QUANTUM OF SOLACE
SONY
RELEASED 31 October 2008
Rebooting the Bond franchise in 2006 was quite an achievement, considering how far it had fallen. Daniel Craig made the character his own in just one movie, and also gave the character 'more character' than Bond had had since the ill-fated George Lazenby effort 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. Director Martin Campbell was responsible for relaunching Bond twice with 'Goldeneye' and now 'Casino Royale', so 'Quantum of Solace' director Marc Forster (Monsters Ball, Finding Neverland, and, cough, terrible Ewan McGregor movie no. 34 'Stay' cough, cough) would seem to have had all the hard work done for him. Knock out a cracking continuation of the story started in 'Casino', and let's find out what this big shadowy organisation is all about. Well, that's actually one of the big problems I have with the film. But let's get a quick synopsis out of the way first.
As soon as the movie starts, Bond’s Aston Martin is being chased down a long underpass by two other cars. He gets hit in the side and loses his door, but manages to make it to a quarry with only one car still in pursuit. Losing this one too over a cliff-face, Bond finally pulls up in a dark underground tunnel. Opening the boot, we find Mr White (Jesper Christiansen) from the end of the first movie in there. Bond quips, 'time to get out'. Cue the opening credits to the music of Jack White and Alicia Keys, a slightly edited version as sandy images of ladies and guns swish on and off the screen in carousel, kaleidoscopic style.
We're told by the on-screen title card that we're now in Siena, Italy, still in the underground catacombs Bond drove into, and MI6, headed by 'M' (Dame Judi Dench) is wanting to know what Mr White knows, and she says it will be painful if he resists. Before you know it, Mr White says we have people everywhere, and one of the MI6 agents in the room starts shooting, allowing White to get away and making a run for it himself. Bond follows, over rooftops (in a slightly similar fashion to another movie character on a recent 'Ultimatum'), and they both fall through a glass ceiling and dangle on ropes until Bond gets that closing gun shot moment of the trailers off to end the fight. An enraged 'M' says, 'Florists say we have people everywhere!', in unbelieving reference to White's claim which is ominously backed up by the double-MI6 agent who has years of clean service on his record.
The story continues onto various locales around the world. There is a fast, vicious fight that sees Bond punch with a book briefly (hmm, where have I seen that before...), Bond girls Camille (Olga Kurylenko) and MI6 Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton) are introduced, businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) is the bad guy behind a plot to destabilise Bolivia, Bond rides a motorbike, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright again) pops up, The Bregenz Festival House in Austria is home to an arty sequence not seen in a Bond movie before, Bond gets his licence revoked, old friend Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) reappears, Bond cuddles a dying man, there’s a plane battle, there’s a reference to ‘Goldfinger’, the finale is explosive, and the Vesper Lynd storyline reaches closure.
Filmed in six different countries this time (a Bond record), the plot is far simpler than 'Casino Royale', and that's actually the first problem I had with the film. It unfolds at a nice pace, but as you reach the end, I felt like we hadn't really ended up going anywhere. We don't find out who this 'shadowy organisation' is, even though they get mentioned every ten minutes. Greene is the villain of the piece, and although promising at first, he actually ends up being a weak opponent for Bond. Let's face it, he doesn't come close to Daniel Craig physically, so when they fight at the end, it's definitely an uneven match-up. The 'Elvis' henchman doesn't get to do anything in the film other than fall down some stairs and hold a gun waiting to get blown up. This character should surely have been a martial-arts trained opponent for Bond, but he's completely irrelevant. When these bad guys start turning up with names like Mr White and (Mr) Greene, I assumed it would lead to us being shown the big boss as either a new Blofeld character, or a Mr Black behind it all. The rumour from months back that Al Pacino was in fact going to be this mega opponent would probably have been a masterstroke, if handled properly. But no, the movie finishes, and we know no more than we did at the end of 'Casino Royale'!
Now 'Casino Royale' didn't have some of the well-known elements of Bond movies (gadgets, one-liners), but 'Quantum of Solace' does nothing to even begin to reintroduce these elements, which seems a bit strange for a secret agent working for MI6 in 2008 not to have any gadgets. His phone looks nice, but that's hardly exclusive to a secret agent. Although the opening car chase is competent work, it's way too brief and simplistic. Bond openings are supposed to be memorable, and this one simply ain't. Before the title credits there is no white ball rolling along the screen for our 007 to shoot at us and blood to fall down. Where's that gone? That was even in 'Casino Royale'. It appears at the end of the movie. Why? The opening title credits have to be one of the weakest title sequences I've seen for years. They are generally based around sand, and it looks like a rushed idea to me. The song is pretty original, so I was disappointed by the imagery. The Jack White and Alicia Keys music video is more interesting, which certainly shouldn't be the case.
So I'm sounding pretty negative so far, but I just have a big problem with changing the important elements of the Bond movie. It has to have a stunning action-packed opening sequence. It has to have 'wow' title credits. And it has to have the Bond guitar theme, at least for a few seconds. But what action it does have is good. The rooftop chase is probably the best action sequence in the film. It's the longest, the most adventurous, and it has some cool stunts on offer. The car chase is good, but not good enough to open the movie with. When Bond fights opponents with his fists, the choreography is clear and cut cleanly. The final sequence in the blazing hotel (which is a memorable design harking back to some classic Ken Adams designs) really looks dangerous, and I'd say it's one of the best finales to a Bond movie, which is an area where Bond has faltered in the past.
Daniel Craig once again fails to put a foot wrong. The emotions surrounding his quest for answers rise to the surface in either sharp responses to his boss 'M', or in quieter moments like the death of Mathis or the revealing scene in the cave with Camille. He always has a deadly look in his eyes, and he always looks like he'd beat you the punch every time. I think this movie has Judi Dench's best Bond work yet. Every line sounds like exactly what she would say, and it almost erases the horrible use of her character for the ill-judged 'kidnap' plot from 'The World is Not Enough'. Olga Kurylenko is fine, but Gemma Arterton is sorely short-changed, and her rising career will be testament to that.
The script is always intelligent, and I can't remember one line that sounded awkward. There's certainly no 'is that watch a Rolex? No it's an Omega' awfulness here. In fact, the product placement from 'Casino Royale' (watch, Ford cars, Sony laptops, phones) is almost non-existent here, which does allow you to enjoy the story more rather than have an advert shoved in your face every ten minutes.
I just have to come back to the story. I really don't feel there's much of a story here, and I think everyone involved has done a pretty stunning job considering this. Greene never gets close to actually creating any real chaos. We don't discover anything about the real bad guys. In fact, it certainly looks like we might well be returning to this main storyline again in the next movie. If we do, the writers must develop the over-arching mastermind plot or I fear we'll never get anywhere and audiences will get bored of waiting. I was really waiting for some payoff with 'Quantum of Solace' (oh, by the way, we do get told, quite out of hand, that the bad guys appear to go by the group name of 'Quantum') but I don't think it ever comes. Oh, and the movie is only an hour and forty-five minutes long, but it felt like an easy two hours, which suggested to me that the story wasn't eventful enough. The Vesper plotline is closed satisfactorily, but I was hoping for a little bit more than that. 'Quantum of Solace' is a really well-made movie that sadly feels a little underwhelming and safe. Not a bad movie by any means, just not one I have much excitement at seeing again.
THREE OUT OF FIVE