Quantum of Solace

Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions

presents

2008

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

starring

Daniel Craig as James Bond 007

Judi Dench as M
Olga Kurylenko as Camille
Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene

Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter
Giancarlo Giannini as Rene Mathis

Directed by Marc Forster

Produced by
Michael G. Wilson

&

Barbara Broccoli

Music by
David Arnold

Main theme
"Another Way to Die"
Composer
Jack White
Performed by
Alicia Keys

&

Jack White

When last we left James Bond at the end of Casino Royale, he was at a palatial estate near Lake Como where he found the mysterious Mr. White. After being shot by Bond he asks who he is. "The name's Bond. James Bond."

Quantum of Solace starts about 1 hour later with Bond on an Italian road being chased by various henchmen of the mysterious organization that White & LeChiffre belonged to. Thus begins the 1st direct sequel ever in the Bond series by Eon Productions. & while not perfect, it does prove to be a worthy successor, answering many of the questions left at the end of Casino Royale & leaving us with several more at the end that look like a lead in to the next film in what now appears to be 2011.

Quantum of Solace was the name of a short story written by Ian Fleming for the May 1959 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. In 1960 it was 1 of 5 short stories included in For Your Eyes Only. The title is the name given to the level of "common humanity" in a couple by the Governor of Nassau. The idea being that Bond has lost the quantum. Nothing from the short story is used in the movie other than the fact that "Quantum" has something to do with the plot.

As I said, the movie is a worthy successor to Casino Royale. The big problem I had was not with the plot or the acting, it was with some of the editing. I will get to that shortly.

After the MGM lion & the Columbia lady (I want the U?A logo back.) we go into the cold opening I talked about above. Once again the gunbarrel logo shows up elsewhere in the movie. Bond successfully eludes the people chasing him. The chase takes place along the narrow mountain roads of Northern Italia. (Naturally, I was happy that Italia was featured in this movie. I would have liked to have seen more done there, but you can't have everything.) & while there are times where they make too many cuts, you still get a sense of the Italian scenery as well as the danger of the roads. A few less cuts would have made the danger etc much clearer & less confusing. (This wasn't just my opinion either. The friend I was with thought the same about esp in a later scene. So did someone else I knew who was there.)

We then go into the opening credits. The credits were well done for the most part. At 1 point though a the editing problem I refered to makes it's 1st appearance. Towards the end it is hard to tell what is going on with the women as there are way to many cuts being made. I was especially impressed with the style of the lettering as it was something new & different (for me at least) & added a different flavor. Part of the credits tie in to the later part of the story which takes place in a Bolivian desert.

After the credits we find out that we are in Sienna at the time of Il Palio. Bond delivers White (hidden in the boot of the car) to M at a location near the Piazza del Campo. They begin interogating him about the organization he belongs to. We quickly find out that this organization (Quantum, get the obligatory tie-in to the title) has even infiltrated MI6 as M's trusted bodyguard Craig Mitchell attempts to kill her & free White. Bond goes after Mitchell & here again the problem of way too many cuts again rears its ugly head. In this case, it got so confusing at 1 point you weren't sure who was Bond & who was Mitchell. It also keeps you from getting a real flavor of Il Palio.

Bond eventually kills Mitchell, which does not please M. White escapes. We end up back in London. Thanx to MI6's forensics branch they are able to trace some of the money from the Casino to Haiti & an Edmund Slate. He ends up killing Slate in a fight & then takes his briefcase. Camille Montes thinks he is Slate & picks Bond up. We find out that she was set up to be killed by Dominic Greene, the ruthless chairman of Greene Planet and a member of Quantum. Camille is also seeking revenge. In her case it is against a General Medrano, ex-dictator of Bolivia who years ago killed her father & raped & killed her mother & sister before leaving her to die in a fire.

Medrano is working out a deal with Greene to regain control of Bolivia. Greene has his own plans & we find out the CIA is in bed with Greene. We next go to Austria. There, at a performance of Tosca, members of "Quantum" finalize plans for their Tierra Project. I have to say that I wasn't impressed with the set design for Tosca, it was way too modern. The rest of the movie deals with learning Greene's plot, how high up in the British government "Quantum " reaches.

I won't reveal any more of the plot. I will just say that it does develop very well. I was happy about 1 thing in particular. Without revealing how it was done, I was very happy to see that René Mathis was exhonorated of the charges made against him by Vesper in the previous movie.

The movie was well cast. Other than the above complaint about editing the rest of the movie flowed fairly smoothly.

Daniel Craig did a great job of bringing Bond to life. This is not your father's Bond. He is a real person who is human, hurts & cares about others in a way not often seen in the previous movies Lazenby & Dalton being the only others who did so. But that is because they all played it closer to the Bond of the novels. & it works. Craig's best scene was towards the end when he finally is about to get his revenge for Vesper's death. the look on his face conveyed all the anger, hurt & bitterness Bond was feeling. This was a Bond that you could believe had been in a fight. He could be cold & ruthless when needed. &, as I said, caring & human as well.

The only time I think they go overboard in making Bond a bit superhuman was in some of the chase scenes & fight scenes.

Judi Dench has made the role of M her own. I like the fact that they have given M a much more pivotal role in the plot. She doesn't merely send Bond off on the mission, she plays a central role in moving the story along. She is the focus at times, not Bond. That makes the storyline all the better.

We also see a part of the relationship between Bond & M in the books that really wasn't seen in the previous incarnations of Bond. In the books M was a sort of father-figure to Bond. In Quantum Bond acknowledged that she is a bit of a mother figure to him, 1 that he welcomes. There is a professional relationship & the mutual admiration that makes both of them all the more real characters.

In reality, I am sure M wouldn't be out in the field as much, but it does work in the movies. Another thing that I really like is the fact that the few gadgets Bond uses are believable. He uses his cell phone to take & transmit pictures. Although my friend was wondering why he wasn't using a Blue-tooth at some points so his hands would be free. I have to agree. the real high tech futuristic gadgets were those used at MI6. I'm not sure if all the technology is actually in use by MI6 & the CIA, but it could be. (Judi Dench doesn't think the real MI6 could afford it all.)

Felix Leiter returns & is again played by Jeffrey Wright. I wish they had shown more of Felix. He does play a key role in helping Bond. I wish they would have developed the friendship theme more, but it wouldn't have worked in this story line. It is made clear that they have become friends & trust each other in a profession that is dependant on not trusting anyone. Hopefully the friendship theme will be enlarged in a future movie.

Mathieu Amalric plays Dominic Greene without making him an over the top villian. He could be any head of a huge multi-national corporation. He is clearly the villian, but Amalrac plays him as no more a villian than anyone who uses unethical practices to get what he wants would appear to an outside observer. In a way this makes him all the more evil because we find out what is hidden behind that exterion Greene presents to the world.

Giancarlo Giannini again plays René Mathis. He does an excellent job of conveying what being an agent is as well as giving Mathis some depth that what isn't that large a role wouldn't normally have.

Joaquin Cosío plays General Medrano as the tinplate dictator he is. You take an instant dislike to him & you understand quickly why Camille wants revenge. All he cares about is himself & what he can take.

There are 2 Bond girls (women) in the movie. 1 is Gemma Arterton, who plays MI6 Agent Strawberry Fields. Her character is a throwback in some ways to the Bond girls of the 60s.

Olga Kurylenko plays the other Bond girl, Camille Montes. As mentioned earlier, she has a mission just like Bond she is on a vendetta. She is also 1 of the most independent Bond girls. Yet she isn't cold either. Kurylenko is able to get across the hurt & fear lurking below the surface as well as the hate. This also makes her 1 of the most completely human Bond girls since Tracy in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

"Quantum" appears to be the 21st Century version of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. It has it's people everywhere. & it is clear that it will play a major role in future movies. They could us it in updated movie versions of some of the novels. & we still have a lot of questions about who Mr. White is as well as other members of the organization that we get a glimpse of in the movie.

This movie also did something else that I really liked. In the Italian scenes the people spoke Italiano & it Haiti & Bolivia they spoke Spanish. There were the subtitles to help us understand. Having the characters do so made the movie all the more realistic.

Another interesting bit was that they used a different style of lettering for each of the places where Bond ended up. The style fit in well with the location. The story takes place in 5 different main locations, Italia, Haiti, Austria, Bolivia & Russia.

The closing credits were interesting as well. This is where the gunbarrel logo makes its appearance. & we go into a classic rendition of the James Bond Theme by Monty Norman.

Besides the editing problem mentioned I was well pleased with the movie & highly recommend going to see it. No, it isn't perfect, what movie ever is? But, they did an excellent job of following up on what was a hard act to follow. Craig has put his own stamp onto Bond. & I can't wait to see where they take him from here.

James Bond Will Return

___________

(Added 16 November 2008, 3:37 AM)

SPOILER ALERT: Stop here as this may give away a key plot development.

Towards the latter part of the movie there is a scene that is a wonderful homage to Goldfinger. It is almost identical to the original scene & like that scene it is tied into the plot, although for a slightly different reason.