10. Quantum of Solace
Im really looking forward to
Skyfall. I think everyone is. Yet the way its been portrayed continues to trouble me. Its viewed as some sort of Bond reboot, taking the franchise out of the mire in which its found itself and the blame for this situation is being laid at the door of 007s last outing,
Quantum of Solace. But was it really that bad? No, I dont think it was. In fact, I think it was rather good. It just couldnt have been more badly timed. The problem with
Quantum was that it came directly after the unfathomably awesome
Casino Royale.
Royale had more or less dragged the franchise out of the grave dug for it by
Die Another Day, through a combination of glamour, brutality and most of all novel plot structure. It subverted audience expectation; rather than centring on Bond stopping a megalomaniac bent on world domination,
Royale was more focused on Bonds relationship with Vesper Lynd, herself a subversion of Bond formula insofar as she isnt just a sex object. Le Chiffres eventual death wasnt even the climax of the narrative. All these were unorthodox, bold and universally appreciated moves. So when
Quantum reverted back to the old villain-centric formula, one could argue it was a bit of a let-down. Yet by virtue of
Quantums status as a direct continuation rather than a reboot, it was hamstrung on the originality front from the get-go, having been set out as a revenge flick providing closure to the Vesper arc. Another bold twist wouldve possibly been dismissed as arbitrary. So
Quantum was always judged next to this impossible benchmark. This is a shame because whats on offer here is mostly very good. A slightly mediocre villain and some stiff dialogue aside (the crew had to come up with the lines on set thanks to the Writers Guild strike) it rattled along at a good pace, opening with a tremendously brutal and thrilling car chase, and ending with some good character growth for 007, and was punctuated with an excellent rooftop chase in Siena and the introduction of a well-rounded Bond girl in Camille Montes. It also featured an absolutely fantastic scene; the Quantum meeting in the Austrian opera. These scenes marry the glamour and subterfuge of the Bond universe (who the hell stages a secret meeting at a performance of Tosca, if not Bond villains?) with a rousingly atmospheric gun-battle silent but for the opera music and culminates in a suitably badass moment when Bond drops a bodyguard off the roof, only for Dominic Greene to show his villain colours (which werent shown often enough) when he has the same bodyguard executed for looking at him. What Im saying is this: yes,
Quantum of Solace isnt as good as
Casino Royale. But taken by itself, its still worthy of praise an excellent character piece featuring some great action sequences. If nothing else, its certainly much better than the
Die Another Day nadir, and nobody wants to go back to Bond kitesurfing. (While I was writing this article a whole analysis of
Quantum of Solace came out on WhatCulture, and its really good. Look at it here
http://whatculture.com/film/007-reasons-why-quantum-of-solace-is-a-great-bond-film.php)