‘Quantum of Solace’ Review
Quantum of Solace Review (12A)
Cast: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Gemma Arterton
Director: Marc Foster
Running Time: 107 minutes
After ‘Casino Royale’ I really thought that it was a sign that Bond really was back and could only get better. But the film was just like the musical theme for Quantum of Solace. Good in parts, but parts were like someone was scraping their nails down a blackboard.
Now I’m not going into the story much for a couple of reasons. One, I’ll give a lot of it away, and 2, it didn’t flow very well and seemed all over the place at times so couldn’t tell you if I wanted to.
I had heard the opening scene was amazing and will knock you off your seat, but I couldn’t even see what was going on. I think it was a car chase scene, but I’m not really sure. The way it was edited was terrible, and really ruined the opening for me and knew the film would have to be something good to improve on what I’d just seen.
But sadly, it never really shook me to my core like Casino Royale did.
The spine of the storyline is about Bond on his revenge mission to find out who was responsible for the death of his love Vesper. So in that aspect you see a much moodier Bond who really doesn’t care about questioning people anymore, just inflicting pain upon others to vent his anger.
This is done quite well and you do see a different side to Bond that I haven’t seen before and quite liked the change. You see him drunk, angry and quite upset, and I agree with people when they say it’s gritty for a Bond film.
Apart from that, the rest of the storyline was quite weak. The bad guy wasn’t really evil, just crooked, and he had no desire for world domination….just water!!
I know there weren’t many gadgets in Casino Royale because they were re-imaging Bond, but Quantum of Solace seemed to have none whatsoever apart from Bond’s Sony Ericsson phone.
Daniel Craig was brilliant as Bond however, and he never faltered in jumping straight back into 007’s shoes. The rest of the cast put in solid performances and I think this helped in making Quantum an average film.
Some of the action scenes did look quite cool, and I was impressed, but the majority were awful. I wish these “Movie Professionals” would stop thinking that the faster you move the action then the better it looks. I really despise this kind of camera work and it really does put a massive drain on the film.
Overall I was left disappointed by Quantum of Solace, but it did have some decent moments in there that should keep you happy enough for a couple of hours – if you haven’t seen it yet, you should take a look at the Quantum of Solace trailer for yourself and decide if you want to see more of it. But overall it wasn’t a patch on Casino Royale – I think the only reason it’s done so well at the cinemas is because of the success of Casino Royale.
3 out of 5
Ender
Related Pages:
- New Bond – Quantum of Solace Trailer
- The Path of Zath – Volume 13
- ‘Tropic Thunder’ Review
- ‘Wanted’ Review
- ‘Rambo Four Movie’ Review
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Comments: 1
9:28 am 11th November, 2008
I love the new bond style; it’s a lot more gritty and ‘jason bourne’ like. For me the lack of lasers hidden up his nose and watches that have more functions that a swiss army knife is quite cool.
In terms of action I think this film has more than Casino Royale and as I said above; there are a few moments where you could think you were watching a bourne film.
Overall I think I would give it a 4/5.
Comments: 1
3:23 pm 14th November, 2008
I did enjoy this film intitially, but as the movie progressed I felt tired and unimpressed with what I feel is becoming an over extended trilogy.
I HYPED Quantum of Solace on EverHYPE and scored it 86%, which I think is very accurate.
http://www.everhype.com/hyper/mikeborgia?X=M679
If you get on there rate me a 5 on it and request friendship.
Comments: 1
2:49 pm 24th November, 2008
I saw QoS recently with my girlfriend. We agreed that it is much better than the last one (I have to say we´re not so into Texas Hold´em
) Although I like Brosnan as a bond, Craig is more a guarantor for cool and hard action. I´m looking for the next one!
Comments: 174
6:50 pm 9th December, 2008
I do like the new style of Bond and think that they had to go in that direction after the two of Brosnan’s films – Tomorrow Never Dies (awful plot and villain) and Die Another Day (awful plot, concept and gadgets) which I thought were dreadful.
That said I quite liked his other two, Goldeneye and The World Is Not Enough, so I’m guessing it’s maybe certain writers/directors styles I didn’t like – I never had a problem with Brosnan and like other stuff he’s done like Thomas Crown affair.
Anyway, I went to see Quantum of Solace having re-watched Casino Royale the night before.
@Peter – I can definite appreciate re-watching Casino Royale that if you have no real interest in Poker, then a lot of that film must really drag – but I like the whole film’s style overall.
I’m glad I did re-watch it though, as it really does follow straight on from the previous one, I quite liked that aspect and the whole film was enjoyable, despite coming away agreeing with what Ender says about the beginning’s style of camera work taking something away from the great stunt work.
I liked the overall storyline being one of controlling water, I think it’s quite forward-thinking and might likely be a resource that people start fighting over in years to come!
I thought the “organisation” meeting was quite cool and am left wanting to know more about them in future films and will probably need to watch it again when released on DVD to get the plot and double-crosses properly straight in my head.
Overall, I liked it and think Daniel Craig makes a great gritty bond and look forward to seeing future movies – I’d probably give it 4/5 myself.
Comments: 7
10:07 pm 9th December, 2008
I did enjoy Quantum of Solace, but it doesn’t stand on its own two feet as a film.
A lot has clearly been lifted from the Bourne franchise, which was self evident in Quantum of Solace following so closely Casino Royale.
I need to see Quantum of Solace again because I felt there was a lot going on that I just couldn’t process while watching it the first time around…