Continuing barely an hour after Casino Royale, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is out for revenge.
Interrogating Mr White, Bond discovers the existence of the 'Quantum' organisation. With businessman Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) as their legitimate front, Quantum are planning to take over Bolivia's water supply.
Alongside Russian agent Camille (Olga Kurylenko), Bond gets to work smashing Greene's megalomaniacal plans, satisfying his thirst for vengeance and hopefully getting laid in the process.
This is Bond 22. It's darker, more action packed and less jokey than ever before. Like gadgets? Miss Moneypenny? Gondola cars? Oh, dear.
They say:
Empire: “Pacy, visually imaginative follow up.”
Guardian: “The elegance of Craig's debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action.”
Total Film: “Disjointed and muddled.”
We say:
Something odd happens when watching Quantum of Solace. After spending half the film thinking that nothing is right, there's no opening gun barrel, the action is frequent but brief and messy, Bond is wearing jeans, Bond is drunk, Bond is killing everyone he meets - suddenly the parallel begins to make sense.
We are living in the past as much as Bond is. It is time to move on.
This is the most blatant re-invention of 007 so far. Casino Royale laid the groundwork for the grittiest interpretation of Ian Fleming's brutal and misogynist spy yet, but QOS establishes everything our new Bond will be. He will bleed, he will wield his physicality like a blunt instrument and he won't have a quip ready every time he offs someone.
Certain things in the series have yet to be re-established. Bond dresses like a man unsure of his social footing and he drinks anxiously like an alcoholic. He can't sleep so orders a sixth cocktail - he rips the tie from his neck like it's strangling him.
Appearances are not presently high on his agenda, business is. The business of vengeance. Remember that just minutes are supposed to have passed since the tragic events of Casino Royale. Bond is still reeling from the death of Vesper.
Though by the end of the story, which is more Casino Royale Part 2 than a separate film, this arc has largely been closed up. The next time we meet Mr Bond he is probably going to be far closer to the man we know. Albeit without the silliness - apart from an occasional knowing wink, Daniel Craig doesn't do silliness. His emergent Bond is freshness personified.
Discounting a title song that creates all the atmosphere of a remix of Balamory, the music in QOS helps considerably in preserving a traditional Bond connection. David Arnold's score echoes the earlier work of John Barry, particularly OHMSS, and provides one 007 constant the producers have wisely chosen not to mess with.
Even with a new direction not everything can be passed off as 'reinvention'. There are a few additions we could have all done without, a plot that is too fast and inconsequential and Judy Dench demonstrating M’s bath routine to name but two. Plus with vengeance being such a strong motivation for Bond's actions, the film does cover similar, though vastly underdeveloped, territory as Timothy Dalton's misstep Licence To Kill.
Peripheral characters too are dropped in and out of the story with little necessity. The Bond girl contingent is bland and disappointing. Particularly we should imagine for the world's greatest secret agent himself - he doesn't even bed the foreign one.
However with all this taken into account, the changes and unfamiliarity, one thing is so unambiguous it is etched on every burrowed line in Daniel Craig's tortured face - James Bond is back and he's pissed.
CAST
Daniel Craig
Mathieu Amalric
Judi Dench
Olga Kurylenko
Jeffrey Wright
Gemma Arterton
DIRECTOR
Marc Forster
TIME
106 mins
POSTED...
Sun 2 Nov 2008 at 1:13pm
