What, you want a flashback?QUANTUM OF SOLACE primarily features characters who wander around doing nothing, burdened down by backstory conveyed through dialogue. "So the Haitians elected a priest, who raised the minimum wage to one dollar, blah blah blah...." "Do you know General Ernesto Montez? Well, way back in 1971, yadayadayada...." "But the land was sold to the logging company after Greene Planet acquired it, dronedrone...."
No, I want visual storytelling, not an illustrated radio play.
A certain amount of exposition through dialogue is unavoidable, but there is far too much of it in QUANTUM OF SOLACE.
This is particularly true with regard to Quantum. We need to see and feel the threat, not just be told about it through dialogue. The film merely tells us how dangerous this organisation is, which is boring. We get plenty of on-the-nose lines like M's "How come we've never even heard of this organisation that has people everywhere - even in the same room as us?", but the viewer has no emotional sense of Quantum as a force to be reckoned with.
Compare and contrast all these reams of clunky dialogue with the simple but iconic image of SPECTRE's electric chair in THUNDERBALL. That one brief moment communicated far more about an evil organisation, and did so far more visually, emotionally and effectively than all the balls-aching dialogue in QUANTUM OF SOLACE.
There was, of course, the scene in CR (based on the one from the book) when Le Chiffre is executed by Mr White. Missing from QoS was a similar scene. We are told by M that Dominic Greene died in the desert, not from dehydration but through two bullets in the back of his skull. Pity we didn't get to see that scene, don't you think? It would have re-inforced the claim that "we have people everywhere".
Also, I've seen that video on You Tube linking up the end of the QoS game with the deleted scene involving Mr White and Guy Haines. There's a bit where Mr White, sitting down (he'd have a hard time standing up!)says to, presumably, Haines "It's not your fault, but they know who you are now", and then produces a gun and fires it. The inference there being that not only would Quantum punish people who had failed, but eliminate even the higher level types who had been compromised. (At least I'm assuming, from the very brief snippet I saw, that that is what was happening - anyone out there who can correct me if I'm wrong, please do.)
A pity, perhaps, that this alternate ending wasn't included in the final cut?
