Quantum of Solace

What is apparent from its screenplay and its exposition of 007 is that this 22nd Bond movie was supposed to be a revenge-driven, ferocious and almost furious culmination of Casino Royale. And the producers entrusted it to the artsy director who amputated all of Casino Royale’s powerful limbs and arranged flowers in their place. All the great action, the Bond car and all the stylish opening credits and interesting locations are absent and the bad guys look like they stepped out of a Pasolini movie. The only thing that makes Quantum of Solace a Bond movie, what keeps it kicking and earns it a third star in my rating, is the still great Daniel Craig (Olga Kurylenko is nice, but she’s still just a female background character in Bond’s world). This is the first Bond movie after a very long time that didn’t make me feel that heroic excitement I used to feel after watching action movies as a little boy. (11/03/2008)

I’d say that the traditional martini is a thing of the past for the new Bond, Craig looks more like someone who sips energy drinks. When we left the cinema my friend said: “Mate, didn’t we make a mistake? Wasn’t this Hulk by any chance?“ We didn't, but the fact is that Bond's casualness, elegance, wit, insight and typical ironic puns have probably gone down the drain with the dashing Craig. To make an animal analogy, Bond has always been something of an easy-going German shepherd for me (with the exception of Dalton), while Craig's Bond is a purebred brawling pit bull. I'm not complaining, just stating dryly, but I'm not really enjoying this newly set Bond universe. That said, it was a pretty decent action flick. (11/17/2008)

007's character was never one I had to have on a poster above my bed, and he could name the proportions of all the women who had slept with him. Still, I have always appreciated how "trendy" he can be, not only in terms of dressing but also in filmmaking. The present is ruled by the brawlers on speed who solve problems with the elegance of a bulldozer, and this is exactly the category that James Bond had to conquer. He did it perfectly. We can argue about how much the plot would stand on its own without the previous poker kick-off, but Marc Forster goes much further. The hackneyed blockbuster rules are shattered, the characters behave erratically, and even the hero straddles the line where good meets evil so closely that it's hard to discern which one of them has the upper hand in his actions. Craig is brilliant, handling the torn emotions and the cold fights without blinking an eye, Amalric's villain oozes respect, and Olga is an elegant addition who fills her role to perfection. Forster's work is obviously not to everyone’s taste, but when I read criticisms about art, I shake my head in disbelief and boldly put Quantum of Solace on my personal list of top films. (11/11/2008)

After a calm, focused and full viewing, I am increasing my rating. My main gripe that he doesn't get into Bond's more elaborate motives has gone down the drain. Forster put exactly as much psychology in there as the story needed, and he hid Bond's inner rebirth dilemma in the second plan. Only a person dulled by the current popcorn production and who is unable to read between the lines can call 007 a terminator. If Campbell gave Her Majesty's agent the right to kill and a human heart, Forster stripped him of a clear world and a recipe for identifying good and evil. It's too bad that Dominic Greene has so little space on the screen. Amalric managed to portray him wonderfully without unnecessary overplaying - no longer as a clear villain, but as a guy who balances on the edge in a world where clear boundaries can no longer be drawn. Where he has to go to bed with the bad guys, because the good boys all died. And James? Is only his service really pushing him forward like the other Bonds? Hardly. However, by pure chance, the path of revenge coincides with the path of lesser evil (least amount of consolation). A well-chosen duet with the charismatic Kurilenko culminates in a double catharsis – one of the characters finds revenge, whilst the other apparently definitively finds himself. However, Forster certainly did not shoot any Casino Royale action film, which one will appreciate only after a careful viewing. For example, the fantastic interplay between Bond and Mathis, or the cute maternal relationship between M and 007, proves that Marc remained who he was and managed to bring intimate emotions and attention to detail into the story. The moment when the big world man Bond finds himself among the suffering Bolivian farmers is magnificent, because it thematizes Bond's pilgrimage from the untouchable Dandy to the proletarian slugger, who, in addition to suffering, is also able to see the consequences of his actions and the upheaval of so-called good in today's world. It is a sad paradox that perhaps the most intimately-conceived Bond production cost such a sum (it really is not visible, because Forster presents even the most effective action scenes as an aesthetic rhyme about many clever details and precise tempo). My impression is clearly positive. Quantum Of Solace is something like an intimate psychological action film, which works with unconventionally "high" resources within a typically "low" plot. The film feels much more thoughtful than wild. It is unfortunate that Forster did not get his extra 20 minutes, and thus he needed to force too much of a drastic edit into the otherwise very sensitive tone of the narrative. Thanks to the soundtrack, which goes even further below the surface and doesn’t bother with effective rumbling, I give it five stars. Not everyone will appreciate this Bond film, but from my point of view it is one of the best and certainly the one that most defies conventions. (10/23/2008)

The only problem about this otherwise splendid action movie is that it just isn’t a Bond movie; not one bit. Which might piss double-o-seven fans off a little, but in view of the fact that I not a particular aficionado of the character, nothing stopped me from having a great time. For the first time since From Russia with Love. What Marc Forster gets away with in this commercial blockbuster is not only endearing, but often admirable. The action scenes are ingenious and fantastically edited together. And what’s the best thing about the twenty-second Bond movie? Well, I maybe repeating myself, but the simple fact that this isn’t a Bond movie, but “just" a gripping, honest-to-god action thriller, at last with an interesting, non-two-dimensional hero with a face like a pissed gorilla in a suit. (11/06/2008)

Bond is running wild. The honest data disk to Casino Royale, which lags in the ability to operate independently. The scenario moves into a more classic dimension, James' emotional hesitation remains credible, I immensely enjoy the action, and above all, Daniel Craig loses the look of a wild beast who has been given a license to kill and behaves like an elephant in a china shop. Bond keeps killing, but with style, elegance, and I must say, with a certain sinful pleasure. The Bond girl (the classic one) is here briefly, but exactly as the fans want her to appear. Beautiful, slightly annoying, but in the consequences of James' deadly charm, also helpless. In Olga's portrayal, Camille is an equal partner, although she cannot fulfill the ancient fate of Vesper by principle. And the main hero remains seemingly insensitive machine that won't back down. During the screening shortly after watching the previous escapades of Quantum, the motivation or credibility of the villains gradually runs out, but in the face of scenes like the deadly edited Austrian cat-and-mouse game, it doesn't fall behind much. (11/11/2008)

In Daniel Craig's Bond, has become fashionable for film fans to criticize the loss of style and almost all the ingredients that made Bond Bond. I have never been a fan of the Bond legend or a die-hard action movie fan, so the loss of some typical elements for this film doesn't seem painful to me. What I do miss is a greater lightheartedness, the typical self-ironic lines, and light-hearted jokes. The pace is brisk and the style corresponds to what viewers could see in the previous 21 Bond films. Director Marc Forster does not offend me with his style, and I appreciate his direction much more than some more famous films in the series. The excessive action prowess doesn't sit well with me either, as the hero can take care of dozens of enemies without blinking an eye, without even getting out of breath, and also the fact that the villains, such as Mathieu Amalric's portrayed character, have such a short lifespan. But that's how the Bond fairy tales go. Overall impression: 60%. (11/06/2008)

To tell the truth, I found it hard to decide how to review this movie because of the fragmentized beginning (a great mistake from Forster) and pathetic opening credits, but in the end the pluses outweighed the minuses (I didn’t mind that Bond didn’t drink Martini ;-). We start where we finished. Without any explanation at all, we are plunged into the action (a bit Miami Vice-style) and the beginning is then a march-past of incredible action scenes, not as flawless as in Casino Royale, but first-rate action all the same. Both Bond girls were also great, and personally I liked Gemma Arterton more than Olga Kurylenko, even though she was given less room to perform. And the powerhouse and also best-working component of the movie is the flawless Daniel Craig thanks to whom everything is as it should be. (11/28/2008)

The first Bond that is practically without a beginning. It takes a while to get used to the fact that the film starts essentially in the middle, so we don't get a lot of character analysis and explanations of who is working for whom. Quantum of Solace is almost exactly on the well-worn tracks of Casino Royale, and that is a good thing. Daniel Craig has achieved something unprecedented, he has perfectly defined the contemporary action hero, which no one has been able to do in the past 10 years. Ethan Hunt is too action-oriented and not believable enough, Jason Bourne is an emotionless machine, but Crags's portrayal of James Bond is a thrilling persona that fits perfectly into the current trend of the perfect man: a rough, charismatic, and intelligent killer who is like a fish out of water without a luxury suit. Thankfully, there are emotions and love, but presented intentionally in a subdued manner, and delivered in precise doses, and Bond is breathtaking in those moments with the accompaniment of a gentle piano. Forster knows exactly what is in nowadays and he is careful. Perhaps it is only in the last two Bond movies where they managed to bring rawness to the action, meaning that finally the blows are hard enough, the falls are rough enough, and the running is fierce enough; no frills, no clever cameras shortening this or that, absolutely fierce, uncompromising, and devilishly fast action without any time for thinking. It could almost be said that the adrenaline can be felt through the screen. Casino Royale plus Quantum of Solace: timeless filmmaking. (03/15/2009)

Bond’s vendetta was a success. From the opening credits to the closing credits, the lightning-fast film races like a doped-up athlete, and it doesn't care if you can keep up with it and follow it or not. The best scenes, like in Casino Royale, come right at the beginning (the car chase and running on the rooftops), but "boring" is the last word that comes to mind in connection with the rest of Quantum of Solace. The finale is great, as is the airplane scene. Craig has confirmed that he is the best actor that could be acquired for the role of the modern 007. I hope he has many more Bond films to come. (02/27/2010)

James Bond in an era of cinematic chaos under the baton of a pure formalist. For me, this is the exploitation of Bond's potential almost to the marrow, with 230 million invested in a unconversational kinetic story where most of the money has been spent on hugely demanding real special effects and building a tangible set. I honestly knew I was going to give it the best score in one of the opening two-second shots, when from a shot of a destructive chase on Tuscan serpentines the camera still manages to execute an establishing shot. The fall from the Tower of Siena, the motorboat collisions, or the shootout in the opera house where the sound and spatial orientation are switched off, leaving only fragments of Bond-like attributes – all these are the results of an awful lot of money and the authorial vision of someone who thinks more in pictures than in words. Yes, films like this started swallowing huge budgets only a decade ago. (11/25/2019)

For me, the weakest of the first three Bond movies with Daniel Craig. It's missing something. One probably already knew what to expect after "Casino Royale", so there wasn't such a big surprise. The story is maybe a bit too complicated, but so is "Skyfall". Maybe too much effort to make Bond someone a little different than who he really is. Still good, but not exceptional. (02/21/2014)

As worried as I was about whether Forster could make a proper action film, I was pleasantly surprised in this regard. The opening car chase, the planes, the final confrontation in the middle of the desert – all brilliantly filmed. The only problem I have with Quantum of Solace is the somewhat chaotic plot, but maybe that's the way the writers wanted it :)) Nevertheless, there is nothing to fault with the form, though I can't help comparing it to the excellent Casino Royale – in this respect QoS falls short of its predecessor, despite the fact that Casino Royale had considerably less action, but on the other hand benefited from a more elaborate script and a more fluid plot. If the next Bond film is a balanced combination of the two previous installments, it will be a solid hit, we'll see. (12/27/2009)