No Clever Title

QUANTUM OF SOLACE pulls you in like a vaccum but it but in it's haste it lets go for a bit then grabs on again. The presentation is questionable, too many jump cuts to loose you during the action and shifting locales like mad but one thing is for certain, you feel the grit and feel what is the scenes. Unlike alot of Bond films, everything counts in the scenes at hand and bloated Bond of the past has thankfully gone. This isn't perfect but it's damn near close.

Daniel Craig has officially taken the number one spot in my mind. Let's get this out of the way, he isn't Fleming's Bond and he's never going to be but why is that bad ? He's James Bond on screen and that is what counts. He is on one side reckless but unlike CASINO ROYALE, you can forgive it because you see that it is his nature and isn't just being unrefined. 007 is a killer and to avoid doing so is not so easy in the heat of the moment. However he is also mad about his food and drink, he still drinks his drinks like Vesper, though refuses to say the bitter words. He also can't stand anything less then his own high standards. Bond scoffs at the idea of staying a roach motel in Bolivia for the sake of low cover. Then there is the classic womanizing that will not go away. Bond screws the uptight gal and uses, what else, his charisma and his fine body. The humor is alive, Bond assuring M on the phone that he won't kill any more contacts and gives a polite "Yes Mam" and tosses his cell phone aside. Yes, there is even humor when picks the wallet of a dead friend. The emotion is there, Bond cradles Mathis in his arms has he dies and spares a few final moments of pain. He also sheilds Camille from the fire that all too well reminds her of her devistating child hood. This is James Bond, smooth as a panther and as subtle as a selge hammer.

The Bond girls here are solid. Olga Kurylenko Camille is the main focus this time but she keeps an arms length at Bond. You just can't see Bond and Camille knocking boots because they have their own agendas. She doesn't have the time to fall in love but she isn't that cold, she sees vunerable and also finds confort that Bond and her have vengance in common. Though ultimately she realizes that vengence leaves you entirely empty. Agent Feilds is not too much to talk about but she pulls the role of the stiff just right. Like so many Bond girls before, she succumbs to 007's magic touch and decides her orders to bring him back to London just don't seem as important.

"Creep" is definetly the theme of both Dominique Greene and Elvis. Both can't measure quite up to the greats, especially the rather forgetable Elvis but Greene has his own style. He is tough, resourceful, and not afraid impose the power he has. However, he lacks the the maniac drive that made Dr. Julius No and Auric Goldfinger unforgetable. His dialogue does make up for it somewhat but not enough. He isn't the worst of the villans but he was missing the spice that would have made him truly great.

The secoundary characters are definetly the stronger parts of the film. Judi Dench has refused to age as M, she is only noticably older but still chews out Bond. What is also nice to see is she also got another fight on her hands, the politics of the government. She is one definetly motivated by her duties in her position but the last thing she'll ever be is a breaucrat. Jeffrey Wright returns once again and like Dame Dench, fights the political interests of his own government. His best and breif scene in the film is him at the bar, depressed at the fact that he has no choice to be with in bed with the enemy and there is nothing he could do about it. He still helps his friend James by giving him prior warning of the police after him and Leiter casually accepts the bullets flining at 007 by continuting to guzzle down his own beer. Rene Mathis is back Giancarlo Giannini once again charming and though still pissed that Bond sold him out in the previous film, he refuses to sit idly by. Sadly he his killed by the Bolivian police and lays in Bonds dying arms and begs him to forgive Vesper, a touching moment. General Medrano isn't too much to speak of, his shining/despicable moment is at the end when he attempts to rape a waitress delivering a beer to his hotel room and then focuses his eyes on Camille.

Overall, this Bond has a worthy place on the list of films but not without it's faults. David Arnold still leaves much to be desired in his score and the mediocre song hurts the beautiful title sequence. Also, as I said before, the far too hectic pace of the film which can easily loose the viewer but you'll get picked up along the way. Marc Forster directed the Bond like an art house film but maybe needed to slow down. The set deceration truly pays homage to Ken Adam, simple and elegant. Bond has returned and I am a very happy man.

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