Welcome back 007.
Trying to make a Bond movie better than Casino Royale is like trying to make a The Usual Suspects 2 in hopes that the audience would forget who Keyser Soze is. Casino Royale and The Dark Knight are two very rare instances when the movie exceeded the high expectations set upon it. It would be foolish of someone to go into Quantum of Solace expecting a better movie than Casino Royale.
As a Bond fanatic, I've come to grips with two tragic truths about Bond movies. First, it seems that every Bond movie tries to trump the other. They try and be bigger and better than the previous one and in every case since the Connery era, the producers have failed. Not since the big three of Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger have Bond producers succeeded in blowing away expectations. Second, not since Connery have two movies been good in a row. The Spy Who Loved Me was good, Moonraker was fucking horrible. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was great but Lazenby stepped down after just one film. The Living Daylights was bad and so was Licence to Kill (a tragic waste of one of the best Bond titles ever). Brosnan came close with Goldeneye (one of my favorite Bond movies) and Tomorrow Never Dies but TND was only fair. That brings us to Mr. Craig and his second outing as the redefined Bond.
Quantum of Solace is in no way a better Bond movie than Casino Royale, and that's what makes it a perfect sequel. Marc Forster did not try to make QoS better, he simply worked off of it. QoS is the first true sequel in the Bond franchise and I think that Forster did an excellent job. Martin Campbell re-energized the franchise with Goldeneye and reinvented Bond with Casino Royale. Marc Forster simply plays off of Campbell's work instead of trying to create his own vision of Bond. One of the new themes in the Bond movies is emotion. Not only do Campbell and Forster show you Bond as a hero, they show you why he's a flawed hero. Something that until 2006 was only addressed in Ian Flemming's books and not the movies. Which brings me to the main plot of QoS.
It's a revenge story, plain and simple. Bond is after the organization that is responsible for the death of Vesper Lynd, his only true love. The Bond girl, Olga Kurylenko, plays Camille, a women after a dictator who killed her family. Bond and Camille's common interest is Dominic Greene, played by Mathieu Almaric. Almaric's character will unfortunately go down as one of the forgotten bad guys because he doesn't have any defining characteristics or some cartoonish henchman at his side. I personally wish his character had a bigger part in the movie, but I understand why he didn't have a bigger character. Greene is merely a pawn in the new Bond Franchise's network of evil. Connery's Bond dealt with SPECTRE, Craig's Bond will be dealing with Mr. White and the group known as Quantum.
There are many negative reviews of this movie and that's because I think only two types of movie goers will really appreciate this movie. One is the true Bond fan, one that notices the subtle nostalgic nuances in the film. For instance, Bond uses the Walther PPK for the first time since Tomorrow Never Dies and notice the position that Fields was placed on the bed after being dipped in oil (it's the same position Jill Masterson was placed in Goldfinger). The second type of person that would enjoy this film is the action film fan, someone that's seen Bond films but has no interest in them other than the fact that they're going to see fast cars, hot women, and cool shootouts.
Craig's Bond is nothing like any other Bond we've seen. You might as well call Craig's four Bond movies (he's signed on for two more) The Bond Quadrilogy. QoS is simply the launching point for the final two movies in the series and if you look at it as an hour and fifty minute teaser trailer, you'll love it. It's packed with action and stuffs a heaping amount of character development into a short amount of time without boring you. Felix Lieter was merely a field agent in Casino Royale, now he's high up on the CIA food chain and Bond is gaining the trust and respect of M. He is slowly transforming into the cold blooded martini drinking killer we've come to know, and Quantum, the new face of evil is slowly being exposed.
I didn't expect much from QoS, in fact, I was a little concerned giving the Bond franchise's track record when following an immensely popular movie. But Forster and the writers, Robert Wade, Neal Purvis, and two time Oscar winner Paul Haggis did an excellent job. They set us up for third and fourth movies that will have many looking back on QoS realizing what a good movie it is. It's a Bond movie that won't be admired until the Craig storyline is complete. I guarantee you that plot elements and story lines were started in QoS and they will be completed in Bond films to come. So get to the theater and watch QoS, it'll entertain you now and wow you in a couple of years.
Trying to make a Bond movie better than Casino Royale is like trying to make a The Usual Suspects 2 in hopes that the audience would forget who Keyser Soze is. Casino Royale and The Dark Knight are two very rare instances when the movie exceeded the high expectations set upon it. It would be foolish of someone to go into Quantum of Solace expecting a better movie than Casino Royale.
As a Bond fanatic, I've come to grips with two tragic truths about Bond movies. First, it seems that every Bond movie tries to trump the other. They try and be bigger and better than the previous one and in every case since the Connery era, the producers have failed. Not since the big three of Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Goldfinger have Bond producers succeeded in blowing away expectations. Second, not since Connery have two movies been good in a row. The Spy Who Loved Me was good, Moonraker was fucking horrible. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was great but Lazenby stepped down after just one film. The Living Daylights was bad and so was Licence to Kill (a tragic waste of one of the best Bond titles ever). Brosnan came close with Goldeneye (one of my favorite Bond movies) and Tomorrow Never Dies but TND was only fair. That brings us to Mr. Craig and his second outing as the redefined Bond.
Quantum of Solace is in no way a better Bond movie than Casino Royale, and that's what makes it a perfect sequel. Marc Forster did not try to make QoS better, he simply worked off of it. QoS is the first true sequel in the Bond franchise and I think that Forster did an excellent job. Martin Campbell re-energized the franchise with Goldeneye and reinvented Bond with Casino Royale. Marc Forster simply plays off of Campbell's work instead of trying to create his own vision of Bond. One of the new themes in the Bond movies is emotion. Not only do Campbell and Forster show you Bond as a hero, they show you why he's a flawed hero. Something that until 2006 was only addressed in Ian Flemming's books and not the movies. Which brings me to the main plot of QoS.
It's a revenge story, plain and simple. Bond is after the organization that is responsible for the death of Vesper Lynd, his only true love. The Bond girl, Olga Kurylenko, plays Camille, a women after a dictator who killed her family. Bond and Camille's common interest is Dominic Greene, played by Mathieu Almaric. Almaric's character will unfortunately go down as one of the forgotten bad guys because he doesn't have any defining characteristics or some cartoonish henchman at his side. I personally wish his character had a bigger part in the movie, but I understand why he didn't have a bigger character. Greene is merely a pawn in the new Bond Franchise's network of evil. Connery's Bond dealt with SPECTRE, Craig's Bond will be dealing with Mr. White and the group known as Quantum.
There are many negative reviews of this movie and that's because I think only two types of movie goers will really appreciate this movie. One is the true Bond fan, one that notices the subtle nostalgic nuances in the film. For instance, Bond uses the Walther PPK for the first time since Tomorrow Never Dies and notice the position that Fields was placed on the bed after being dipped in oil (it's the same position Jill Masterson was placed in Goldfinger). The second type of person that would enjoy this film is the action film fan, someone that's seen Bond films but has no interest in them other than the fact that they're going to see fast cars, hot women, and cool shootouts.
Craig's Bond is nothing like any other Bond we've seen. You might as well call Craig's four Bond movies (he's signed on for two more) The Bond Quadrilogy. QoS is simply the launching point for the final two movies in the series and if you look at it as an hour and fifty minute teaser trailer, you'll love it. It's packed with action and stuffs a heaping amount of character development into a short amount of time without boring you. Felix Lieter was merely a field agent in Casino Royale, now he's high up on the CIA food chain and Bond is gaining the trust and respect of M. He is slowly transforming into the cold blooded martini drinking killer we've come to know, and Quantum, the new face of evil is slowly being exposed.
I didn't expect much from QoS, in fact, I was a little concerned giving the Bond franchise's track record when following an immensely popular movie. But Forster and the writers, Robert Wade, Neal Purvis, and two time Oscar winner Paul Haggis did an excellent job. They set us up for third and fourth movies that will have many looking back on QoS realizing what a good movie it is. It's a Bond movie that won't be admired until the Craig storyline is complete. I guarantee you that plot elements and story lines were started in QoS and they will be completed in Bond films to come. So get to the theater and watch QoS, it'll entertain you now and wow you in a couple of years.
posted by eric at 2:12 PM
3 Comments:
I agree. The elegance of "Casino Royale" was stripped away for a dirtier, revengier Bond. Also, it was the most action driven Bond film and the shortest. Quick and dirty. Who knew Marc Forster was a fucking action movie director? I've admired his work for being so different each time out (Stranger Than Fiction and Monster's Ball) but I didn't believe he had it in him until I saw it. Craig owns and Jeffery Wright was under used. Suck it easy.
The only thing that I didn't like was their obvious acknowledgment to the Bourne franchise. The roof top sequence looked a little too Bourne even Bond's clothes were Bournish. Hey, JB and JB I never thought of that. Ludlum, we all know who you were thinking about when you were writing the books!
I didn't write a review of this one but I knew that you would, amigo. I personally hate the inate one-upsmanship inherent to movie sequels; it's what made Spiderman 3 the steaming pile of shit that followed what I've described as the best comic book movie ever made (Dark Knight has since made me rethink that declaration).
I love the new grittier, hard-core Bond (Dalton's wooden take on the character not withstanding); double-entendres and gadgets were cool back in the day but I prefer my modern-day super spy lethal and intense. I just wish I could pull off cold and unemotional while still getting laid by foreign hotties at every opportunity; of course, doing more crunches wouldn't hurt either.
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