Review: Quantum of Solace (2008)

[Mark R. Leeper]

                       QUANTUM OF SOLACE
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: Picking up just after where CASINO ROYALE
     left off, James Bond is involved in trying to find
     the people behind the death of his beloved Vesper.
     This is a decent spy thriller on an adult level.
     The tone is downbeat, but it is still one of the
     best in the series.  Marc Forster's action scenes
     could be more coherent, but he is better with the
     dramatic material.  Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10

The reinvention of James Bond films continues with QUANTUM OF
SOLACE.  The old James Bond had incredible luck and nearly always
did the right thing.  This Bond bungles his way into situations and
is as likely to foul up someone else's plan as he is to fix it.
The tension between M and Bond always seemed a little disingenuous
since Bond was clearly MI6's super-weapon.  The new Bond as of the
last two films is more of a loose cannon and is dangerous to both
sides.  This makes for a much more believable story.  Bond super-
villains used to have nonsensical goals like starting World War III
or otherwise wiping out humanity.  Dominic Greene (played by
Mathieu Amalric of THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY) has a rather
nasty plot in the current film, but it is not very different from
plots that have been hatched in the real world.

The new Bond no longer has the incredible luck at gambling the old
one did, that kind of luck would have severely damaged the story of
CASINO ROYALE, but he does have some unaccountable skills like the
old one did.  In the new film Bond seems to know how to pilot a
1950s vintage cargo plane.  But the new Bond is no longer the guy
every schoolboy wanted to be.  The old Bond, when he loses the love
of his life, drowned the man responsible in a mud bath.  The new
Bond drinks, and mourns, and strikes out only sometimes at the
people responsible.  Most of the glamour is gone.  So are the
gadget-weapons (with the exception of one in CASINO ROYALE).  And
the insistence that his drinks be shaken and not stirred is a relic
of the past.  Just about everything that made the series childish
have been done away with.  Rather than the romantic setting of
previous films like Istanbul, this Bond is not afraid to spend much
of the film in a Bolivian slum.  The film's colors are subdued and
faded to give the film a downbeat feel.

The new film starts uncharacteristically without the usual gun-
barrel and blood logo.  Never fear, fans, the trademark logo has
been relocated to the end of the film.  Instead the film starts
with three long and mindless chases as well as the worst Bond title
sequence in recent memory over the worst title sequence song.  With
those out of the way to placate the wrong kind of Bond fans the
film settles down to a reasonable pace and a more acceptable--even
complex--story.  Vesper it seems had gotten involved with a highly
secret yet ubiquitous international criminal organization, a sort
of a latter-day S.P.E.C.T.R.E.  Daniel Craig as very probably the
best of the Bonds rushes in to find the new organization and get
revenge.  He is not quite equipped with all of the facts.  Bond
follows the trail to Haiti.  There his masquerade as someone else
brings him into contact with Camille (Olga Kurylenko) who is on her
own mission of vengeance.  Greene, a member of this secret
organization--it is called Quantum--is working a deal with a
Bolivian general involving politics, power, and a stretch of
worthless desert.  (By the way, calling the organization Quantum is
an insult to the viewer.  The title would have made perfect sense
if the word "quantum" was never used in the film.  It was like
putting the mine in ENEMY MINE rather than explain the title.)

Director Marc Forster has had a very mixed bag of films to his
credit.  He directed MONSTER'S BALL, FINDING NEVERLAND, STRANGER
THAN FICTION, and THE KITE RUNNER.  That is a very mismatched set
of films.  While this film has one of the worst title songs of the
whole Bond series, it also has some of the best music.  Sadly it
was not music written for the film, but rather for Giacomo
Puccini's opera TOSCA.  One of the film's few funny moments had the
leaders of Quantum hashing out their plans electronically at a
performance of TOSCA.  This bit of extreme boorishness, talking
over the transcendent music, had to be a new low point for Bond
villains.  The film takes some swipes at the United States (as they
did in previous films like YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) and for the first
time in my memory took a little swipe at Israel (claiming one of
the villains is ex-Mossad). Also the evil Dominic Greene
masquerades as an ecology advocate spouting cliches.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE has one of the more complex and satisfying of the
Bond film plots.  The character of Bond has more depth than he does
in some of the more pulpy entries in the series.  It is one of the
rare Bond films that can be appreciated on an adult level.  I rate
it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0830515/>

This is my ranking best to worst of the Eon Bond films (subjective
and subject to change).

1. CASINO ROYALE (2006)
2. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
3. QUANTUM OF SOLACE
4. THUNDERBALL
5. ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE
6. DR. NO
7. LICENSE TO KILL
8. GOLDFINGER
9. THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH
10. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
11. YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE
12. THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
13. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
14. OCTOPUSSY
15. TOMORROW NEVER DIES
16. GOLDENEYE
17. DIE ANOTHER DAY
18. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
19. THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN
20. A VIEW TO A KILL
21. MOONRAKER
22. LIVE AND LET DIE

[-mrl]