Quantum of Solace

First off let me state that Daniel Craig is an excellent choice to pick up the James Bond legacy. He is the wit, class of the character combined with the lightning fast merciless style you expect from a secret agent with a license to kill. The actor is great, but I think the character he is suppose to be playing should put his unique license to good use and shoot his writing staff between the eyes.

I made the mistake of not watching Casino Royale before watching Quantum. Afterwards I remedied that problem because I was hoping there would be some kind of clue as to why they allowed the second film to be made. Quantum of Solace is not a James Bond movie at all. It's more like a second rate secret agent flick that someone paid the James Bond crew to act out for them. Since Casino Royale was suppose to be based on James becoming a 00 agent I allowed certain things to slide but Quantum crossed the line, or rather they forgot to cross at James Bond blvd and instead got off at Pathetic Ave.

What you are watching in this film is actually the extended cut of Casino Royale which is the only thing that could explain the lack of gadgets, shady villains, and storyline. This movie must be the second in a trilogy, I'm sure that must have been announced at some point to the public, but I didn't hear it because that kind of thing goes against the new mission each movie James Bond format. I assumed no one would be stupid enough to go against a known and loved format as the world learned how awful that is after the release of Star Wars one through three. However a trilogy it must be considering the linking storyline and the open ending of the second film. I really hope the writers don't claim they were trying to reinvent Bond with these films because reinvention usually means they are trying to improve the original design. So really what Quantum embodies is the idiotic bile that happens between point A and point B in a story plot. This is the kind of stuff that has to happen for everything to make sense in the next film and probably would be better skipped so the third film has a bit of mystery to it. Having told everyone that I really should just stop writing right there, but since they bothered to make this film I'm going to bother picking it apart with my critic hacksaw.

Let us start with the gadgets and the cool super car by asking, where are they? The first movie at least had the decency to combine the gadgets with the car, but we have nothing in this film. I assume it has something to do with James going a bit rogue because Mi6 is too picky about who he can go around killing. So he tightens his belt, says good bye to his fancy ways and heads off into the sunrise with a chip on his chip. He later teams up with others with chips on their shoulders as well and they all go searching for dip, actually several mysterious dips.

Next on the list is the villainy in the film. The main person that James is after is a representative for some shadowy company called Quantum, whom horrible crime seems to be extorting water rights in third world countries. This sounds a bit like whoever these evil people are behind the curtain are just trying to own everything to get rich. I think the writers are trying to reflect that Big Corporation is trying to own and control you through these films or perhaps that government hates competition, I can't decide. Honestly though, the villain in this movie is a skinny spoiled rich boy, and flunky sidelong by two other rich boys. They all don't fair too well against a 00 agent. At least the guy the femme fatale is chasing in the film is a power hungry torturing rapist General and you feel a sense of justice when he dies. Rich boy is just a corporate puppet that kills people for petty reasons like they looked at him funny.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that Quantum of Solace is just bad, bad writing. If they had wanted to release this film they should have done it separate from the Bond name despite the linking storyline. Please do yourselves all a favour don't rent it, if it turns out to be a trilogy and is released as part of a three piece box set, skip this one when you are watching it, then it may feel a bit more like two different missions that way. Get some justice for those fans of Casino Royale that lost their money at the theatre the night Quantum of Solace was playing.