007: Quantum of Solace

(2008)

Directed by

Marc Forster

Review by Todd Plucknett

The new James Bond film Quantum of Solace has been highly anticipated by nearly everyone since its predecessor Casino Royale blew everyone away in 2006. The brilliant Marc Forster directed this film, but I fear that it will disappoint nearly all classic Bond fans (like me), due to its relentless effort to change Bond. We don’t want him changed.

This film is the first Bond installment that is a direct sequel. It picks up almost immediately when Casino Royale left off with a fantastic and thrilling car chase. After that, the film loses all the momentum. It devolves into a somewhat classic Bond plot, but that is not what gets the most attention. It is about James Bond (Daniel Craig) avenging the death of his love, Vesper (Eva Green, in the previous film). The villain is Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a man who is trying to control the water supply in Bolivia by causing droughts throughout the land. Bond gets led to Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who eventually leads him to Greene. Bond is letting his emotions get in the way, making mistakes and committing crimes. M (Oscar-winner Judi Dench) has the most significant part since Pierce Brosnan took over the series. She is under pressure from the government, so she is always seen chasing Bond around the globe, telling him that he is off the case and trying to get him to return to get debriefed. The only other major player in the film is the perfectly named Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton).

Craig gives a fine performance, but he was much better and believable in the previous film. Amalric was excellent as the crazy and sometimes creepy villain. Kurylenko really did not bring anything special to the film, and neither did Arterton. Dench was very good in her supporting role, the best she has been since taking over the role of M. The acting really was not the problem that made the film lack, though. It was, surprisingly, the technical aspects. First, the editing was completely off. The first ten minutes or so were a complete thrill and rush of adrenaline, but then when the film calms into this personal quest for Bond to seek vengeance for Vesper’s death, all that momentum and fun was lost. There were some scenes in the middle that were verging on boring, something that I haven’t felt at a Bond film since the later Roger Moore projects. Even Die Another Day, while unbelievably bad, was still never boring. Oh, and the song…what a horrible clash of styles! I was so annoyed by that obnoxious sound of brilliant musicians Alicia Keys and Jack White completely botching a song that had great potential. It is the worst Bond song in quite some time.

Perhaps the element of the film that put me off the most was the fact that the new “Bond” is not Bond at all. He is a different person. Take the name Bond out of this equation, and this film is nothing more than a mediocre action movie. It does not open with the iconic gunshot scene, and he does not even give the token “Bond. James Bond.” line. It is like an imposter, someone shamelessly trying to fill in for a legendary character. This Bond acted on revenge and emotions, when the Bond we have come to know and love never let emotions get the best of him. He was the coolest and calmest character imaginable. At no point does the audience feel that they are watching perhaps the most iconic character in film history. It feels like pumped up imitation, and nothing more.

There is one scene in particular that really put it in perspective for me of why this film was not working. Bond goes into a building, and he finds a guy on one of the top floors. He kills him, and then goes down to the front desk, grabs a briefcase, and walks outside. A lady invites him into the car, tries to shoot him, and he gets out while she drives away. Bond utters the line, “Well that wasn’t very nice.” We do not chuckle like we did at the undeniably charming Sean Connery when he would utter a similar line. We do not roll our eyes and sarcastically chuckle like we did at the incredible corniness of Roger Moore. The reaction is a cringe. Yes, it was a classic Bond line, but it does not work in this instance at all. He goes into the building, and suddenly he morphs into a Jason Bourne-type character in a hand-to-hand combat situation. He walks out, and all of a sudden he is supposed to be charming and witty? If they wanted him to be Bourne, then they should have stuck with that persona and not tried to mix it with the charm that Daniel Craig will never be able to emit in this setting. Another instance of this phenomenon was when Bond shows up to a party with Fields. How nobody got suspicious of him is beyond me. Everyone else at the party was sipping their cocktails and conversing about whatever, but Bond looked absolutely pissed off. He was clearly frowning and was on the verge of sweating. He stood out like a sore thumb, and no one at the party paid a second look. Bond is supposed to be cool and suave, and that was the opposite. Instances like that are the kinds of things that can ruin a movie for me.

Having said all that, there were some things that make the film almost worth the price of admission. The story is consistently interesting, thanks to the brilliant and incredibly cool performance by Amalric. Some of the scenery was great, which could be accredited to the fact that it took place in several different exotic locations. The closing scenes are incredible and perfectly shot, leaving the audience with at least some sort of satisfaction upon leaving the cinema. Also, some of the sequences were breathtaking, particularly a scene where Bond falls through the sky-roof of a building. Unfortunately, that scene really kills itself with typical action clichés. Bond and the other guy are swinging on ropes hanging from the ceiling in combat no more impressive than a Tomb Raider scene. Then, Bond is at a freefall and miraculously gets one of the ropes to wrap around his ankle to save his life…phew…never could have seen that one coming. The film is full of fairly standard order action sequences like that one.

I don’t know. Maybe I would have liked this film more if I hadn’t associated it with other Bond films. If I would have gone in thinking it was just another action movie with a bit of plot, I may have liked it. Something that bears the name Bond has a standard to live up to, something that Casino Royale did, saving us from the trend of subpar and mediocre ones that Pierce Brosnan continued. This one was broken with the writing of the screenplay, however. The story was fine, but it is how Bond was written that killed it. It was supposed to be fresh, but it came off as frustrating. I expected better from Marc Forster. He has proved himself to be a brilliant director, with fantastic films of all genres such as The Kite Runner and Monster’s Ball. But now with his failure Stay and Quantum of Solace, it proves that Forster cannot direct everything, but he still does. I suppose I am curious to see where he goes from here, but I just hope it is better than this.

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