| Overall Grade: |
C+ |
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| Story: |
C+ |
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| Acting: |
B- |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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It's a Bourne again Bond.
by bck (movies profile)
Nov 13, 2008
47
of
67 people found this review helpful
The education of James Bond continues in what is effectively a sequel to Bond 21 a.k.a. Casino Royale. We were introduced to a whole new James Bond (Daniel Craig) with a freshly acquired License To Kill in the previous outing. We also take note that he's a little on the green side, but extremely eager in pursuing his duty to impossible degrees of intense action. The revitalised and rugged new Bond was a breath of fresh air. Gone was the confident debonair secret agent, replaced by the somewhat reckless and impulsive greenhorn. Not as suave, perhaps, but far more dangerous and action-minded.
Between the years of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, the playing field of action - thrillers was radically changed, thanks in part to the Jason Bourne series. Bourne attempted to present a whole new face on the spy-thriller with an incredible array of action sequences such as close quarters combat between hero and villain, stylised car-chase sequences and foot chases as well as tension warping cat-and-mouse antics that would put the viewer right in the midst of everything. It copied a little from Bond but created its own world of action. Now, that's flipped.
Picking up where the Casino Royale left off, Quantum of Solace begins with an intense chase as Bond attempts to get Mr. White (whom he shot at the end of Casino) to interrogation. What follows is a not too convoluted, and almost simplistic connect the dots plot as Bond tries to find out who or what was behind the betrayal and death of Vesper. This leads him to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), but he learns that there is something far more powerful backing the already powerful Greene - and Greene is the only link. So, the chase, and fist-fights, and fire-fights continue. It's a steep learning curve that Bond has to go through.
In watching Craig race through the plot and the action, he comes across as a younger version of Timothy Dalton's Bond (The Living Daylights, License to Kill) who was equally cold and ruthless in the way he operated, just more intense. While Craig's Bond seems to be finding his way to becoming the traditional secret agent we've known for so long, some of the other traditional stuff is back such as the girls in the opening credits (which caused our censors to jump for their scissors once again despite the somewhat new PG rating that preceded the movie) and the "sniper-roll" finally turns up although not where you might expect it.
Director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Stranger Than FIction) does well with the few quiet dramatic scenes where Bond attempts to cope with his emotional growth, trying to find that little bit humanity (the titular quantum of solace that would allow us to keep our connection to other people in spite of the betrayal we may face from them) that would keep him from becoming a robotic killing machine and finding who his real friends may be. Those few scenes do give an air of unique superiority in developing the humanity of the character. It does lift the movie to the status of a classic Bond movie, and while the action is jaw-droppingly amazing for the most part, it does overwhelm everything. I can't say anything about his hand in the action scenes because, while they may be organic to the story, they do seem lifted from a Bourne movie, with the exception of a boat-chase sequence.
There were also some scenes and shots that pay tribute to past Bond films (Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me come to mind), but it's not entirely a 'greatest hits' montage that was Die Another Day. Bond fans would spot these immediately. In all, some may find this continued revitalisation to be refreshing and exciting while others may be disappointed by the lack of a proper story line. If all the action scenes were removed, prolonged or otherwise, and the dramatic scenes stitched together, the movie would barely exceed the length of a normal television episode. We could at least look forward to the next part, because like in the tradition of the novels, the end of a story is not quite the end of it all. Something big is out there and, hopefully, it continues into the next movie. |
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