Quantum of Solace (2008)

A customer from Cardiff , 31/10/2008

This is a good Bond film, better than all Brosnan's film hands down, although Quantum of Solace isn't as polished as Casino Royale. The villians and the bond girls aren't as memorable as in Royale, but Craig and Dench are on top form, with Dench being given a welcome extented role. The action scenes although good, are just a carbon copy of the latest Bourne film, which is a shame as Bond doesn't need to copy the Bourne films, as he has his legacy to look up to.

Don't expect any invisable cars, cheesy one-liners or any raised eye brows, as this Bond is more like the Terminator rather than a posh, martini drinking spy. That said, the story is really good and continues Bonds investigation of the dark organisation that killed Vesper. And know doubt, Bonds investigation into this organisation will play an important role in the next film which I look forward in seeing. I hope they get a Chris Nolan (The Dark Knight) to direct the next one, as I think he'll introduce some new intersting concepts to the Bond franchise. Overall solid entertainment.

  24 out of 24 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Knottingley , 30/10/2008

Two years ago we were treated to one of the best Bond adventures ever, and also what could be the best Bond ever in the rough and ready form of Daniel Craig. Casino Royale was the ultimate reboot of the much loved series, that brought back the hard edge, that had seemed to have slipped in the last outing for Brosnan.

The endining to Casino Royale was Iconic as Bond introduces him self to Mr White, then the Iconic theme tune and the credits rolled, leaving fans new and old gagging for the next episode.

So now it's here, but does Quantum Of Solace live up to Casino Royale?

Quantum Of Solace is the only Bond film to be a direct sequel, and picks up where Royale ended. But this is a different film, it a raw story of revenge , as Bond goes renegade and sets out on a track of reveng to find out who is behind the funding of the terrorist activities, and caused his lover Vesper to protect and end up taking her own life in doing so. The film is action pact, and even more brital, as Bond becomes as lethal as Jason Bourne. With out no tacky one liners and very few gadgets to get in the way, this is the meanest Bond ever, and all the better for it. The film may lack the sheen of Royale, but as this is a revnge story the gritty feel is an advantage, also the running time of Solace is the shortest of the series at only 106 minutes compared to Royales 144 minutes. So Solace runs at a break neck pace.

If you have not seen Casino Royale, then you will be lost with this film, so if you plan on seeing this over the next few weeks, make sure you recap on Daniel Craigs last superb outing.

Although a direct sequel to Royale, Solace is a different film, and lacks the compliccated plot the first had, but as a raw and ready action film, this film out does any in the series, and is without a doubt the best action adventure of the year, and one of the best Bond films ever.

This truly is a must see, and only confirms that Daniel Craig as Bond Nobody does it better!

  16 out of 16 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Eastbourne , 01/11/2008

I have just returned from the midnight screening and I have to say I thouroughlly enjoyed the film. However, I don't know what I enjoyed. Confused, well I still am.

There was lots of action in lots of badly interwoven scenes, in fact it was like an epsiode of Police Camera Action.

In fact this movie could have been a 20 minute conclusion added to the end of Casino Royale as all it did was provide a 2 hour revenge movie for Bond.

I believe it all went wrong with the abismal theme tune.

  16 out of 16 people found this review helpful

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wreeve from London NW3 [Highly rated reviewer] , 01/11/2008

As someone who thought Casino Royale the best Bond ever, and Daniel Craig a big contributor to the franchise, I was very excited about Quantum of Solace. I enjoyed it, but there is no question it isn't as good as its predecessor.

The opening scene sets the pattern for the movie; it's action-packed, but over-energetically edited and hard to follow. And while it's exciting and set in gorgeous scenery (the Italian riviera) and fast and loud and dynamic, it won't stay with you the way the best Bond beginnings do. Likewise, a lot of other Bond 'cliches' are a bit disappointing. There is no 'Bond, James Bond' moment; no final sex scene; hardly a 'shaken, not stirred'. And the theme tune doesn't work for me.

But the film has enough action to keep you engaged. The plot, never exactly a strongpoint of Bond films, works well enough for me. The US vs UK geopolitics was trite but amusingly topical. The gadgets, tho not wielded by those you expect, got a decent lookin. The girls are gorgeous, of course. And several scenes were wonderfully shot - including a gruesome death in a homage to Goldfinger.

Most importantly, the acting was terrific. Both Craig (Bond himself) and Dench (M) are great, emparting a lot more depth than the franchise's longevity would lead you to expect. In this respect the film maintains its brand lead over the Bourne films. See it to watch Craig play the pure psychopath perfectly - and all in the name of National Duty.

  11 out of 11 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Telford , 06/11/2008

Well what a let down after the brilliant Casino Royale. With Casino Royale you were almost on the edge of your seat wandering what was happening next and a good meaty storyline. Apart from the Car chases and random explosions there is nothing too this, the plot was very weak and I found myself actually bored by the end of it. The writers have really let Daniel Craig down with the story line here who by the way did act his socks off. They could of done any number of things with the plot but it was just drab. Further more this to me was the worst bond film ever made, no gadgets and a crap storyline. Lets just hope the next one is better! You look at recent films such as Eagle Eye, Die Hard 4 & Bourne Ultimatum all had you wandering what was gonna happen next even if they were widlyover the top. But that in itself is what bond is and should be!!!!! so annoyed and disappointed.

  2 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Cambridge , 04/11/2008

I have just returned from a screening of Quantum of Solace and am struck by how it left me completely cold. Bored is one thing I never thought I could feel in a Bond film. Casino Royale was a brilliant addition to the Bond canon - it had the vintage feel of a classic Bond film, a newly-defined Bond with a Flemingesque ruthlessness and gimlet eyes, a very fine villian in Mads Mikkelson, and a great script written with the aid of the award-winning screenwriter to Crash.

The screenwriters to Quantum seem to have done an aboutface. We are left with the Brosnan antics of Die Another Day - preposterous stunts, back-to-back action with little development of plot or character, little time for any chemistry between Bond and the female lead, a denouement in a villain's lair in the desert with all the ludicrousness of a Roger Moore instalment. And that makes sense, because the screenwriters for this film are the same ones as worked on the Brosnan franchise.

Something didn't square at all, and I think a large factor is the script. We don't need camp humour or biting one-liners, but we do need dialogue. The showdown between Bond and Dominic Greene required some kind of conflict, after all right from the beginning of Casino we have been led towards this climax between these two men, and yet Marc Foster had given is nothing in the screenplay to suggest that these two men had a developed hatred of one another.

Mathieu Almaric cuts a puny villain, and his henchmen are all puny henchmen. Gone is Grant or Oddjob or Rosa Klebb or Nick-Nack or Tee-Hee. Greene's henchman, who is called Elvis in the credits, but is never referred to by name in the film, wears a toupee and is weedy and ineffectual. There is no drama at all between him and Greene. You can't fault Almaric as a villain because he has absolutely nothing to work wiith. The demented turn Greene takes with an axe at the film's close is perhaps really Almaric venting his frustration out on the flat character he has been given.

The theme song was appalling. I can't recall a truly evocative Bond song since the days when John Barry composed the score, but this one really was the pits.

It may be that the thirty minutes of commercials (a lot of them playstation combat or apocalyptic games) before the film commenced had already numbed me for Bond, but in any case the action was sheer overkill. Back-to-back Bond in a car, Bond on a rooftop, Bond in a boat, Bond in a plane, and then I finally realized that it could just as well be any action hero as Bond. The camera never allowed you to settle on Craig in action, the viewer is just roughly manhandled from scene to scene, from one rollercoaster to the next. Whole sequences, as others have said, were lifted straight out of the Bourne franchaise - the opening car chase like bumper cars, the naturalistic close combat with a double agent in a Haitian apartment, the epilogue in a snowswept Russia that ties up all the loose ends (the epilogue to The Bourne Supremacy anyone? also set in a snowswept Russia, tying up loose plot-threads).

Finally, the dastardly plot. Just what is it? Greene is hoarding vast reserves of water in the Bolivian desert to do what? Sell it for extortionate prices to Bolivian farmers? I may be wrong, but Bolivia last time I checked was a small South American nation with a negligible GNP and a people who had suffered under one lousy regime after another. If Greene really wanted a plot for global domination, he should monopolize the oil industry and hoard it so that consumers all over the world have to pay extortionate prices at the pump. Now we all know that is a plot that can work.

All this is a crushing pity, because, for my money, Craig could just possibly be the best Bond we've had (and I know this may ring like blasphemy to Conneryphiles). A blunt instrument is what he is, just like Fleming's Bond.

Sorry about the rant, but someone needed to give this film a rundown. Anyway, definitely enough said.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful

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