Movie Review: Quantum of Solace (2008)
This was the first James Bond movie I saw in theaters, and just my luck, it’s basically the first James Bond movie that pays any attention to continuity. It’s yet another example of how the Daniel Craig movies were trying to be different for the series. But this one also wasn’t received too well, so they would sort of change their approach.
Marc Forster directs this movie, and his sort of inexperience at shooting action scenes comes through. He’s actually a pretty accomplished director, but he hadn’t done anything quite like this previously, and I think it shows.
That having been said, the action is still the best aspect of this movie. It’s not shot that well, and it seems definitely inspired by the Bourne movies, which had sort of eclipsed Bond in popularity and influence for this short window in time, but they’re pretty well choreographed, and display some nice stunt work.
Unfortunately, the plot stuff isn’t too great. It starts out as a revenge thing for Vesper’s death, and then eventually there’s an attempt to commodify all the water in the world or something. If I’m not mistaken, that’s basically the plot to the flop film Sahara.
Evil villain plots in this series are always a bit of a delicate line, because I can definitely enjoy some of the goofier ones. But this movie takes itself far too seriously for its plot.
This movie attempts a few lighthearted moments — probably a bit more than Casino Royale. There’s a Bond girl very much in the tradition of the Connery movies, with the name Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton), though I don’t believe they say her first name in the movie.
Anyways, when she dies, it’s just a big homage to Goldfinger. So there’s that.
This movie also has one of the biggest pet peeves of the series for me. It has an evil mastermind that ends up being a physical match for Bond.
Now I don’t excuse this idea in principal. Obviously someone like Red Grant (who is sort of the primary villain of From Russia with Love), or Trevelyan from GoldenEye is going to be a match. But it’s definitely weird seeing Blofeld do action movie stuff in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. This movie may have the worst example of that in the series, particularly since the villain looks like this.
Mathieu Amalric does a decent job in the movie, and he’s actually an actor that I’ve come to like a lot in other works like Munich and The Grand Budapest Hotel. But this guy should get his ass handed to him in a few seconds gonig up against Daniel Craig.
When I first saw this movie, I definitely didn’t like it. I can appreciate it a little more now. It’s very flawed, but it manages to be pretty thrilling still.
Rating: 6/10
