Quantum of Solace - Grading & Discussion

[BigFoot]

I saw this in Sunday... while not as good as Casino Royale, it was still a very entertaining movie.

[Jax]

(B-) So Average Grade...

The movie is not a bad movie on its own merit but coming after Casino Royale, it didn't live up to expectations. Once again I like M getting more screen time than where used to in the older Bond movies and also Daniel Craig was once again fantastic in the role. The Bond girls had a smaller role though both did fine, infact I liked Camille and her backstory though I prefer the Vesper character due to just being fleshed out more but look forward if Camille ever returned. Also glad Felix returned too and hope he stays in the franchise as long as Craig does, which rumor has it 2 more movies with a possible 3rd (5 total for Criag by then). The action was very good and I thought the 1st half was strong but the 2nd half is the problem.

I don't think the main villian was built up enough, I didn't really care for his plan and we should of learned more about Quantum, like the ending refering to another name like SPECTRE or some hint of more to come, we know nothing of what Bond got from his time alone with Vesper's ex lover. The film needed 5 minutes more at the end to explain better though I get it now with what Vesper's B/F does and that is seduce high ranking people in certian governments and then use that with a fake kidnapping plot to get what they want.

Overall a slightly dissapointing sequel to CR but am still hopeful of the new look Bond franchise and overall it will was a good BOND movie.

PS - Martin Campbell needs to return.

[BigFoot]

NX_01 Mark wrote:

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PS - Martin Campbell needs to return.

Agreed.

[Starkers]

TedShatner10 wrote:

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Some of Mark Kermode's opinions are valid, like the rubbish "Another Way to Die" and Marc Foster being out of his depth somewhat in comparison to Martin Campbell and Roger Spottiswoode, especially with the action scenes, but I do not understand the hypobolic, mostly uninformed rantings directed at the otherwise solid Quantum of Solace, a competent sequel that succeeds in carrying on the storyline introduced in Casino Royale.

I agree, QOS is a good solid Bond film, and I wonder if, with time, it'll be Daniel Craig's Tomorrow Never Dies which seems to get better press these days for being what it is, good solid Bond.

There was a plot in there, although perhaps it wasn't explained enough using small words? Maybe MAthis could have repeated his Poker for Dummies dialague from the last film??

Does it matter that we still don't know much about Quantum? Did we know much about SPECTRE to begin with? Heck did we ever know much about SPECTRE?

And I don't ned to know what Bond did with Vesper's b/f, at the end of the day he's a nobody, a minor cog in a larger wheel. What matters is the fact that 007 didn't kill him, showing the development of his character over the two films. Here's a man who only ever saw the small picture, killing off the little fish, except this time he left the one guy alive who he had most reason to want dead. What an ending. And I like the symmetry. Casino Royale started in snowy eastern europe and ended in Italy, QOS reversed this.

And frankly I prefer the idea of the bad guys having a somewhat fantastical goal rather than Le Chiffre's boring 'I want to be rich' plot which never made sense (esepcially after Bond kindly killed the man he owed his money too anyway!)

Honestly I think the problem here is that people lauded CR far too much and, as a result, set expectations QOS wasn't able to meet.

Is QOS flawed? Yes, but in truth so was Casiono Royale. Are they both enjoyable, yes, and that's all that matters to me.

[Jax]

I think I will have a greater love for QoS when I rewatch it and also probably after a 3rd movie goes more into the group's dealings.

[DWF]

And frankly I prefer the idea of the bad guys having a somewhat fantastical goal rather than Le Chiffre's boring 'I want to be rich' plot which never made sense (esepcially after Bond kindly killed the man he owed his money too anyway!)

Le Chiffre owed Quantum their money as well, which is why they killed him.

[Nardpuncher]

I don't want to sound stupid, but there were a few times that I was wondering why things were happening and why people were going where they were.
Why exactly did Bond go to Haiti? There was something about tagged bills on the first dead guy or something.
why did the bad guy let the woman hang around with him? I didn't get that.
Why did that hotel thingy place (what the hell was that?!?) blow up so frickin' much?
Was Vesper's boyfriend part of Quantum?

Jeez man, I think I have a good layman's understanding of Relativity...this movie baffles me.

[Dane_Whitman]

Meh... After the excellent Casino Royale this comes as a bit of a disappointment. A decent Bourne-like action movie, but lacking in atmosphere and the spy angle. What was up with the editing of this film by the way? I couldn't make heads or tails of some of the action sequences. Unfortunately this director subscribes to the idea that the more cuts and shaky cam shots you add to action scenes, the more spectacular they get. While Daniel Craig was ok and Judi Dench a pleasure as always, Quantum of Solace could have used a striking Bond-villain!

Feels like an entertaining but fairly shallow epilogue to Casino Royale, and I hope they make a better effort next time. Terrible theme song.

[Starkers]

Nardpuncher wrote:

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I don't want to sound stupid, but there were a few times that I was wondering why things were happening and why people were going where they were.
Why exactly did Bond go to Haiti? There was something about tagged bills on the first dead guy or something.
why did the bad guy let the woman hang around with him? I didn't get that.
Why did that hotel thingy place (what the hell was that?!?) blow up so frickin' much?
Was Vesper's boyfriend part of Quantum?

Jeez man, I think I have a good layman's understanding of Relativity...this movie baffles me.

Bond went to Haiti because of the tagged bills yes.

Greene tried to kill Camile several times, he didn't let her hang around with him. They were together once and he was handing her over to the General to kill.

The hotel had some kind of crazy power system that relied on hydrogen batteries or something!

Vesper's b/f was part of quantum, yes.

Personally I found the contrivences of QOS a bit easier to believe than those in CR, certainly the trail from Haiti to Austria made more sense than how Bond trakced down Demitrious in CR.

I do wonder if perhaps CR was just better at explaining things rather than letting people pick stuff up from the dialogue? Maybe that's why CR had to be 16 hours long

[Emher]

Starkers wrote:

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Maybe MAthis could have repeated his Poker for Dummies dialague from the last film??

I fucking hate bits of that. Sure explain to her about poker, but the bits with him telling her how much is in the pott...she's from the bloody treasury for gods sakes! She can count!

[Deckerd]

I didn't understand any of it. It looked pretty though.

[Samurai8472]

Campbell needs to come back for the third movie. When he leaves bond the quality dips slightly. You could say QOS was Craigs "Tomorrow Never Dies" with all the action thrown into it

[Timby]

Samurai8472 wrote:

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Campbell needs to come back for the third movie. When he leaves bond the quality dips slightly. You could say QOS was Craigs "Tomorrow Never Dies" with all the action thrown into it

I haven't seen Quantum of Solace yet, but I've heard it said -- either here or on another forum, probably Something Awful -- that while Martin Campbell might not be an extraordinarily good director, or even that good of a director, he is an extraordinarily good Bond director.

I'm interested to see how Forster's work pans out. I suspect I'll be using my lunch break and another hour on Friday to catch this. (Beats working!)

[WillsBabe]

I was disappointed, to be honest. There were moments when I was really enjoying the film, and I enjoyed some of the direction and imagery, and I doubt I'll ever tire of seeing beautiful Italy. I massively enjoyed Judi Dench. I enjoyed the tech. I enjoyed a couple of the quiet moments, and of course, I enjoyed just watching Daniel Craig. But none of that makes a great movie, or even a good movie. I'll get the dvd and I'll be happy to see it again, but it's not Casino Royale.

[Samurai8472]

JKTim wrote:

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I haven't seen Quantum of Solace yet, but I've heard it said -- either here or on another forum, probably Something Awful -- that while Martin Campbell might not be an extraordinarily good director, or even that good of a director, he is an extraordinarily good Bond director.

I liked "The Mask of Zorro" but "The Legend of Zorro" was meh.