Barnes at the Movies: 007: Quantum of Solace

I have a heterosexual man-commitment towards James Bond.  I dabble with Jack Bauer.  I do flirt with the idea of John McClane.  However, my hetero-heart belongs to 007.  Therefore, whenever there is a Bond film, I am in the theater and I have great expectations.  While the franchise has had its ups and downs, they aren't bad films.  A bad Bond film usually beats a mediocre movie any day.  Quantum of Solace isn't a bad movie nor is it the worst Bond movie.  It was like a Bond girl:  fun for the time being, but ultimately forgettable.

Quantum of Solace is a direct sequel to the rebooted Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig returning as 007.  Bond, M (Judi Dench), and the rest of MI6 are trying to unfurl a secret criminal organization that is so well hidden that even members of MI6 are involved.  Bond is still angry and brooding over the loss of his love from the previous film, Vesper, and his mouth testifies "business" while his actions scream "vengeance."  While bodies lie in Bond's wake, there is the fear that he has gone rogue, with Bond investigating the true intentions of a non-profit environmental organization while being hunted by his employers.

Daniel Craig is a great Bond.  Time will tell if he will be the best, but I put him at #3 behind Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan for now.  While the point of the film was that Bond was trying to sequester his emotions to do his duty, I found that there were scenes in which Craig was too stone-faced.  Many scenes looked liked he was bored, not being cool or cold.  Judi Dench was great as the returning M and Jeffrey Wright was good returning as Bond's American ally, Felix Leiter.  The performances overall were pretty good.

The story, however, left me wanting.  I understand this is Bond's quest for revenge, but this wasn't a lot different than the Jason Bourne franchise.  One of the things that separates the Bond franchise from other films in the genre are the quiet moments.  Moments in which Bond is in a mind game with his opposition whether it'd be a card game, death trap, debate or whatever.  This movie had none of those quiet moments and if they did, they were so short that one can miss them.  The purpose of those moments is to appreciate the cerebral aspect of espionage and cleverness of Bond along with making the action scenes more memorable by spreading them out throughout the film.  

However, if you are going to do nonstop action, at least shoot it and edit it well.  The ideas behind the action scenes are pretty inventive (a gunfight on top of wiggly scaffolding?  Cool!), but I hated how it was put together.  There were many extreme close-ups, jump cuts, and shaky camerawork that it left the audience disoriented and confused.  

Is that Bond's hand reaching for the gun?  Was that the handbrake?  Which color was Bond's car again?  It left the audience thinking, "That was cool...what happened?"  I know that intent was to make the audience feel like they were in the moment with the character, but all it does is make the audience try to decipher what just occurred and while they do that, they don't pay attention to the next course of action which makes them think that they missed something cool which makes them aggravated.  Not that I'm nitpicking or venting.

That's not to say that I didn't like the movie.  It was worth my money and my time, assuming this movie was a necessary step to let the Bond character grow for the next film.  Bottom line:  Quantum of Solace is a mediocre James Bond movie, but an awesome Jason Bourne film.  I just hope that if a third Craig 007 movie is made that the camerawork would be less shaken and the plot more stirring. 

Random Prediction:  If they do decide to as "Q" as a character to the franchise reboot, I predict Simon Pegg will get the role.