Quantum of Solace
Casino Royale is a divisive Bond film. There are a lot of young people like me who didn’t know anyone but Pierce Brosnan as Bond and never really got excited about the genre that he defined. For these people, Casino Royale and the First Blonde Bond marked an exciting change and made a new, if tentative, Bond fan. Casino Royale took popular elements of badassitude that sprung from lucrative places like the Bourne franchise and applied them to an old character. It also humanized Bond in way that was rare in past films. He allowed himself to care, to fall in love and ultimately to be hurt. This appeals to a modern audience that wants to relate to their heros on a deeper level. Superman is OK — but his popularity with today’s youth reached new heights only when they were allowed to see him as a gawky teenager on Smallville. The X-Men trilogy was hugely successful because anyone could be a mutant. I’m not breaking any new ground with these assessments, but I think that’s why Casino Royale resonated with a new Bond audience, myself included. The only part that I deeply disliked about Casino Royale was Eva Green as Vesper. How could *that* be the girl that Bond falls in love with? Her voice makes my teeth grate. Smoky deepness like ScarJo is one thing. Sounding like you’re 2 Marlboro Reds from a tracheotomy is something else. I also found her acting to be wooden and obnoxious and generally unlikable. But lucky for her, this isn’t a review of Casino Royale.
Quantum of Solace takes the Bond character that so many people were drawn to in Casino Royale and lets him keep being awesome without going soft. He’s learned his lesson now, and even better — he’s out for revenge. This time around, Bond wants the truth about his dead lover and will stop at nothing to get it! YES!
Unfortunately, some bad guys get in the way. The movie falls right in line with so many recent films and even albums that have been trying their best to cash in on the ubiquitous “greening” of everything. Yes, in 2008, the bond villains are eco-terrorists with a head honcho, one Dominic Greene (Eco-terrorist named Greene? No Comment.) played by the surprisingly short, but still somehow appealing Mathieu Amalric (who is also great at playing a guy who can only blink to communicate). While Bond tracks down Greene, has a tryst with a tall redhead, tries to get to the bottom of what happened with Vesper and constantly runs afoul of M., he also keeps encountering the luscious and exotic Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko, who had a scene stealing cameo in Max Payne, which I actually saw). At first, he thinks he has rescued her from the grips of a deposed Bolivian dictator, but then he learns that she is on her own mission of revenge and doesn’t need rescuing at all (Ok, maybe a tiiiiiny bit of rescuing). YES, YES, YES!
With thrilling, well shot action sequences, steely, compelling performances and an interesting if not entirely awesome plot, Quantum of Solace won’t make you fall in love with James Bond all over again. But it’s OK, because you’re already seduced from before.
And no, for the record, they never explain what the fuck the title is supposed to mean and yes, I think it’s a shitty title.
Thank you for not copping out and giving the same makes-no-sense “this is not a Bond movie” review. This movie rocked. I’m going to see it again.
A ‘quantum’ is the smallest possible unit of energy. You can’t have half a quantum. I think it’s called Quantum of Solace because 007 did get some solace from his revenge, but in an immeasurably, indivisibly small dose.
Woah, someone explained the title and actually explained it well. I’m still not crazy about it, but at least it makes sense.