The Bond films are a series, they share characteristics, and it is these that make them Bond films. It is these vital parts that are missing- there is no sex, there are no gadgets and there is none of the suave coolness that is Bond’s trademark. And what makes this deficiency so striking is the obvious references to past movies, with Gemma Arterton’s oil covered nod to Goldfinger being the most striking.
Quantum of Solace is a controversial addition to the Bond series, as it is the first direct sequel - the action picks up where Casino Royale left off. However, this goes against everything we know about Bond.
In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service James Bond’s wife was killed, yet in Diamonds Are Forever, the next film in the series, she is not even mentioned. Bond has never been a man to mourn for long, yet we are expected to believe his desire to avenge the death of the woman who betrayed him in this new film.
As is the case with many sequels, director Marc Forster seems to have chosen action over character, leaving behind everything that is so good about the franchise and replacing it with a standard action film that could far too easily be the next film in the Bourne series.
In the past, Bond films have been about James Bond blowing things up. Quantum of Solace is just about blowing things up and Daniel Craig happens to be there.
After the massive success of Casino Royale, perhaps disappointment was inevitable. However the character development that made Daniel Craig’s excellent portrayal of Bond such a pleasure to watch has been completely abandoned. In its place are gratuitous action shots, as Forster strings together bigger and bigger explosions and action set pieces with no consideration of the Bond franchise as a whole.
Unfortunately for Bond, Quantum has taken all the bad points of an action movie, weak script, thin plot and poor characterisation and put them together without any attention to the result. To make it worse, the mediocre action scenes have been edited together in such a disjointed way the film is all but impossible to follow.
As an action film, Quantum of Solace works but as a Bond film, it fails miserably.
Bond is a British institution, a movie franchise to be proud of. However, Quantum is just another Hollywood action movie.
Worth seeing, but sure to disappoint those who want to see Bond.
The name was Bond
