This sequel to Casino Royale, which was one of the best Bonds in the series, is a more average Bond adventure. It continues the story arc that was started in Casino Royale, but on the whole Quantum of Solace is over a grade level below Casino Royale in terms of almost everything. In that sense, Casino Royale was up and beyond Quantum of Solace in almost every aspect.
At 106 minutes, it’s one of the shortest Bond movies. It opens 20 minutes after where Casino Royale left off, with Bond wounding and capturing Mr. White, a leader in the criminal organization Quantum. Seeking revenge, Bond goes after Quantum alone. Travelling from Austria to Bolivia, the locales in Quantum of Solace are nice and pleasurable enough. When M16 tries to apprehend Bond, he escapes and joins forces with former ally Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) and Russian-Bolivian agent Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko) to bring down major Quantum leader Dominic Green (Mathieu Amalric), who is stealing Bolivia’s water supply.
Quantum of Solace is a barely passable, average Bond movie to the franchise. The movie makes frequent references to previous Bond flicks, but the filmmakers chose to combine those with worldwide issues going on today—and quite frankly that mix did not fit together all too well.
Craig is the same as before. His role hasn’t exactly improved in any way, but he has improved on his fighting skills! Not that it really matters, but Bond is now again using his trademark Walther PPK instead of a P99.
I didn’t care for most of the action sequences. The camera is up too close and cuts too quickly, so we can’t tell what’s going on other then Bond is defeating the villains whether he’s using a gun, knife of his hands.
For the most part, the film was entertaining. But even so, a revenge picture does not a good Bond pic made. That was tested in with 1989’s License to Kill, and the results didn’t work. The same goes for here.
***/5
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