Day 22 - Quantum Of Solace (2008) - Film Review

Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric & Gemma Arterton

Screenplay: Neal Purvis, Robert Wade & Paul Haggis

Directed By: Marc Forster

Certificate: 12

Whereas 'Casino Royale' has a reputation for greatness, 'Quantum Of Solace' to put it politely... doesn't. Beginning directly after the events of the previous film, Bond brings the mysterious Mr White to M where the two interrogate him. White claims to be part of Quantum, an organization so secretive that not even MI6 know of it, and soon escapes when even M's bodyguard turns out to be working with them. Following a trail of clues, Bond is led to environmentalist and entrepreneur, Dominic Greene. Greene is another Quantum member and appears to be working with an exiled Bolivian General to stage a coup d'état in the country, but for what purpose? 

As per usual we may as well begin by talking about the opening, as in hindsight the opening of 'Quantum Of Solace' turned out to be very revealing about some of my biggest issues with the film. Beginning with Bond in Italy, having kidnapped Mr White and tied him up in the boot of his car, they're being pursued by gunmen. It's supposed to be a high-octane fast-paced action sequence to open the film with a bang, but instead it ends up jarring and impenetrable. Everything moves so fast, with far too many cuts to keep track of what the hell's supposed to be happening. It's not clear who's giving chase to Bond and we don't know that he even has Mr White with him until he's successfully shaken them off, so I'm already confused and not at all invested in what's supposed to be happening. Once Bond arrives at safe harbour, we're taken to the film's theme 'Another Way To Die' by Alicia Keys and Jack White. Honestly I'm not keen on this theme either. While I quite liked the guitar riffs throughout, the rest of it almost sounds somehow unfinished. One review of it I've seen described it as jagged, and that's the perfect word to sum it up really. It's not awful, but not anything I'll be in a hurry to return to.

So I got off on the wrong foot thanks to this opening but it is mercifully brief at least, taking up just seven minutes altogether with the opening titles. And brief is a word that can be applied to the film as a whole. Interestingly, we've gone from one of the longest Bond films with 'Casino Royale' straight to 'Quantum Of Solace' which to date is the shortest film in the franchise. All of Daniel Craig's other Bond films comfortably surpass the two hour mark, so 'Quantum Of Solace' at just 1hr 40mins is quite the anomaly. This can partly be explained by the 2007-2008 writers' strike in America, which along with a hurried production, prevented any significant reworkings of the script. In the first half of the film especially, this doesn't do it many favours. For example, in the first thirty minutes the chain of people we go through in order to get to our main villain is massive for such a relatively short space of time. It starts with Mr White, then our next lead is M's traitorous bodyguard, and from him the chain then goes to a contact in Haiti, Edmund Slate, and he turns out to be a hitman working for Dominic Greene. It's just too many middle men for its own good, and while the purpose might've been to show how many people are in the pockets of Quantum, it was in desperate need of revising.

An interesting thing about 'Quantum Of Solace' was that in 2012, a New Zealand university conducted a study where they found it to be the most violent Bond film. And yet I never really felt that 'Quantum' was much more violent than most other Bond films I've watched. An explanation for that might be found in the film's execution. At the time of writing, the only other film I've watched directed by Marc Forster is 'Christopher Robin'. I've yet to see films like 'World War Z' so I can't be too assured in saying this, but watching this I got a distinct impression that Forster isn't really suited to directing action sequences. The action does move at a fast pace, but the reliance on overly-rapid editing as was all too evident in the opening, combined with a screenplay that can often feel incomprehensible, meant that generally my eyes just glazed over and slid off the screen whenever the action kicked in. This wasn't always the case, as there were a couple of time where I found Forster's direction to be quite impressive. Bond's escape from the Tosca opera performance was beautiful stuff, and stood out thanks to its muted sound and the glossy opera house location. But more often than not, and especially when it came to the action, I just ended up feeling disinterested in what was happening on screen.

It's probably obvious by now that I feel a lot colder towards this film than I did towards 'Casino Royale'. While I do think this is easily the weaker of the two, that's not to say it's some unmitigated disaster. It really isn't and there are moments in here that work really well. Mathis is a great example of this. I didn't really have anything to say about him in 'Casino Royale', but returning to the character here is one of the best things 'Quantum' has to offer. I was a lot more endeared to him, especially when he decides to help Bond again, even putting himself at risk by returning to the field with him, and even after him imprisonment and torture as a result of Bond's actions in the last film. It makes his death all the more compelling, and it's a surprisingly gentle, emotional moment when Mathis dies in Bond's arms. The leading man continued to impress me too, and he's really channelling this idea of Bond as a killer. The relationship between Bond and killing is explored to some great effect here, as M has to chastise him for being so trigger happy and killing off multiple leads. Even when he's not the one pulling the trigger, Bond almost seems to invite death to anyone around him. There's Mathis of course, but Ms Strawberry Fields meets a grisly end too as a result of getting too close. Being drowned in crude oil is a pretty gruesome way to go, and the image of her body lying on the bed submerged in oil appears to hark back to the iconic skin asphyxiation death in 'Goldfinger'.

Not every Bond girl meets a gloomy death however, as we also have Camille. Camille isn't necessarily one of the franchise's greatest characters, and her motivation of a revenge quest isn't the most original either. That said, it is satisfying when her moment comes and she finally gets to enact that revenge. Likewise, even though Greene isn't up there as one of the best villains, his schemes are the kind of thing that I've been wanting to see explored in a Bond film for some time now. At first glance, Greene's plan to gain a monopoly over a country's water supply seems pretty underwhelming, especially considering the big shady Quantum organization is supposed to be behind him. Yet I admire the honest cynicism of the filmmakers in having both the CIA (who have always been Bond's reliably heroic allies until now) and the British government be complicit in Greene's plan, simply in the hopes they'll be able to exploit any oil resources. There's very little far-fetched about it - I mean for years companies like Nestle have managed to privatize water for profit and no government's stopped them yet so...

But at the risk of showing my lefty allegiances and reminding you why capitalism sucks, I'll leave it there. 'Quantum Of Solace' is... disappointing, especially so once you remember the film that preceded it. Throughout watching, I tried my best to be fair and not judge it by the merits of another film, but with this new era being so much more interconnected and with so many plot threads carrying over from the last film, it just makes the flaws of this one even more apparent. Like I've said, it has merit but I think this could've been a lot better if it had had the opportunity for several re-works. As for now, Bond appears to have reconciled his lust for revenge, at least to some extent, so the runway might be somewhat clearer as we head into our next film... it's the big one, as we prepare to celebrate fifty years of 007.

6/10

NEXT TIME - Skyfall