Quantum of Solace – Film Review

Following the death of Vesper Lynd, James Bond (Daniel Craig) makes his next mission personal. The hunt for those who blackmailed his lover leads him to ruthless businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a key player in the organization which coerced Vesper. Bond learns that Greene is plotting to gain total control of a vital natural resource, and he must navigate a minefield of danger and treachery to foil the plan.

As mentioned in my review for Casino Royale, it’s almost universally agreed upon that the classic James Bond films are considered to be over-the-top, campy action films that feature so many hilarious tropes, including the tried-and-true mustache-stroking villain and the typical “Bond girl.” But Casino Royale was the first time the Bond series was ever taken legitimately serious, thanks to the intriguing story, brilliant writing, and the performance of Daniel Craig as the title character – the first time an actor was able to make the character seem like an actual imposing threat.

The Daniel Craig-era of Bond has been hailed by many as one of the best – if not the best – of the whole franchise, with the exception of Marc Forster‘s Quantum of Solace – an admirable effort that still has a few memorable set pieces but ultimately fails to tell a compelling story. This is a James Bond movie in which the titular spy basically gets suspended by his higher-up, M (Judi Dench) which could’ve been such an interesting story seeing how Bond operates and copes with this but instead, it’s dishearteningly boring.

One of the reasons why this film suffers as much as it does is because of the script, which actually makes a whole lot of sense when you realize that the film was rushed into production because of a writer’s strike that was going on at the time. The filmmakers more than likely tried their best to hide this but watching the film, it’s quite apparent. Things just sort of happen simply, well… because. There is an abundance of scenes in Quantum of Solace that feel so sloppily written and oftentimes, things will happen that don’t really make a whole lot of sense.

The film starts off promising enough with a four-minute car chase between Bond and a group of baddies which is fun to watch and gets you right in the mood before Alicia Keys and Jack White’s “Another Way to Die” comes in as the opening track. You’d certainly be forgiven if you thought that from this moment onward, the film would be yet another wonderfully entertaining Bond film, but sadly, that’s not what it is.

Most of the action scenes here are quite fun even if they aren’t the boundary-pushing ones we loved in Casino Royale, but even still, they are so few and far between. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with this at all if the story and characters were interesting, but they’re not this time around, with the exception of our lead hero. Oftentimes, whenever an action scene ended and a scene littered with exposition followed, I found myself clocking out of the film which is something I have never done with any Craig-led Bond film.

The problem here is not Craig – in fact, here, he continues to prove himself as the best actor for Bond to date – it’s really just the script and how rushed it all feels. Plus, this is a Bond movie that’s an hour-and-forty-five minutes including credits which is quite short especially for a relatively newer film in the series. It can feel like perhaps it’s leading up to something but it never does. Quantum of Solace is certainly not a terrible movie, but it definitely is a disappointing outing for Daniel Craig who deserved a much better film.