Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008)
What is that tuneless gibbering debacle masquerading as a Bond theme by the usually reliable Jack White and Alicia Keys? Why must this movie be the first Bond film that doesn’t work as a standalone picture? Did I read somewhere that, because of the writer’s strike, parts of the script were cobbled together on the fly by director Marc Forster and Daniel bloody Craig (obviously I did read that, about ten minutes ago)? And what in shitting bumwrong is a “quantum of solace”, anyways?? James Bond’s 22nd (official) movie outing happily racks up a list of issues before it’s even started. Well, amongst these faults we can also add “bad aim” because, despite its best efforts to shoot itself in the foot, Quantum of Solace is a fantastic picture. No, really.
Kicking off without a traditional “Gun Barrel Sequence” and straight where we left off at the end of Casino Royale, Double-Oh-Seven has Mr. White (sadly neither the Harvey Keitel OR Bryan Cranston versions, alas) in the trunk of his car and is taking him for a good old torture-up but as soon as Jim and M get to the “‘Quantum’? What the fuck are you chatting about, you divnut?” question already rending the cinema audiences asunder - oh noes! Some previously extraneous extra in the corner of the room turns out to be a fellow scallywag and BLAM! Bond’s off on what is already his second chase of the movie, and it’s only been on five bloody minutes!
And so it goes, with James following a trail that takes him around the world as usual, but this time commander Bond - is he still a commander, in this rebooted universe? - seems ready and willing to pop a cap into the ass of anybody who even looks at him sideways. “Can you try not to kill every lead we find, Bond?” implores M. “No. Up yours, Judi Dench!” implies Bond right back with that trademark Danny Craig smirk/scowl on his inscrutable granite-face, I’m going to assume. “Kill 'em all, and let God sort 'em out.” Probably. And kill’ em all is exactly what he does for the next ninety minutes or so as he edges towards QoS’s big bad, Dominic Greene, all smarm, slime and psychosis, orchestrating a coup in Bolivia so’s he can seize control of almost all of the water in the country in order to extort the new regime and make a tidy packet for Greene and his associates in the shady and mysterious “Quantum” group. The actor who played Greene, the brilliant Mathieu Amalric, stated that he was aiming for a Nicolas Sarkozy/Tony Blair hybrid and you can certainly see it.
So what was good and what didn’t hit the mark this time out? Let’s have the good stuff up first: Daniel Craig was very good here, arguably better than he was in Casino Royale. Judi Dench gets even more screen time as M and that’s never a bad thing. Mathieu Amalric was superb as mentioned (although I appreciate that many might prefer Bonds villains to be a bit more monstrous, or dangerous in and of themselves like Scaramanga or Begbie out of Trainspotting with the bullet in his noggin). And, as with the previous movie, Jeffrey Wright (Leiter) and Giancarlo Giannini (Mathis) did good work in smaller supporting roles. The story was tight - I was expecting the exact opposite having seen some reviews and given the writer’s strike in effect at the time of QoS’s production - and the action was frenetic and plentiful.
Faults? Well, as good as Daniel was, he felt less like a “Bond” here than any other representation of the character I’ve seen so far. With no deep or long-standing affinity for Bond myself I’m not overly concerned by this but I would imagine that there might be one or two stalwart fans of the franchise who, whilst enjoying the new direction, likely lament the loss of those qualities that made James Bond uniquely “James Bond”, nonetheless. Olga Kurylenko wasn’t bad as a Bond girl but she wasn’t a stand-out either by any means, but Gemma Arterton was IMO awful. The character was piss-poor and so was she in the role. The tradition of the Villainous Bond Henchman took a real smack to the ballbags this time out with that cocknob with the neckbrace and Rowan Atkinson’s hairstyle from the original series of The Black Adder. I could take that limp salad out right here, right now. And I’m stark naked. And, as mentioned at the top of the review, that theme from the monstrously talented Jack White and the equally gifted Alicia Keys was one of the worst in the entire franchise, and there has been some proper stinky bum smeg in that department over the years, as we know.
But overall, I can’t see how Quantum of Solace has picked up a relatively bad rap (only a 65% positive rating with movie review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes; incidentally, Spectre has roughly the same approval rating too, now the hoopla has settled). I can only assume it’s down to the continued watering down of the essence of what it is to be a Bond film, combined with this movie’s failure to be able to stand alone without its more warmly-received predecessor. But I have to say, I really enjoyed Quantum of Solace. My first thoughts were that I liked it almost as much as Casino Royale but, in writing about it, I might have talked myself into preferring it. I’ll have to think on that for awhile.