Quantum of Solace Review

Bond, aggrieved but in denial about his lover's death is on a bloodthirsty rampage. Does he find out who was behind it? Does he gain a quantum of solace? Find out.

The shooting of this film had been plagued with accidents. The stunts were supposedly that good. The trailer looked impressive. And yours truly, having missed the chance to see Casino Royale on the big screen didn't miss this chance and was there, first day first show to catch this one. Quantum picks up right after the events of Casino. The film opens with a breakneck, albeit frenetic chase scene...in which Bond is bringing his captive back for interrogation.
The film was ...well to be honest I don't know how to describe this film yet. Is Daniel Craig a good Bond? Depends on what your idea of who bond is, if you love the bond of the films, then sadly he isn't. But thats not his fault. The entire series has gone through a reinvention. But if you have some idea as to how the original novels had described bond, then the answer is a resounding yes. As anyone can figure out, there are certain trade offs to reinventing a franchise. You will end up losing a few fans and gaining some new ones. The silky smoothness, the suave appearance, the suits, the gadgets and the one liners are gone. Instead we have a way more believable super spy- he bleeds, he can be wounded, and he is one ice cold killing machine. And believe you will, Daniel Craig is that good.
The wow factor is more subtle now, in the previous films you would know that the car would be amazing, and that bond would be unhurt, and he would manage a cool line before getting rid of the bad guy. While that had it's own stupid charm, it was getting too old. Here you are amazed by how he keeps his cool even when his car is hurtling towards the ledge. He isn't smiling, he knows the risks, and he does bleed, gets bruised. But man oh man what a MAN! Okay now that we are done with praising Craig, lets move on to the film.

The films main flaw , or what I strongly felt was the major one, was that its trying to be too breakneck in its narrative. We get it, its an all out action version, but a little more exposition wouldn't have hurt. And this is one of those rare action films where the actor actually has the chops to pull off scenes that doesn't require a stunt man. The story progresses too fast. I would have liked a better pacing. To top that off the pacing isn't helped by the often spastic cutting syndrome. This is where Martin Campbell is sorely missed. Marc Foster, quantum's director seemed to only know the close up and the mid close shots. So the action looked (in some places) like a blur. And this is even more frustrating because we already know Craig can do action very nicely. There was no need for such a shot setup. I seem to have inadvertently put the blame on the editors of this film too, but that wasn't my intention. Some of the action is edited beautifully, and it IS a lot of hard work. And most of it has paid off quite well.But the fault lies with the director here, his decisions had a waterfall effect on how the film would be setup, shot and edited. If only Marc foster had decided to place the camera a little further away from the action. Now I am not saying Craig is a judoka or anything, but in casino he went through quite a pumelling and managed to look good while doing it. And in this film, the quick cut plagues some of the car chase and other chases too, where it was not required.

Also,Foster seems to LOVE inter cutting between the actual event to another side story altogether. The interrogation is constantly inter cut with the horse race. Unless there was some entirely different stunt caper thought out, there was no need to show that a dozen times. This isn't monster's ball Foster. Get over it already. Which brings me to the other question, if the producers knew beforehand that they would do a direct sequel, why not bring in Martin to direct it? It would certainly have had a more uniform feel in terms of camera work and editing. Quantum as a standalone film feels less like a bond film and more in the ranks of those spastic quick cut Bourne films(yes, i don't like them much,so what?). My advise is watch Casino right before you go in to see Quantum, that way it might feel like a single story, albeit a long viewing experience.

A few minor problems. Was it me or was the makeup all different in different shots? The bond title track is the worst I have heard. Although nice titling sequence. I liked the slightly anti American rant(who doesn't!). It was good to see the REAL original super spy outsmart the Americans. And lastly the product placement. I would have hoped it would have been slightly lesser but oh well. And in spite of being a fan of Sony Ericsson,the taking photographs from so far away and identifying faces with facial recognition software bit is laughable to say the least. Watch out for the first official film appearance of Windows Longhorn multitouch interface though... that made me feel all warm and gooey inside.

So , is it worth watching? Oh yes! Specially on the big screen. But you might just slip up and say oh Bourne, Jason Bourne.( Funny how they match, eh? J(james/jason) B(bond/bourne))
Incidentally if they were to fight it out, who would win? My money is on Bond. Another solid outing for Craig as bond, but lackluster when compared to the stellar Casino Royale. Lets hope Campbell comes back to direct another one, or better yet, Marc Foster doesn't return.