MORE HITS THAN MISSES by BILL KOENIG Grade:B+ To be honest, I was prepared to dislike Quantum of Solace. The first quarter of the film featured grainy color photography, jerky camera movements and often indecipherable action scenes. In short, it seemed like a Bourne ripoff masquerading as a James Bond movie. Suddenly, though, the film rights itself. It was as if director Marc Forester had a V-8 moment and said to himself, “Wait a minute! I’m doing the wrong film series!” First to recap. As everyone should know by now, Quantum of Solace is a direct sequel to Casino Royale, even beginning a short while after the conclusion of the 2006 movie. That’s a first for the Bond series; the closest this had occurred before was how From Russia With Love made a few references to Dr. No (Kronsteen musing about the chance for SPECTRE to get a personal revenge against Bond, Sylvia talking about the last time she saw Bond and how 007’s arrival in Istanbul is staged in a similar, yet different way, as Dr. No). So we’ve got Bond with unsettled business, and we see exactly what happened to the mysterious Mr. White at the end of Casino Royale. So far, so good. The movie, though, quickly erupts into an extended set piece full of the aforementioned jerky camera moves and grainy color photography. Maybe it’s the combination but there were some shots where it’s almost easy to mistake Daniel Craig for Matt Damon. M is suddenly addicted to text messaging after showing no signs of such an affliction in Casino Royale, which occurred in the supposedly recent past. Also, Bond in adopting a more modern guise, adds more cynicism and more edge of the dog-eats-dog, who-knows-when-the-next-double-cross-will-happen Bourne movies. The CIA is willing to consider bumping off Bond if he gets in their way and, in general, people are no damn good. Before I began looking at my watch, though, a sequence turns the movie in a different direction. Set at an opera, it was at least visually appealing and the darned camera stopped moving so I could take it what was going on. Things continued to improve when not only Bond came across as smart and deadly (up until now we had seen plenty of deadly) but the scene actually becomes a tribute to Bond’s past. Key members of QUANTUM, the organization behind the evil goings-on of the Craig era, are in effect having a board of directors meeting, a la an early scene of Thunderball. Except in this incarnation, they’re using earpieces and miniature microphones to communicate in the midst of the opera. It was a reasonably clever idea but goes one better when Bond breaks into their wireless communication and begins taking digital photos of the conspirators. Finally! Bond is Bond, not Jason Bourne. It’s not the only homage (there are two others and one of them would be a major spoiler, so I won’t specify them) but its main importance is as a turning point in getting the QoS ship pointed in the right direction. The jerky camera movements still come up in some action scenes but they’re a lot easier to take. Also helping things out are acting performances by Daniel Craig as 007 and, as usual, Judi Dench as M. Jeffrey Wright gets some nice scenes as Felix Leiter, though he’s not as utilized as he could be. The crew has largely been overhauled but holdover composer David Arnold delivers what may be his best Bond score. That probably won’t placate Arnold critics but, at least to me, the score is a major positive.  The tag team writing team (Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis & Robert Wade get the credit but at least one additional uncredited scribe did some final polishes) delivers more hits than misses. Finally, the 106-minute running time, the shortest in the series, is a plus; the film is tight, something that Eon hasn’t always delivered. The ending leaves things wide open for future adventures for a tougher, yet recognizable, Ian Fleming-created James Bond. That’s probably the best news to emerge from the film. Whatever editing or photography tricks of the moment, Quantum of Solace shows that Bond remains adaptable and entertaining in the 21st Century. And that’s a good thing. Copyright © 2008 Bill Koenig Contact the Author:   BILL KOENIG

Return to HMSS on QOS HMSS FILMS SECTION HMSS CONTENTS