Review - Quantum of Solace
Out of the shadows, and into the fight
by Ginny Shi
There is no time to waste. Not in a Bond movie anyway. Quantum of Solace thrusts full force ahead, opening with James Bond (Daniel Craig) in hot pursuit by his enemies. Amidst crash and burn destruction, he swerves maniacally and speeds insanely on winding roads, ducking nasty collisions. It is pure chaos. The scenes are snappily cut. Sharp. Too choppy-chop. I can’t quite keep up with the action. But what are we to do? Our favourite British spy only has 106 minutes (a good 38 minutes lesser than the previous film, Casino Royale) to hunt down the baddies and seduce some ladies.
Picking off where Casino Royale left off, revenge is on the top of Bond’s agenda after his lover, Vesper, perished in the previous installment. Bond barrels his way through his quest, trigger-happy, scruffy, grimy-faced, charmingly roguish – there couldn’t be a better Bond than Craig, all dark, smoky and edgy in looks and aura. The next Bond will have huge shoes to fill. Concurrently, Bond is on a mission to bring down pseudo-environmentalist, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who is part of a top-secret criminal syndicate.
Slimy villains aside, this 22nd Bond film has the other basics covered – sexy Bond girls (not one, but two), highly action-packed sequences (chases from land, sea to vast blue sky) and glamorous locales (exotic Italy, Haiti, Austria, Boliva and Russia) are not lacking.
Number 22, however, is less frivolous than its predecessors. Although scenes of the final showdown and the weeding out of villains at the Bregenz Festival House are rocking- brilliant, raciness takes a slight dip. Spiffy tech-gadgets have nearly all but disappeared, Bond’s rendezvous with the flaming-red Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton) is unnaturally short-lived by Bond standards and his other lover-girl, Camille (Olga Kurylenko), oozing don’t-mess-with-me vibes, is more interested in her own vendetta than hooking up with the irresistible 007.
Quantum of Solace defies the Bond formula in some ways, even to the extent of omitting the ever-famous “my name is Bond -James Bond” line. Positioning itself as a thriller as much as it is a drama on Bond’s character development, Marc Forster’s sophisticated directorial hand keeps the action intact, while humanising Bond to be more than a one-dimensional heroic icon.
Forster gives Bond the space to show his sensitivity without regressing into a heinous deluge of maudlin. Yes, there is more to Bond than his sharp suit, cool tech-toys, bravado and womanising ways. And that is what makes Quantum of Solace refreshing.
Genre: Action Thriller
Language: English with Chinese subtitles
Runtime: 106 min
Rating: PG
