Quantum of Solace Movie Review: Not as Good as Casino Royale

Quantum of Solace is the latest installment in the legendary James Bond franchise with Daniel Craig in the main role for the second time, following up 2006's Casino Royale.

Casino Royale is the highest grossing James Bond movie to date, and in my personal opinion, the best overall film as well. For once they established Bond as a cold, calculated agent while being a real person, unlike previous installments where the character became almost a superhero. Gone were the ridiculous ideas like an invisible car from Pierce Brosnan's Die Another Day film, and over the top one note villains. For all the framework Casino Royale got right, Quantum of Solace went back and got wrong.

I still love Craig in the role of James Bond. He is ruthless, arrogant, and frankly mean, as one would guess a real professional killer would be. Solace is so unsure of its own footing however, that it goes back to relying on the things from previous Bond movies everyone was growing tired of. The main plot involves a plan to control the water supply of Bolivia, thus hiking up the demand and price of the liquid. That's it. That is what James Bond is stopping. The villain isn't the slightest bit menacing, as one could guess when he is trying to start an Aquafina monopoly of sorts.

Quantum of Solace is also insanely irritating in the amount of screen time it gives James Bond's boss, played by Judi Dench. I say that because at times it seemed like she had more dialogue than Bond. It is distracting because it makes the audience unsure of whose movie it is, and furthermore appears as if the filmmakers decided to give her as much to do as possible because she is such a respected actress.

Though it has its moments of action, in particular a fight in the rafters, the direction by Marc Forster is so off key you would think you were watching a war movie. The edits come at 2 seconds apart, and what otherwise would be fantastic action to witness, turns into wondering what is going on because you can only see screen images in the blink of an eye. Mix this with the fact that the film has a dull, grainy look to it and it leaves the audience bored and almost depressed.

I love the James Bond series and I hope Daniel Craig has another Casino Royale type performance in him in the next film. Don't get me wrong, I will be first in line for that movie, but Solace is a huge disappointment for all they did right previously in Royale. Quantum of Solace is a perfect example of a movie not confident in its own ideas, (there were rumored problems with the script), and they felt the need to stick to the old formula. The old saying is don't fix what isn't broken, however since they went to so much trouble creating a new Bond universe in Casino Royale, it was a very confusing and deflating choice to skip back to the movies that were making audiences forget who the character was to begin with.

This movie can be entertaining if you let it, but the only "Solace" you will find is watching Casino Royale on DVD again, as a much more polished, focused, and defined James Bond movie.