Quantum Of Solace (2006)Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis
Directed by Marc Forster
So the team had knocked it outta the park with Casino Royale, and they decided they wanted to continue in the style of that film. Campbell declined an invitation to return so director Marc Forster, director of Monsters Ball (which won Halle Berrys' boobs an oscar.)
The film is also marketed as the first 'direct sequel' in the Bond franchise. (Okay - it's the first film to pick up moments after the previous, but From Russia With Love always felt very much like a sequel to Dr. No...)
So the film picks up where Casino Royale left off (kinda) with the pre-titles sequence. It's a car chase, and not a very exciting one. Maybe it's the lack of real music, maybe it's the fact that not very much happens or maybe it's the fact that in certain parts of the scene you can hardly tell what's going on. Anyway, Bond wins. Not the best pre-titles sequence the series has ever had - far from it. Not a fan. Anyway Bond parks up somewhere and hikes Mr. White out of his boot. Which is fine.
We then move on to a pretty bad ass main-titles sequence, with the WORST Bond theme I've ever heard... apart from Die Another Day. It's much better than DAD, but DAD was not only the worst Bond song but one of the worst songs in the history of ever. Madonna? Fuck that.
Dame Shirley Bassey has since released the original song that David Arnold (Bond composer since Tomorrow Never Dies) wrote for the flick. It was rejected - probably because it's a bit... traditional. It is 100% a Bond song, maybe Forster was worried it would make the movie seem old-fashioned. It's a fucking Bond movie - whilst some of the more tired traditions need to be ditched, or re-invented having a decent title song is not one of them.
The titles themselves are excellent. A lot of people don't like them, but they've got real energy and they sure look pretty.
I like Quantum Of Solace, but I don't think it's a perfect movie. Casino Royale worked because it allowed some real character development. Quantum seems more concerned with getting from scene to scene as quickly as possible. It's admirable that the team wanted to craft a tight thriller, but they forgot much of the character that made Casino Royale stand out. It's still there, but to a much lesser degree. Bons still has an arc, largely driven by the return of Mathis and the introduction of Camille, a woman who is consumed by her own quest for personal revenge.
The plot really begins with the following scene. M is nearly assassinated by a member of the organisation that Le Chiffre worked for - and it gives Bond a lead to begin tracking them down. It does seem that the film has hardly begun and we're right into it. We're hardly in and Bond has stacked up an impressive body-count. So we meet the bad guy, we meet the Bond girl and Bond does some country hopping.
It's gone back to formula pretty quickly, but Craig is impressive enough to elevate the proceedings to another level. He's still not playing 'typical' Bond. He's playing a very emotional, yet emotionally-stunted killing machine. The dark-humour that was present in Casino Royale is even more sparse here, as you would expect. But it's still there. Anyone who criticises Craigs' Bond for being humourless obviously hasn't watched his movies.
I often think that Craig is playing the Bond that Dalton wished he could have played. I think Dalton-Bond would have been even darker had the producers allowed him to escape the typical 'Bond trappings' as they have allowed Craigs. I like it. Even the Bond of the early novels is described as a machine by more than one individual.
The theme of personal revenge that we've seen before in Licence To Kill and Die Another Day comes back into play... except not really.
In Quantum Bond is not after personal revenge - he's just doing his job. He even states this repeatedly throughout the flick, but he's ignored by everyone who insist that he wants revenge for the events of Casino Royale. He does want revenge, but it is secondary to doing his job. Camille is interesting as she provides an interesting parallel to Bond - she is what Bond would become if he chose to follow that path.
Ultimately it's this that allows his character to move on.
It was good to see Mathis back, but I would prefer it had he survived. Brilliant character in the Casino Royale novel - would have liked to see him become a recurring character. His first scene is also one of the few scenes in the movie where things get to stop and breathe. Some of his lines are taken directly from the Casino Royale novel - love it.
Mathieu Amalric is a pretty interesting bad guy. He's certainly creepy looking, and he does will with what he's given. He's just not given that much - still you get the feeling that Greene is a thoroughly unpleasant dude. Not to be messed with. Le Chiffre's organisation, now called 'Quantum' is built up to almost SPECTRE like levels. Hopefully we're not done with them.
One of my biggest problems with the movie is the Agent Fields character. She's pretty pointless - she doesn't really add anything to the film, and is killed off before her character has even really been established. It seems she was shoe-horned into the script to give Bond a lay and be the stereotypical sacrificial lamb. There's little point in the character - the film would have been better without her.
This review seems pretty negative, but I actually greatly enjoy it. It's just easy to focus on the negatives in Quantum, largely because it follows one of my favourite Bond films ever. There's too little character and a bit too much action, the story hardly takes any time to breathe.
It's a good film. In my opinion it's better than most people give it credit for... but it's not an excellent film, which is what it really needed to be to live up to Casino Royale.
Directed by Marc Forster
So the team had knocked it outta the park with Casino Royale, and they decided they wanted to continue in the style of that film. Campbell declined an invitation to return so director Marc Forster, director of Monsters Ball (which won Halle Berrys' boobs an oscar.)
The film is also marketed as the first 'direct sequel' in the Bond franchise. (Okay - it's the first film to pick up moments after the previous, but From Russia With Love always felt very much like a sequel to Dr. No...)
So the film picks up where Casino Royale left off (kinda) with the pre-titles sequence. It's a car chase, and not a very exciting one. Maybe it's the lack of real music, maybe it's the fact that not very much happens or maybe it's the fact that in certain parts of the scene you can hardly tell what's going on. Anyway, Bond wins. Not the best pre-titles sequence the series has ever had - far from it. Not a fan. Anyway Bond parks up somewhere and hikes Mr. White out of his boot. Which is fine.
We then move on to a pretty bad ass main-titles sequence, with the WORST Bond theme I've ever heard... apart from Die Another Day. It's much better than DAD, but DAD was not only the worst Bond song but one of the worst songs in the history of ever. Madonna? Fuck that.
Dame Shirley Bassey has since released the original song that David Arnold (Bond composer since Tomorrow Never Dies) wrote for the flick. It was rejected - probably because it's a bit... traditional. It is 100% a Bond song, maybe Forster was worried it would make the movie seem old-fashioned. It's a fucking Bond movie - whilst some of the more tired traditions need to be ditched, or re-invented having a decent title song is not one of them.
The titles themselves are excellent. A lot of people don't like them, but they've got real energy and they sure look pretty.
I like Quantum Of Solace, but I don't think it's a perfect movie. Casino Royale worked because it allowed some real character development. Quantum seems more concerned with getting from scene to scene as quickly as possible. It's admirable that the team wanted to craft a tight thriller, but they forgot much of the character that made Casino Royale stand out. It's still there, but to a much lesser degree. Bons still has an arc, largely driven by the return of Mathis and the introduction of Camille, a woman who is consumed by her own quest for personal revenge.
The plot really begins with the following scene. M is nearly assassinated by a member of the organisation that Le Chiffre worked for - and it gives Bond a lead to begin tracking them down. It does seem that the film has hardly begun and we're right into it. We're hardly in and Bond has stacked up an impressive body-count. So we meet the bad guy, we meet the Bond girl and Bond does some country hopping.
It's gone back to formula pretty quickly, but Craig is impressive enough to elevate the proceedings to another level. He's still not playing 'typical' Bond. He's playing a very emotional, yet emotionally-stunted killing machine. The dark-humour that was present in Casino Royale is even more sparse here, as you would expect. But it's still there. Anyone who criticises Craigs' Bond for being humourless obviously hasn't watched his movies.I often think that Craig is playing the Bond that Dalton wished he could have played. I think Dalton-Bond would have been even darker had the producers allowed him to escape the typical 'Bond trappings' as they have allowed Craigs. I like it. Even the Bond of the early novels is described as a machine by more than one individual.
The theme of personal revenge that we've seen before in Licence To Kill and Die Another Day comes back into play... except not really.
In Quantum Bond is not after personal revenge - he's just doing his job. He even states this repeatedly throughout the flick, but he's ignored by everyone who insist that he wants revenge for the events of Casino Royale. He does want revenge, but it is secondary to doing his job. Camille is interesting as she provides an interesting parallel to Bond - she is what Bond would become if he chose to follow that path.
Ultimately it's this that allows his character to move on.
It was good to see Mathis back, but I would prefer it had he survived. Brilliant character in the Casino Royale novel - would have liked to see him become a recurring character. His first scene is also one of the few scenes in the movie where things get to stop and breathe. Some of his lines are taken directly from the Casino Royale novel - love it.
Mathieu Amalric is a pretty interesting bad guy. He's certainly creepy looking, and he does will with what he's given. He's just not given that much - still you get the feeling that Greene is a thoroughly unpleasant dude. Not to be messed with. Le Chiffre's organisation, now called 'Quantum' is built up to almost SPECTRE like levels. Hopefully we're not done with them.
One of my biggest problems with the movie is the Agent Fields character. She's pretty pointless - she doesn't really add anything to the film, and is killed off before her character has even really been established. It seems she was shoe-horned into the script to give Bond a lay and be the stereotypical sacrificial lamb. There's little point in the character - the film would have been better without her.
This review seems pretty negative, but I actually greatly enjoy it. It's just easy to focus on the negatives in Quantum, largely because it follows one of my favourite Bond films ever. There's too little character and a bit too much action, the story hardly takes any time to breathe.
It's a good film. In my opinion it's better than most people give it credit for... but it's not an excellent film, which is what it really needed to be to live up to Casino Royale.
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