Quantum of Solace: A Review

A lot of what you get out of a James Bond film depends on what you take into it, and I'm not speaking specifically about expectations. All of us, in one way or another, walk into a film with expectations (especially sequels.) However, to see a James Bond film is to participate in the longest running film franchise in history and, whether you've seen all the movies or just a few, you know the drill. Beyond simple expectations, you have demands.

That is why Quantum of Solace is different (and I argue better) from any of the other Bond films, and a worthy sequel to the reboot Casino Royale, because director Marc Forster brings to life a film that doesn't care one way or another about audience demands. The paradox is that the film, having taken its own path, still respects audience expectations by having the action, the chases (by land, sea, and air!), the sexy women, the spy shenanigans.
You can read all sorts of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes where writers complain that Quantum is a great action movie, but not a great Bond movie. Or you can read how Quantum is the worst Bond movie ever made and only a competent spy movie. Though the film is currently rated "fresh" somewhere in the seventy percentile range, the general consensus is that Casino Royale was better, Marc Forster made a decent action movie, but as a Bond film Quantum is a missed opportunity.
To all of that, I would say bollicks.
Now to elaborate without spoiling anything:


Quantum of Solace is a film about James Bond in the desert, reflected in both the story and the setting. The core of the film is the revenge story, certainly, but not Bond's hunt for revenge. Throughout the film we see a man who has lost greatly and knows only that he is filled with anger, however Bond doesn't know with whom to be angry. He certainly has his options, the man responsible for Vesper's death, Vesper herself, or the organization that put him in a position to choose duty over love (solidly represented by Judie Dench's M). Thus, unable to decide who is to blame he approaches all three with the same furor, willing to smash everything to bits and sort out the mess afterwards to see if along the way he actually hit the right target. Bond is alone, deserted, and his internal emptiness is externally reflected by director Forster's choice of setting: the barren wastes of a South American desert.
There is a paralell to Bond's struggle represented in the "Bond girl" of the film, gorgeous Russian actress Olga Kurylenko as Camille. However, Camille's revenge plot is allowed to play out straight, with a clear antagonist, and to see how her story intertwines and affects that of Bond is clever, and poetic.

That is the true story of Quantum of Solace (hence the title), but the other plotlines are good as well. Part of Bond's search for revenge involves his angry assault on his "duty", which takes him tooth and claw into a plan by a ghost-like organization that is arranging a military coup in Bolivia to take control of that country's resources (ostensibly oil), something we learn they accomplished previously in Haiti (and hearkening back to Casino Royale we see the same going on in Africa with La Chifre.) Thus the main "bad guy" is an environmentalists with evil ulterior motives. Here the film becomes a bit of a political mess as the US and the CIA are shown in support of the regime change so they can get their hands on more oil. There is an unfortunately large amount of retardation thrown about wherein the Americans are vilified, or just made to look incompetent under the pretense that the US deals with anybody to get what they want (oil). Which is of course why were such good friends with Chavez, right? This is clearly the contribution Paul Haggis brought to the screenplay. I digress....
Ultimately the politics get worked out and become interesting because, unlike some vague world domination plan seen in earlier Bond stories, the bad guys in the new Bond world operate in a believable, real world context. Eventually, the stories all come together in the aforementioned desert in a (literally) explosive climax that where Bond passes through the fire.

The film is much tighter than Casino Royale (which despite its higher RT rating) suffered greatly from an overlong runtime, an unfocused plot, and one of the most boring third acts ever. I would place both films on equal footing as far as action and spy vs. spy plotting, but I would choose Quantum of Solace as the smarter movie. One that has all the expected action and Bond-i-ness without caving into the demands of a series that produced, at best, four truly worthwhile films.