue can make us think otherwise.
As to her other teleporting, it's only really the Field's scene that I can think of, and surely she had time to go out? It's a stretch that she would do it in the first place, but I think she had time.
And, I'm sorry, but look, the final scene. In a shabby apartment. In Moscow. If it isn't Bourne then I, my friends, am Daniel Craig. Given Forster's penchant for a striking font, Would. It. Have. Killed. Him. to set this final encounter in, say, Shanghai or Seoul or Tokyo (giving him a few lovely Chinese ideograms to play with), or, I dunno, Bombay or somewhere else where A. Bond's never been (or not been recently), B. (and more to the point) Bourne's not just visited yesterday, and C. they write in eyecatching scripts?
At the very least, you wouldn't get Wankers on the internet complaining: "but it's copied from the final scene of The Bourne Supremacy, Eon have lost the art of makign Bond films they're just ripping of Jason BoiurneandFlemmmmmmmming would be rolling his grave!".
I wonder why they picked Moscow. They could have made what they filmed fit pretty much anywhere in the world where it snows (the buildings looked like my halls of residence back when I was at uni, at Exeter). I can't think of a single good reason. It's a nicely wrapped present to those who choose to go on about the Bourne/Bond thing. It's obvious that EON has learnt a great big lesson from the Bourne franchse and I'm thankful for it - but the location, if nothing else, seems like a step too far.
Clearly Quantum has it's flaws - but it's still miles ahead of the films made between Majesty's and Royale.