Directed
by: Marc Forster
Premise: The twenty-second James Bond film, following 2006’s Casino
Royale. Bond (Daniel Craig) tracks the people who killed Vesper, his
love interest in the previous film, and uncovers a plot by members of Quantum,
an international terrorism ring, to stage a coup in Bolivia and take control of
its natural resources.
What
Works: Daniel Craig returns as Agent 007 and continues to develop this
incarnation of the character into one of the most interesting spies on film
What
Doesn’t: Quantum of Solace is rather disappointing as an action film and as a
mystery. The film is not very successful at conveying the puzzle Bond has to
uncover. The exposition is clumsily handled and the story jerks the audience
around from one place to another with no sense of purpose. Exactly who Bond is
chasing and why is never clear. The action scenes are not very inspired, showing
a lot of influence from other action films, namely a parachute scene from Eraser and the rooftop chase in The
Bourne Ultimatum. Aside from the derivative nature of the action scenes,
their editing and cinematography are clumsy and nauseating and become a lot of
aural and visual noise with no sense of direction. The characters are also
lifeless; where Bond is a dynamic character who is forced to balance personal
and professional priorities, the characters around him are flat and
uninteresting. For a spy film there is little intrigue either between the
characters or in the mystery that Bond has to uncover. With no tension in the
plot and nothing apparently at stake, the story gets more and more haphazard as
it goes on, jumping from one action sequence to the next with very little to
sustain the film between each set piece.
Bottom
Line: Quantum of Solace is a
disappointment. It is not terrible and 007 fanatics will probably want to check
it out but as an action film and as a Bond film this is a big step backwards.