|
 |
NO SOLACE FROM QUANTUM by James McMahon
Grade: B-
Way back when Michael G. Wilson proudly promised audiences that Quantum of Solace would have twice the action of Casino Royale, I knew that I'd have problems with this movie. There is already a surfeit of action movies out there every year. So we need to ask, how does a 007 film distinguish itself. What does a Bond movie have to offer that those films don’t have? That they can’t have? Well, James Bond himself, of course! Ian Fleming’s James Bond is a wonderful character, and a complex one at that. Casino Royale remembered that fact. Quantum of Solace does not. Action should support a Bond movie, but never dominate it as it does in Quantum. Of course Bond films should have action, but never be ”Action Movies.“ The plot would have you believe that Dominic Greene is the villain of this movie, but the true villains are Matt Chesse and Richard Pearson. Who are they? The film editors! Director Marc Forster complained that they had only five weeks to edit the film, but the lack of time should have resulted in fewer edits, not more. Using a rapid series of edits has become the style du jour for action film editing, but in Quantum, the technique is carried too far. The editing is so frenetic; it turns the action into incomprehensible blurs of colors and whirlwind snatches of imagery. You can’t tell who is doing what to whom. Instead of involving the viewer, the opposite happens and the confused viewer simply dials out of the movie until the action is over. It is a true shame that audiences do not get to see what Craig and the stunt crew labored so hard to perform. The editing renders all their hard work immaterial. I do suspect there was a lot of cool action in Quantum, but I’ve really no way to know until I can get the DVD and run the chases and fight scenes in super-slow motion. After the opening Action Scene, and before the next Action Scene can start, we get the opening titles and theme song. ”Another Way to Die,“ is easily my least favorite Bond theme ever. If John Barry were dead he’d be spinning in his grave. To protect their reputations I will not even mention Alicia Keys and Jack White’s names, here. Nope. I won’t do that. The titles are usually a highlight of a Bond film, but here in place of the superb Daniel Kleinman’s designs we get titles by something called ”MK12.“ Perhaps they should have hired MK13 or 14 instead, because MK12 is just not quite up to the task. They’re not awful, just merely workmanlike. We have director Marc Forster to thank for this. He has worked with MK12 on previous projects and invited them in to do titles for Quantum in place of the excellent Mr. Klineman. David Arnold, whom I generally like, turns in a mixed bag of a score here. There are some nice uses of the James Bond theme allowed to insinuate themselves here and there, plus good use of Vesper’s theme. Unfortunately the song that is most frequently sampled is the theme song. Generally, the music in the few slow scenes is the best, with ”Night at the Opera,“ as an example. Too often Mr. Arnold seems to put his emphasis first on making the music sound native to the locale, and only second, if at all, making it sound like 007 music. I think that’s getting the cart in front of the horse. What is disappointing most often is the action music. It’s a mere collection of loud staccato beats with very little of any melody in it. When you listen to what John Barry was able to accomplish with his majestic, sweeping action music, this score is all the more disappointing. What little story is allowed to intrude itself between action scenes concerns Bond’s quest to discover who was behind the manipulation and death of Vesper, Bond’s one true love from Casino Royale. The trail leads him all over the world in pursuit of Dominic Greene and the shadowy QUANTUM organization. Along the way Bond meets Camille, who also has revenge on her mind. Greene is involved in a plan to corner the water supply of Bolivia. No, I’m not making that up. That’s it. That’s his plan. Yes, I said Bolivia. Quantum of Solace really doesn’t have a plot in the sense that word normally applies to the structure of a script. Instead we get a succession of somewhat repetitive scenes, which fail to build upon one another to create any pacing, tension or a proper plot structure. Director Marc Forster has said he’s never directed action before, and I fear it shows. This is the wrong type of Bond film for him. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ve hear that co-producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson trade off doing the films, and that Casino Royale was hers. That would make this one Wilson’s. Perhaps Forster would have been better at doing the next 007 movie, a Barbara Broccoli film, if its script is more in line with Casino’s. We’ll never know. Forster has already said he will not be back next time. I for one will not miss him. Although the film has conceits about exploring Bond’s tortured soul, and how he deals with his raging desire for revenge, ultimately shaping him into the cold, professional agent he becomes by the end of the movie, the truth is there just isn’t enough time given to character to give those claims any weight. The choice was made to minimize that so that there could be more action, more action, more action. As this is the shortest 007 movie ever, it seems to me more time could have easily been added to the movie to help flesh out plot and character. It certainly should have been. The stage was set for it. It was sorely needed. When Bond ”rescues“ Camille from a boat in the harbor it’s just an excuse for another action scene. There is no basis in character or plot for his doing so. Bond risks blowing his cover and getting captured or killed to try to save a woman he’s only just met. A woman who means nothing to him and who in fact had tried to shoot him just minutes earlier. The only reason that would justify it, is if Bond saw Camille as a possible ally against Greene who might have valuable insider information Bond could get from her. But the script betrays that possibility when Bond, after rescuing Camille, immediately hands her unconscious body to the first person he meets, saying that she’s ”seasick.“ It echoes Sean Connery’s quip from Thunderball, ”Do you mind if my friend sits this one out? She’s just dead.“ In a poorly conceived move, Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), whom we first met in Casino Royale, is brought back, this time to play James Bond’s ”buddy.“ You may recall in the preceding film, Bond had Mathis seized, tasered, dragged away and tortured. Now we’re supposed to believe Mathis is willing to just forgive and forget all that. Worse, he actually provides Bond with resources and joins him to assist on his mission. Why on earth would he? He and Bond have no deeper history of friendship to weigh against Bond’s having had Mathis tortured. I didn’t buy it for a moment. Oh, I know EON wanted Mathis to assume the role of one of Fleming’s ”father/friend“ figures to Bond; like Marc-Ange (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), Colombo (”Risico“), or Kerim (From Russia, with Love), but it doesn’t work. It feels false from the start and totally forced on the viewer. Giancarlo Giannini is extremely likable, and would be a perfect choice to play such a traditional role in a Bond story. But it’s just not possible with the history Mathis has with Bond. No cute throw-away line by Mathis’ mistress can set that right in an instant, as we’re asked to accept. Later, Bond infiltrates a staging of Puccini's Tosca, an opera that deals with revenge and deception, themes found in the movie. Nice choice. Several members of QUANTUM are scattered throughout the audience, and we discover that although this is a super secret cabal, they all idiotically wear nice bright shiny lapel pins with the letter, ”Q.“ Once you know that, they’re pretty easy to single out. With that kind of thinking it’s amazing that MI6 and the CIA know nothing about QUANTUM. The ”Q“ pins seem just as dumb today as when SPECTRE operatives wore those garish octopus rings back in Thunderball. It’s just never a bright idea to make members of your shadowy covert organization wear trademark identifying emblems prominently! Bond cleverly tricks the QUANTUM representatives in the audience into revealing themselves, and promptly snaps digital photos of them which he sends back to HQ in London for immediate identification. Throughout most of this movie, Bond is in almost constant electronic communication with his headquarters for technical help and information. Too bad. It’s a lot less fun to have Bond in distant exotic locals when he can instantly tap into the full resource of MI6, and speak with ”M“ at any time. He’s not the lone wolf we like Bond to be, out there on his own, pitting himself against the enemy. And despite the early publicity posturing that Bond has ”gone rogue,“ (yawn, yet again), when that happens this time, Bond is without resources for all of about 20 seconds before he’s got a fresh suit, a first class airplane ticket to Bolivia and the help of an experienced companion with espionage connections in South America, where Bond stays in a 5-star hotel. Pretty plush way to go rogue! How do I get in on this ”rogue“ racket? I should mention that in addition to Mathis, we also have Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) back again from Casino Royale. Leiter has more depth this time. He’s disgruntled by the orders he’s getting from his CIA superior and it effects what he does. But just how far he strays is left nicely vague. Wright has good chemistry with Craig, and I hope to see these two together again in subsequent Bond films. Bond leaves his SUV as collateral for the use of a DC3 airplane. Once airborne, Bond tells Camille that the man who supplied the plane will betray them to their enemies, which we promptly see is exactly what he does, with the result that Bond and Camille are very nearly killed, and in fact should have been, many times over. So how stupid was Bond not to do something about that guy in the first place, since apparently he knew about the threat he posed? He could have forced the man to come with them, or just tied him up, or at least cut the phone line. Something. It’s yet another example of the script having Bond doing something dumb solely to justify yet another action scene. In this case it’s worse because Bond himself points out that he knew ahead of time. Note to Bond; keep your mouth shut. Some have said the parachute scene that follows is straight out of Moonraker, but I say it’s from this year’s Bond novel, Devil May Care. It is an almost perfect recreation of the scene where Scarlett and Bond share a single parachute as they plummet into rural Russia. For some reason the producers decided to litter the movie with references to previous Bond films. There’s no particular reason for that. This is not an anniversary film or anything. And because there was no reason for doing it, I found it distracting and annoying. The worst example was the crude oil covered nude body of Strawberry Fields. It came right out of nowhere, an odd and unwelcome distraction from the flow of the movie. I guess it was done simply as homage to the sister scene in 1964's Goldfinger, but why? It was not wanted or needed. In Goldfinger Jill was painted gold. Here, Fields is covered in crude oil, also known as, ”black gold.“ The action finale of the film is set at a hotel, mysteriously located out in the middle of the empty desert. Get many guests do they? Just who did they think their clientele would be? It’s an upscale looking establishment, with the most beautiful, Bondian interiors in the whole film. The hotel has an ecological theme, deriving its power from highly explosive hydrogen gas stored in a series of canisters spaced at intervals within the hotel walls that are just the right distance so that if even one of them explodes, it will cause a chain reaction of explosions through the hotel. Just who was the genius who planned this place anyway? Remote location and highly likely to explode! Sounds great. How can I book a room? And what do you think the odds are of those hydrogen tanks not exploding? Anyway, the hotel seems to appeal to the baddies as a place to hang out and do their nefarious business, maybe rape a chamber maid or two, so there they all are, gathered together, just ripe for Bond to conveniently pick off. Badly outnumbered, Bond decides it’s a good idea for him to simply rush into the hotel, armed only with a single pistol, and start shooting people. That’s his grand plan. Bond is apparently not yet one of our great thinkers. Perhaps he’s noticed that, so far in this movie, he’s pretty much invulnerable. Even when his face does get bruised and cut, by the next scene he’s miraculously completely healed. So he’s what, a superhero? Maybe X-men’s Wolverine, with miraculous healing powers? Previously in the movie we saw Bond, while being escorted under guard, skillfully take out four large trained operatives in an elevator in mere moments. So it’s mystifying why, when Bond does eventually find the wimpy little Dominic Greene, he is implausibly able to fight Bond to a near standstill. Anyway, wouldn’t you know it, darn, one of those pesky hydrogen cylinders did explode, setting off a chain reaction, and now the whole hotel is in collapsing in flames. Bond and Camille are trapped inside. What does Bond do? He fires his gun into the still intact hydrogen tank just a few feet away. The subsequent explosion is so powerful it blows out the hotel wall, but impossibly, he and Camille are both completely unhurt by it, and step leisurely and unhurriedly through the destroyed wall, down to safety. So the two are tougher than a solid concrete wall? I guess we’re looking at Superman and Supergirl, here. Why didn’t Bond just kill Greene with his laser-vision? Thankfully, the movie’s epilogue is terrific, so it ends on a high note. It’s tense and moody, dark and efficient. There is no action at all and a total absence of rapid editing. If Forster and company can do this scene so well, why didn’t they make the whole movie this smart? The final scene with Bond and M together provides a strong, satisfying close. In fact, the best scenes in the movie were between Bond and M. Judi Dench is wonderful as always, and her expanded roles here and in Casino Royale show her ”M“ to be a skillful puppet master. All the time she’s been railing against Bond, she’s secretly been supporting him all along. As the final scene fades to black, we finally get to see Daniel Craig’s debut in the classic gunbarrel logo that normally comes at the start of a Bond film. The white circles march across the screen, enlarge to reveal Craig striding along. He spins and shoots. Down comes the curtain of blood. Beautiful. I flat out loved it. But I wish they had started out the movie with it. That would have really set the proper mood, confidently declaring ”Yes, you’re in for a treat. This is a James Bond movie! ! !“ That mood would have carried on into the early scenes of the film, which, instead had just a generic ”action movie“ feel to them. The first time I saw Quantum of Solace, there wasn’t much I liked and a lot I didn’t like. I gave it a score of 3 out of 10. After that first viewing, I let a little time go by. I thought about the movie, talked with some knowledgeable 007 friends, read some reviews and then went to see the movie a second time. I don’t know why, but I liked it better. I’ve since heard that several other people also liked the film better after a second viewing. I’m perplexed why that should be. All I can attribute it to is already knowing all the problems with the film ahead of time so that during the second viewing they didn’t seem as harsh or grating. They were easier to minimize and forgive. That left me free to just enjoy the charismatic presence of Daniel Craig as James Bond at the core of the movie. He carries the film. His is the film. He is present in almost every scene. So I’m now able to upgrade the movie to a 6 out of 10; Letter grade, ”B- .“ Just don’t forget, you have to see the movie twice!
Contact the Author: JAMES McMAHON
|
 | Return to
HMSS on QOS HMSS FILMS SECTION HMSS CONTENTS |
