Quantum Of Solace (Film)

QUANTUM OF SOLACE
Dir: Marc Foster
UK/USA, 2008
(24/03/09)

There is little doubt that Casino Royale (Campbell, UK/USA/Germany/Czech Rep, 2006) was a return to form for the bond franchise with Daniel Craig throwing himself full throttle into the role. It was received to rapturous reviews and many fans were calling for director Martin Campbell to helm this film, which is a direct sequel(he also, incidentally, directed the best Bond film of the nineties, Pierce Brosnan's pilot Goldeneye (U.S.A/U.K, 1995)). This may have been a better idea as it seems everything they got right in the first film, which was more then they got wrong, they mess up in this one, the only real improvement being the plot.

Whereas Casino Royale consisted of a story extended around the gimmick of a poker tournament, this one encompasses more of a large conspiracy theory featuring a huge organization (QUANTUM, an attempt to create a new SPECTRE) that is more suitable to the Bond canon. There are some nice little attempts in the screenplay to tie it in with modern events, such as Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric, playing the villain with the relish that all bond villains should be played with, despite lacking any defining eccentricity besides eating an apple too enthusiastically), trying to convince a CIA operative that his plan for the Bolivia is good for America as they are losing control of South America whilst being distracted in the Middle East. In fact his character being an environmentalist with a hidden motive is a nice touch. Industrialists used to be hailed as the saviors but became corrupt, are the new wave of environmentalists any different? There's also dashes of clever dialog, such as when Bond is talking with Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) in a bar and bonds says "I like the way you [the Americans] carved this place [South America] up". "I'll take that as a compliment coming from a Brit." Replies Felix. Sadly, these little nuances which improve the script (and feel like one of the contributions of Paul Haggis) are lost by the immediacy of which chases and shootouts have to occur, and there lies the real problem of the film.

Setting itself a few minutes after the climax of Casino Royale, it opens immediately with a car chase through the streets of an Italian city. The problems that betray this film throughout are glaring straight away; the action scenes consist of some of the worst editing seen in a big-budget blockbuster in my memory. The editing is so incoherent that the numerous chase sequences seem to have footage missing and make very little sense, and for the sharper eyed viewer, there are several continuity errors to do with positioning of people and vehicles, one such being when a car goes careening off the edge of a road to the left of Bonds car when half a second earlier in the previous shot it was on the right side if his car. I was just about able to work out that there were some vehicles (be it boats, planes or cars) chasing each other and that someone was being shot at. The opening chase made almost no sense with bonds car door getting ripped off without us seeing, trucks coming from no where, confusing scenery changes and no sense of where any of the cars are in relatio to each other. After this sequence when Bond pulls his battered, bullet strewn car to a halt, he pulls Mr. White (Jesper Christian) out of the boot which miraculously escaped bullet-hole free. The fighting and close combat scenes fare slightly better but are still somewhat erratic, and this squanders some potentially great sequences such as Bond and Camille (Olga Kurylenko) on a battered old plane up against a modern fighter jet and a combat helicopter. The action scenes are central to the Bond franchise and after some brilliantly choreographed fighting in Casino Royale (especially the scene on the cranes which took my breath away) this is a huge disappointment.

The film also tries to show Bond as a man out for revenge, trying to fight the organization that led to Vesper Lynd's (Eva Green in Casino Royale) death. This isn't portrayed satisfyingly enough for us to feel that this is the real Bond having these feelings. At times he seems childish, and elsewhere plain cold hearted, as in the way he treats Rene Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini, reprising his role from the previous film) which is harsh and difficult to sympathize with. There are other plot inconsistencies: why exactly does Bond save Camille from the boat she is on with General Madrano (Joaquin Cosio) when she seems in no immediate danger and of no help to him? Is her role particularly necessary in the film at all, other then a scene similar to the one in Casino Royale where Bond comforts Vesper in a shower, except this time in a burning room, the flames, like the water, representing a purge.

It's certainly not the worst of the twenty-two Bonds films, and perhaps expectations were too high, but it is still a let down. If only the personal bits were as well written as the central plot, or ejected altogether, and the action scenes better constructed, this could have been much better. Daniel Craig certainly should carry no blame, he plays Bond as he is asked to, but i think some of the criticisms from the previous film, that he is less suave and sophisticated and more middle class thug have more baring here. In one scene, agent Fields (Gemma Arterton) takes Bond to a small hotel. Bond immediately leaves and relocates them to a far glossier and more expensive one, which can't help but raise the thought that Bond is wasting British taxpayer's money, simply because he has an ego to maintain. The screenwriters also make the British and American governments complicit somewhat in QUANTUM's plans, which is a good move that makes the film more modern and believable, but all of this added together left me wondering exactly who or what Bond is fighting for, as he seems more interested in showing off and jet-setting then Queen and country.