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Note: In America, Best Buy has released this film in
a box set with Licence to Kill and The Man With The Golden
Gun, neither one of which gets a stand-alone Blu-Ray release
until May. If you want to get Quantum, get it in that set.
You’ll get two classic Bond adventures before they go on
sale separately, and even save a few bucks in the process.
Quantum of Solace is directed by Marc Forster, and stars
Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Gemma Arteron,
Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright, and Giancarlo Giannini. The
musical score is composed by David Arnold, and the title
song performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys. ***
Quan tum of Solace is unusual to the James Bond series
in that it is a direct sequel to the film that came immediately
before, Casino Royale. Following a certain tragedy Bond
suffered at the end of the previous film (I won’t spoil
it here for the sake of the people that haven’t seen Casino
Royale yet), Bond is facing an identity crisis of sorts.
Soon enough, he finds himself on a mission to investigate
the mysterious Quantum terrorist organization. With little
to no leads and people in their ranks everywhere, Bond must
not only deal with his personal issues, but with an organization
that could very well be Bond’s biggest challenge yet. ***
The people at EON Productions haven’t been able to
have a hot streak of James Bond films going since the sixties.
Casino Royale was lucky to be hailed as the finest Bond
film in quite some time (even if this reviewer wasn’t quite
its biggest fan.) Unfortunately, Quantum of Solace shows
us t hat it’s unlikely EON will ever be able to get another
winning streak going. ***
As far as the positives go, there are plenty of good
performances in the film. Daniel Craig more-or-less owns
the role of James Bond now, and he gives his all here. Supporting
cast members are no less excellent, including Judi Dench
as M and Olga Kurylenko as the latest in a long line of
Bond Girls. Performances are the main thing that makes Quantum
worthwhile, though the musical score from series veteran
David Arnold is good as always. Even the title song, sung
by the odd combination of Alicia Keys and Jack White, is
pretty damn entertaining. ***
Sadly, in the long run, the film is a huge disappointment.
At a brisk 105 minutes (shortest Bond film ever made, in
contrast with Casino Royale being the LONGEST ever), the
film feels like a montage of action scenes slapped together,
with the storyline as an afterthought. The poor editing
and camerawork in these action scenes makes them particularly
atrocious and dizzying to watch (which is a shame because
the crew put a lot of work into them.) Do we really need
to switch camera angles EVERY 3 SECONDS!? Likewise, there
are plot twists and confusing elements around every corner.
I’m all for plot twists, but this is just too much, especially
in such a short (by comparison of other Bond movies) film.
Felix Leiter and Rene Mathis’ presence in the film don’t
add anything to the movie (and, honestly they weren’t really
needed in Casino Royale either.) Forget Leiter and Mathis,
I want Q and Moneypenny back! As a direct sequel, it will
leave viewers scratching their heads if they didn’t see
Casino Royale first. And the fact that it’s hardly a worthy
sequel will disappoint many. It feels more like the third
act Casino Royale was so desperately missing… but it doesn’t
work as a sequel OR an appendix. ***
Quantum has gotten its share of mixed reviews, and I
won’t be disagreeing with the naysayers on this one. Daniel
Craig’s performance as Bond is commendable, but it doesn’t
save the movie. The overabundance of action scenes, all
of which are poorly filmed (James Bond is supposed to be
a secret agent, not an action hero!), combined with a confusing
plot, unnecessary characters with plenty of old favorites
not returning, and the fact that it’s a direct sequel (something
old Bond pictures rightfully stayed away from doing) make
this a huge disappointment. There are some redeeming qualities,
but not that many. A rental for the curious, and nothing
more. 2 stars out of 5. --
Image and Sound: Even though I wasn’t the biggest fan
of the film, I won’t argue with the quality of this transfer.
Image quality is sharp throughout, and it has a deliberately
gritty and grainy look that ports over excellently to the
home video format. Lossless audio only adds to the experience,
and when you combine the two, you’ve got a movie that just
screams out “demo disc.” This is the way a Blu-Ray film
is supposed to look and sound.
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