Film Review: Quantum of Solace (2008): Latest in the James Bond Series Misses the Mark, and Then Some

So often does the bad accompany the good in life, perhaps out of necessity, so that we may truly appreciate the latter. After the ravishing James Bond reboot Casino Royale – arguably the best in the series – it would appear inevitable that the next film ratchet things down a few notches; a cynical view, yes, but one reinforced by the dearth of sequels that rise to the occasion presented before them (Empire Strikes Back, Before Sunset, and The Godfather, Part II notwithstanding). Quantum of Solace isn't completely disposable, but any box office gold it accrues will be purely incidental. That it wastes one of the best titles the series has yet seen doesn't begin to cover its offenses.

A Fall from Grace

To say that sequels are doomed to failure is naïve, but with art house hack Marc Forster at the helm, that the follow-up to Royale turned out to be one of the worst of the series seems more like destiny manifest. Hype indicated that this might be the first Bond film with Oscar potential, yet in attempting to appeal to the "legitimate", often hollow standards of the awards brigade, it forgot what made the stylistically expressive Royale tick so furiously. Daniel Craig – by far the best performer the character has yet seen (no offense to Mr. Connery) – was largely responsible for this in his Oscar-robbed performance, yet even he can only pull so much weight with a script as thematically skimpy and a film so clunky in its assembly as Quantum. Like air escaping a punctured balloon, his effort goes to waste, nothing short of a criminal offense.

Not unlike an old man relying on his cane for support, Quantum leans on the dramatic/thematic weight of its predecessor as a means to justify its own existence, routinely looking back in lieu of forging its own pulse. Once a slow-burning ember of self-immolating emotion and energy, Craig's Bond has been offensively reduced to the 007 equivalent of a sulking teenager, and it’s to the actor's enduring credit that as much emotion makes it to the screen as possible.

Manufactured Incompetence

Squandered from the opening, borderline-incoherent car chase onward, the film screams not only of screenwriter Paul Haggis's contrived modes of exposition (popularized by the rank and overrated Crash), but Forster's unimaginative approach to filmmaking. From his own surface-deep take on the Peter Pan mythos in Finding Neverland to the outright disastrous The Kite Runner, he’s long been a filmmaker who prefers telling over showing, forgoing poetic expression for banal seriousness seemingly made with award show compilations chiefly in mind.

When the accomplished Martin Campbell – director not only of Royale, but also the 1995 semi-reboot GoldenEye – was not named director of Quantum, many wondered aloud, with an appropriately dumbfounded slap to the head, why? Forster drops the torch that was passed to him, and chief among his failures is a dearth of genuine visual continuity: something preferable for any motion picture, and a must for action. Clueless is the only way to effectively describe the compilations of shaky medium and close-up shots that pose as action scenes; failing to establish/maintain any sense of the spatial relationship between the hunter and hunted, they instead play out as motion sans progression, like a videogame with respawning opponents and an unlimited ammo count. Inept to the point of neutering all interest in plot, Quantum may be the lousiest entry since 1975's Man with the Golden Gun. This time around, Bond's biggest adversaries are those behind the camera.

Nov 18, 2008 6:52 PM

Guest :

Worst since Man with the Golden Gun? Have you forgotten about the last three Brosnan movies? They were absolute crap. Basically the screenwriters had a check list and made sure Bond fulfilled those requirements. Did he say his name? Check. Did he order a vodka martini? Check. Did he happen to visit a casino and get lucky? Check. Does he get to use a ridiculously over the top gadget that just by coincidence, works in the prickly situation that he is in? Check. The thing I loved about Casino Royale was they twisted all of that around. Bond introducing himself at the end of the movie was classic. It wasn't some contrived situation. As for Quantum, not having any Bondian moments is refreshing because now I can't wait for the next movie where Craig does have a chance to say and do like the previous Bonds. I have read so many reviews where critics complain that Bond never said his name, or he didn't order his drink properly. We already heard him do that 21 previous times. Why repeat the same damn thing over and over again? I would say the gun-barrel sequence is a major exception though. Attaching that to the end of the movie was plain stupid. And here's hoping they bring back Martin Campbell for the 23rd outing. He is responsible for the last two decent movies, Goldeneye and Casino Royale.

Nov 18, 2008 6:58 PM

Guest :

I totally agreee with the reviewer having just come from seeing this truly disappointing, near-awful film. It is by far the worst in the 007 series if there is such a thing anymore. Its two movies in a row now without the beloved Bond-movie features of the classic sound track, the sophisticated side of the spy, etc. I had hoped to see the next steps in Daniel Craig's character's evolution towards being coming the familar Bond but there seemed to be no progression. Also I agree the action scenes were herky-jerky with rapid scene changes and too many close ups. It hurt my eyes trying to focus on them. I hope James Bond hasn't died and will come back next time.

Nov 18, 2008 8:55 PM

Guest :

Very well put - this is one of the worst bond movies ever.

Nov 19, 2008 2:41 AM

Guest :

I agree with th eabove, I was looking forward to seeing this follow up to Casino Royale but it was poor, especially the so called actions scenes

Nov 19, 2008 4:33 AM

Guest :

I have never liked Bond movies until Casino Royal. That to me was a genuine spy movie, every previous Bond movies i saw just reminded me of a seedy uncle at christmas dinner (thanks to Brosnan). Quantum had a really good foundation to work off. Stylish, darker, no over the top action sequences where watches can stop bullets. Casino Royal was left with some questions that weren't answered but in Quantum i was confused to whether or not they were actually answered. It seems like the writer/s pumped the script out faster than George W. can say "yibbeda yibbeda, thats all folks!". Everything was just loose and left clutching at straws. It wasn't a revenge movie, yet it was, but it was a spy or action movie, yet it was. It was a multi headed beast that in the end failed to live up to the expectations and failed to be a proper sequal.
In terms of directing, the action sequences are pretty much just motion blur that leaves you frustrated at not being able to make out which black figure is which. The whole Bourne ultimatum, shakey camera syndrome is back, which just leaves you begging for a normal pan or static shot. Definately not the worst movie ever, but considering that it's bigger brother is Casino Royal, it just disappears into his shadow.

Dec 8, 2008 11:12 AM

Guest :

OK. Perhaps my last comments were really a review of Casino not having seen QoS. Now I have seen it and there are so many problems with it I do not know where to begin. All the chases are herkey, jerky, shaky stuccato film clips. You can never really see what is going on. This is contrary to the taditional Bond flick replete with detail. And if Craig is gritty, moody, mean & vindictive one can still see a path by which he becomes a cooler if not cold uber-professional agent with a dry, sardonic sense of humor. This Bond clearly appeals to a feminine perspective that escapes me. I understood him not becoming 'involved' with the other women in the 2 flicks as having high standards and was at least relieved to see his response to Fields as, what we would term a normal orientation! Even the opening chase, usually one of the best, is almost visually incomprehensible. Certainly they were purloined from the Bourne genre but somehow Bourne's were more believable.

The opening graphics were not as bad as I feared, but were definitely not 007 quality. Far too much of Craig shooting his Walther PPK .380; (don't make me go into why that is a problem). We have grown accustomed to the sultry, sexual/sensual and awesome graphical intro to the Bond films. This one was not of the same caliber. Ditto on the theme song. I was fearing worse and it was actually passable relating somewhat to the general theme of the film. The barrel scene was placed at the end of the film. I prefer the beginning but in either case it should be presented with high quality graphics and punctuated with 007 theme song riffs. It was not.

Lots of chases. Most are barely watchable. I actually liked the reference to the traditional 13th century Italian Palio horse race in which the riders can use their longer wooden canes to encourage their steeds or discourage their oponents; and the actual event was supposed to be occuring outside of the chase area.

The knife fight was lame. How did the baddie die anyhow? Please tell me not with the little pair of cuticle scissors Bond had. And if the death blow was to the only wounded area shown, the left jugular, where did all the blood go as Bond let him 'bleed out'. Not worry the details because we are soon introduced to THE BOND GIRL. Well, a little anti-climatic because she is not quite as attractive as we are used to although she has very pretty lips. The rest of her seems strangely disporportionate for some reason. It's also strange that she would return to the baddie who just tried to have her whacked. That has little probability for success for someone who we later learn is "Bolivian Secret Service". Oh well, not to worry, we are off on another chase, this time with boats. It is perhaps the best done but for the last scene in which the grappling hook is somehow thrown onto the rubber speed boat and flips it from the front of Bond's boat over the top to the rear...... can't quite figure the physics out on that one. Not to worry, we've docked and Bond mysteriously hands the unconscious maiden who he has just rescued over to a dock attendent...what?

Well were off to track this baddie and somehow reconnected with the GIRL in Bolvia where we eventually learn that the baddie, Mr. Greene of the evil Greene corporation in conjunction with the even eviler Quantum Criminal Consortiuum LLC has concocted a plot wreaking with the venom of true corporate greed, evil captialism and nefarious financier-ship; to wit, steal all the fresh water in where? Why Bolivia of course and sell it back to them Bolivans at double the price! MUAHHAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh). We learn at a big party that times are tough in Bolvia because it is costing a weeks wages for an average Bolvian to buy a gallon of clean water! As I remember, the average Bolvian earns about $0.25 per day making the water cost about $1.75 a gallon; pretty much on par with market values in Cleveland. Perhaps this is not the best country for our get richer quicker scheme.

No matter, we are off to the evil opera where the evil baddies are meeting to plan, well, evil. This is where we reference a modernistic version of the Tosca operatic bloodshed whilst Bond dabbles in the real thing dispatching the body guards of the evil biggies who, now discovered, are making a hasty retreat for the exits faster than attendees at an Al Gore speech.

No matter, while in Bolivia we are matroned by the closest thing to a real Bond girl, agent Fields. Unfortunately we never really figure out what is beneath that trenchcoat although it appears that Bond does. Also unfortunately for Fields and us, she is quickly eliminated by the baddies in what can only be termed as a 'crude' theft of the Goldfinger movie. I would have expected more of a mess but why waste camera time on the slickened Fields when you can spend it on bathroom scenes with....who else....M. Perhaps the most difficult what seemed like 15 minutes of the film was watching M in her bathrobe apply & remove cold creme. The threat itself would have sent Mr. Greene into pro bono philanthropy. Not finished with us yet, M draws her bath and the tension in the theater built noticably as we all began to fear that we would be greeted with an au natural scene of her slipping out of the robe into the tub. Fortunately we were spared that experience (wait for the unedited version coming to DVD soon!). However, it just calls into question what fob with a mommy complex of some sort is calling the shots in these films.

M continues to demostrate why she should not be "M" vacillating from suspecting Bond to needing him back in 00 some 4-5 times during the movie. We did get a glimpse into the possible personality of M's hubby when he meekly announced, "the calls for you dear on your private line". Whatever.

M may welcome Bond back with open arms or have him captured or killed, no matter, the BOND GIRL is rescuing Bond in her getaway car, a 1964 VW Beetle. I guess the Bolivian Secret Service does not get to roll like the 00's in MI6. At least it was a 40HP!

No matter. We are now off to a hotel in the middle of a high plains Bolvian desert. Time to charter a plain...no, not the little Beachcraft Bonanza. Choose the DC-3 with a load of cargo on board. Watch out though, you'll get shot down by the Bolvian Air Force in a single engine Cessna. I guess the BAF doesn't get to roll like the 00's at MI6 either.

No matter because we are both jumping out of this crate with the only parachute. Somehow everything turns out ok because the chute opens about 20 feet off of our LZ, a nice big soft slab of granite.

Its off the the hotel to find the baddies. The hotel, located in the high plains desert of Bolvia, is called the Plaza del Sol. It is completely self-sufficient and powered by...solar....no you idiot, hydrogen fuel cells. In fact, each room appears to have its own hydrogen fuel cell and its accompanying hydrogen supply tank. The maids must make your bed and refill your hydrogen tank when they replace the shampoo in the bath, I guess. Naturally the hotel, located in the high plains Bolvian desert is made substantially of steel & stone. Unfortunately, the steel & stone in Bolvia is not quite as durable as the steel & stone you and I have grown to love as we discover when Bond causes a baddie car to crash through a wall igniting a hydrogen tank. The rest of the hydrogen tanks ignite sequentially. Darn it, I hate when that happens, you just can't get good hydrogen tanks anymore. Again, unfortunately, the Bolvian steel & stone burns more like paper mache. Bond battles the Greene baddie but aborts to rescue the BOND GIRL who is caught up in her own subplot vendetta too trite to be explained here.

You would be better off waiting for this to hit DVD. At least then you can slo-mo or replay the chase scenes making sense of them, spend more time with the slick Agent Fields and most importantly, FFW or skip over M's bathroom escapades. You have been warned.