Quantum of Solace - Review

Director: Marc Forster
Writers: Purvis/Wade/Haggis
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench
Runtime: 1 hr, 45 minutes

I watched some episodes of American Idol last year. My favorite critique of Simon Cowell's: "You did a good job with that song, but it was forgettable." That is excellent, excellent criticism. Don't fight to be good; fight to be remembered.

This is Quantum of Solace's problem. It is not great, not bad, not anything. It's forgettable. It's a generic action picture that happens to have a character named James Bond. He uses the line, "Who do you work for?" more than once, without a hint of embarrassment. The line has been used so often in spy stories that Austin Powers made a joke out of it. That was a decade ago. If you think that's bad, Quantum of Solace even has this fresh and original dialogue: "You're suspended until further notice." Quantum of Solace's hero could have been named John Smith and it wouldn't have made a difference.

The Quantum story picks up where Casino Royale left off. Bond's girlfriend has just died and he is out for blood. Following the so-so opening theme song, Bond chases people, fights, chases people, fights, and finally stumbles upon the arch villain of the movie. The man's name is Dominic Greene. As his name suggests, he is a pitchman for green environmental projects. His latest scheme is a bid to stop the deforestation of Bolivia.

It's only later that we find out that Greene is truly deranged. Not only does he kill people, but he's lying about saving the planet. He couldn't care less about the water table of Bolivia. Even worse, he's in bed with the most vicious, evil entity on earth: the United States of America and the CIA. The lead CIA man in the film is a chuckling boob, and is more than happy to have a go at killing an MI6 agent. During discussions about how twisted the CIA and US government are we're treated to a few helpings of, "Americans will do anything for oil."

Good grief. Is this the best they could do, a bad guy from the op-ed page of the New York Times? Paul Haggis helped with the script so I'm not surprised it went down this road, but I thought they'd have something else to level it off. Nope.

The movie is literally a Bourne rip-off, with very little "Bond" in it. The one or two cheesy one-liners sound flat and aren't funny this time around. Connery and Brosnan's delivery was far better. Hell, so was Daniel Craig's in the last movie. But that was the last movie.

The fight and chase sequences are cut way, way, way too fast for a Bond film, and could easily have been taken from Bourne outtakes because you can never focus long enough to see if Daniel Craig or Matt Damon is driving the car. The one five-second sex scene in Quantum isn't sexy, and the violence is way over the top, making Bond as indestructible as a Van Damme.

Maybe they were going for a younger crowd. Maybe they had such good luck with the "dark side" of Bond in Casino Royale that they forgot who Bond is. We want to like him and be like him, not just watch him wreck stuff and see him get punched in the face over and over again.

Quantum of Solace has turned James Bond into regular action fare, removing all of his charm and killing his humour. When he drinks a martini, he drinks to get drunk and forget his sorrowful past. When he kisses a woman good-bye, it's a quick peck on the lips. This is Bond? James Bond? Even the Bond theme takes a backseat, as it is only used at full volume during the closing credits. In the film, the theme is replaced by a lame action movie beat. (This is probably a cheap shot, but I even have a problem with the movie's posters: since when does Bond walk side by side with a girl, looking dirty and morose? Where's the tux? The smirk? The confidence? Or in the other poster, since when does Bond carry a howitzer instead of his slick pistol? Is he compensating for something since his girlfriend died?)

Though this movie is an early hit, I think it's riding on the reputation gained from the last outing. Another one or two like Quantum of Solace and they could sink the franchise.

Cowell's pragmatic criticism fits this film perfectly: forgettable.