Quantum of Solace

RATING: C

While Daniel Craig's first outing as James Bond in Casino Royale wasn't without its flaws (namely its convoluted poker tournament plot), it was still a pretty darn good and mostly entertaining movie. Craig did very well as Bond and showed a bit of a new side to the character. This film is supposed to follow up directly from where Casino Royale left off, answering the questions about the organization known as Quantum that was ultimately responsible for Vesper's death in the last movie.

It's quite unfortunate that they had to switch directors for this movie. Because while Martin Campbell did a fairly good job with Casino Royale, it's hard to say the same for director Marc Forster in this film. 

If you thought Casino Royale had a convoluted plot at times, get ready... because you have seen nothing yet. Quantum of Solace, which begins*immediately* with a frantic car chase, hurls you quickly into a rather confusing plot concerning the organization Quantum and their intentions to control some big natural resource in South America. For some reason. I kind of feel like a super-secret organization like them would have more important priorities than something random in Bolivia. By the end of the film, we don't know much more about them than we did at the beginning (though I understand more is *supposed* to be revealed in Spectre, which I haven't seen yet). 

James Bond's intentions in the film are even more confusing. One moment it seems as if he is a madman seeking revenge for the death of Vesper, and the next he seems to be quite collected. His supervisor M is almost even worse in that regard; one moment she wants James Bond suspended from field duty, and the next she suddenly completely trusts him again for no apparent reason. 

Probably the worst thing about this film, though, is the unbelievably horrible camera cuts. Most of the  action sequences are so quickly edited, jump-cutting and switching angles every two seconds, that in a couple of cases--namely the opening car chase--I could legitimately not tell at all what was going on. There's another chase where I started being unable to tell Bond and the guy he is pursuing apart, because of how quick the camera cuts are. What's arguably even dumber is a couple of sequences where the camera cuts randomly between the exciting action (such as it is) and a completely unrelated event; one being a horse race (seriously, freaking *why?*) and in the other, an opera. 

Quantum of Solace tries as hard as it can at times to be absolutely horrible, but it is not without merit. Daniel Craig still does very well in his role as James Bond, delivering the grittiness and charm at the same time. Despite the quick editing's attempts to make the action sequences horrible, there are still quite a few good ones; including a fight that goes from rooftops through glass early on, a boat chase, and the whole last 20 minutes or so, which are admittedly pretty thrilling and deliver an explosive finale. The overall plot, though convoluted, isn't boring at least. 

Despite some decent moments, Quantum of Solace is still a fairly weak Bond film, and I ultimately was pretty glad that it was distinctly shorter than Casino Royale (106 minutes compared to 144). Though it doesn't exactly tie the loose ends like one hopes it would, there's still some material that makes up for it somewhat. It's worth watching as part of the Daniel Craig Bond saga, but you probably won't end up wanting to watch it more than once.