The James Bond movies have been around for many years and gone through changes during that time. I have seen at least some of most of the movies and enjoyed them. A decision was made to restart the series, sort of like what was done for the Batman movies with Batman Begins, and Casino Royale was released in 2006. The movie was very successful and the plans to continue the series moved forward. I recently saw Quantum of Solace, the twenty-second James Bond movie.
Quantum of Solace picked up right after the events of Casino Royale, making it the first true sequel in the Bond series. Some plot threads were continued into this movie, so there will be spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen Casino Royale yet. I will be mentioning a few things that would be spoilers for those viewers as well. I will not be including spoilers for Quantum of Solace in this review.
While still reeling from learning the truth about Vesper and her subsequent death, James Bond managed to track down Mr. White. He was part of a secret powerful organization that had been involved in what happened with Vesper. It was quickly clear that the organization had people everywhere. M had some concerns about James, but she sent him to Haiti where he discovered a link to Dominic Greene, a business man seeming to do environmental work. He was actually involved in the same secret organization that James learned was called Quantum. James also met Camille, a woman who had her own reasons for being interested in Dominic.
Quantum of Solace was shorter than I had expected. I think it is the shortest of all the Bond movies. Because of that, there wasn't as much time to focus on certain things and the story didn't seem as developed as it could have been. The movie did have a faster pace and certain scenes did seem to be a bit rushed. It wasn't so bad that I was really annoyed, but I think some things would have worked better or been stronger if things had slowed down a bit. This movie was more like a Bourne movie than a Bond movie even with the one or two small references to the older Bond movies. There was one thing that was a very obvious reference to Goldfinger and Quantum seemed to be a lot like SPECTRE.
Action scenes in several movies over the last few years have suffered from the shaky camera. Unfortunately, just about every action scene in Quantum of Solace fell victim to the shaky camera and super fast cuts, making it difficult to tell what was going on. The movie started off with a car chase that would have been impressive if the camera work wasn't so shaky and there weren't such fast cuts between different shots. At some point, the driver's door on the car that James was driving came off. Because of how fast and blurry everything was, I don't know how that happened. A little later, James was chasing a man and there was a fight between them. Once again, the cuts were entirely too fast and half the time I wasn't sure which man was James despite the fact that he was blonde and the other man had darker hair. I hate this type of shaky camera work and fast cuts. Call me crazy, but I like to actually see what is going on when I go to see a movie.
All of the Bond movies that I have seen have included at least a little bit of violence. Quantum of Solace was much more violent than the majority of the previous Bond movies, which may bother some viewers. James did a lot of fighting and shooting throughout the movie, leaving many dead bodies in his wake. He didn't seem to be bothered by all the violence he was involved in. He was shown battered and even bloody at times, so that part was more realistic. Some other things weren't as believable, but that tends to happen in most action scenes. He went running through streets more than once and across rooftops at one point as well. It was almost like he was channeling Spider-Man a few times how he was jumping around and managing to get up walls with almost nothing to hold on to. That was a bit over board and seemed slightly out of place to me.
It was established all the way back in Dr. No, the first Bond movie, that James had a way with women. He would jump into bed with any attractive woman, even if he suspected she was working for the bad guy. That really didn't happen once the series were restarted with Casino Royale even though a relationship developed between him and Vesper. James fell hard for her and seemed ready to settle down with her. That worked out very bad and he was still trying to deal with that during Quantum of Solace. He was after revenge for what happened, though it seemed like he might have started to move on. There were hints of James's way with women when he had a woman in bed within minutes of meeting her. Nothing was really shown, but it was clear that they had sex and both of them showed off some skin in bed. James also seemed to develop a connection with Camille, but that relationship really didn't go anywhere. For a Bond movie, the sexual situations and overtones were very mild.
This was a darker James than the one I remember from the older Bond movies I have seen. That was understandable considering everything that had happened between him and Vesper. He was trying to keep focused on the mission he was supposed to be on, but his need for revenge did creep in at times. He seemed to be more comfortable with violence and not bothered when he killed someone. He had gotten rather casual about killing. Daniel Craig was good in the part. He handled the action scenes well - from what I could see with all the shaky camera work. Craig did look really good the few times he had his shirt off. Unfortunately those shots didn't last long.
M ended up being around quite a bit. Most of her scenes were shorter, but she did seem to have more to do than she has had in prior movies. She knew about the situation with James and Vesper and was concerned about his motivations for doing certain things. She did develop a few doubts at one point. I really liked Judi Dench in the part. Felix Leiter, a CIA agent that James had met while working with Vesper, was back in a few short scenes. Mathis was also back in a few scenes. I didn't remember who he was at first, but it wasn't long before I remembered. Jesper Christensen barely had anything to do as Mr. White, though his character did tie back into events from the last movie.
Camille was the beautiful young woman that James met in Haiti. She had her own agenda for being around Dominic that wasn't that original. The way things with her worked out was rather predictable except for the fact that she didn't end up having sex with James. Olga Kurylenko was fine in the part, though I didn't think the character itself was that strong. At one point, James spent time with Miss Fields, a woman that was supposed to send James back to England. She was acting all professional when they first met, but she let him take control of the situation and it wasn't long before they had sex. It wasn't shared until the credits that her first name was Strawberry. It seemed kind of pointless for her to have that first name and it not be used during the actual movie.
Dominic ran a business that was known for doing a lot of environmental work. It was actually a front for his activities as a member of Quantum. He was trying to implement a plan that would give the group control of something very important in Bolivia. The plan was more logical than what some of the previous Bond villains have come up with. I wasn't that impressed with Dominic as a villain even though he did a few horrible things. There just wasn't enough time given to him for him to be a good villain. Mathieu Amalric was fine in the part. Some other characters turned up throughout the movie without them having much to do.
Main Cast
Mathieu Amalric - Dominic Greene Gemma Arterton - Strawberry Fields Daniel Craig - James Bond Judi Dench - M Olga Kurylenko - Camille Jeffrey Wright - Felix Leiter
Marc Forster - Director
Quantum of Solace was an entertaining movie, but I thought it had some problems. The shaky camera work during the action scenes was highly annoying. This Bond is not the same Bond from the older movies which could disappoint some viewers. The movie is worth watching, but I think it could have been better.
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