Quantum of Solace Marc Foster UK 2008
If one word describes the latest James Bond film it might be 'parched.' The plot, constructed around international villains attempting to control water supplies in Bolivia, makes for a potent action film in the Jason Bourne franchise mould -- but with only a vague flicker of the camp side to brighten it all up.
Daniel Craig's new interpretation of 1950s camp super spy series is just as indestructible as ever, yet he spends this film pining for his lost love Vespa Lynd from the last Bond film, Casino Royale. Running foul of the shadowy Quantum organisation in the hunt for her killers, fatalities build up quickly as Bond crosses swords with Dominic Greene (played by a genuinely unpredictable Mathieu Amalric), a European Quantum member posing as an environmentalist who is trying to hand Bolivia over to a military junta in return for exclusive water rights, and hence true power over South America.
Short for the Bond films at 106 minutes, Quantum of Solace leaves out most of the witty banter for taut action sequence after another. The action barely has time to draw breath before the next chase is launched into headlong. Bond running over rooftops in Siena Italy, Bond ramming boats in Haiti, Bond running over more roofs in Austria and so on until stuff explodes. Which is no bad thing given the audacious construction but it makes one yearn for the few slower moments, such as one where Bond strolls cheekily into some grand hotel in La Paz announcing to reception that he's a teacher who's won the lottery.
Starting in a quarry and ending in a desert the new Bond lacks lubrication between the action scenes that even the expert scripting trio who put together the last one can't quite provide. In deference to the emotional tragedy of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's Bond is in mourning seeking revenge for the death of Lynd and Quantum of Solace is mostly about his resolution.
Craig's Bond is a brutal killer and here he's given a reason to go off the deep end with unpleasant results. One victim in Haiti is casually stabbed in a hotel room brawl and then restrained as the life ebbs out of him. Craig's Bond looks to the side coolly like a man working in an abattoir trying to get through a long shift. This man is deadly and there are none of the pithy asides of many action films (including earlier Bond films) to lightly satirise the reality of what the ‘hero' is doing. Craig gives us a cold horrible, horrendous creature. It is possible that if an audience were given more of this vengeful Bond they might not like what they found.
As a companion piece to Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace works magnificently but as a James Bond film, even in the wake of the series reboot, it leaves one a little thirsty for something more.
