Bond Air

★★ out of ★★★★

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Runtime: 106 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sexual content.

Quantum of Solace is full-fledged action from start to finish. While watching it, I had several things in mind. Isn't it convenient how even main characters appear and disappear throughout the first hour of the movie? Couldn't it have been made after the Writer's Strike? Why is the camera so shaky and cuts fast-moving?

Picking up immediately after Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace finds James Bond (Daniel Craig) avenging Vesper Lynd's death and pursuing the members related to her killing, including an anonymous man named Mr. White. Bond captures Mr. White and puts him in interrogation, where White reveals to Bond and M (Dame Judi Dench) that they are oblivious to a worldwide organization, and that members of the organization are within Bond and M's community. Soon, Bond discovers that the organization, led by Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), is planning to eliminate a country's most valuable resource. A spy, Camille (Olga Kurylenko), joins Bond in a mission against time to prevent Greene from eliminating the resource.

There are many problems in Quantum, certainly because of the Writer's Strike, meaning Craig also had to step in to co-write the movie, but let's put that aside and discuss about the fundamental thing audiences are looking for: the action, the thrills, and the entertainment. Even from the start alone, the tremulous cinematography and frequent trims left the action perennially difficult to follow. Perhaps it tries to appeal to the audiences by inserting bigger elements like planes, larger shootings, and hotel fires, but these don't ultimately add up to a compelling narrative, or at least, a thrilling and intense watch.

Once again resorting to the Bond Formula, the narrative quivers occasionally, like not explaining to us where is Mr. White (instead, he vanishes after the first ten minutes), and the characters are generally weak. When Quantum is about to reach the third act, it attempts to develop Camille and her reason to avenge. Good try, but by now, it's a little too late. Other characters conveniently show themselves on screen, utter several words from the English dictionary, and won't appear until they're either dead or alive in the next installment.

Amalric's character poses another issue to Quantum. Physically and psychologically, his portrayal of Greene doesn't feel particularly threatening to Craig and co. and instead radiates the impression that he is that side villain masquerading as the film's main source of danger. Greene barely does anything menacing and is killed off surprisingly easily. Consequently, the tone is stifled and rarely becomes provoking to the viewer.

Here's yet another problem: the central figures M, Moneypenny and Q never or barely show up either, and it has become a trademark in Bond movies to at least show them onscreen. Fortunately, Craig's performance makes us forget about the exclusion of these characters. However, there's less impressive technology or more creative elements, despite given a budget of about $230 million or more, and scarce pauses for meaningful development.

I quote from Roger Ebert's review of Quantum of Solace, "Please understand: James Bond is not an action hero!" Audiences may not be particularly frustrated about that, because the entertainment could easily please them. However, even if I try to forgive the unstable plot, flat tone, and somewhat weak characters, the action doesn't do justice. It's basically incomprehensible from the opening credits to end credits.

Trailer: Not available.