Much like a certain suave secret agent, Quantum of Solace’s technical merits are impeccable with enormous attention focused on sumptuous location shooting, exquisite costumes and jaw dropping action sequences. Unfortunately, this recipe is missing one key ingredient – namely a coherent and riveting plot. After the enormously successful reboot of the James Bond franchise in Martin Campbell’s Casino Royale both expectations and hype were sky-high for its sequel Quantum of Solace.

Quantum is the first true follow-up to a previous Bond movie continuing the storyline left hanging at the end of Casino Royale but unlike its predecessor which managed to be both insightful and entertaining, the new movie feels rushed with too much emphasis on outright kinetic action and an ill-advised move to excessive shaky-cam and rapid editing that does more harm than good completely draining tension and torpedoing any attempt to construct simple spatial relation.

Bond is back and he’s pissed. This much is obvious. After being betrayed by his former lover, Vesper Lynn, in the previous movie Bond embarks on a worldwide hunt for revenge with as much subtlety as a barreling bulldozer. In fact, the film begins literally minutes after the end of Casino Royale with the customary pre-title action sequence this time featuring a car chase through some beautiful Italian scenery. Of course, it also features an action genre staple where the villains can’t shoot the broadside of a barn even when armed with a repertoire of machine guns.

Soon after, Bond begins his worldwide journey by attempting to track down the elusive Quantum organization (visions of SPECTRE anyone?) that seems to have moles in nearly every government agency on the planet. This leads Bond to Bolivia where the plot finally kicks in as antagonist and Quantum member extraordinaire Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) is revealed to be in the process of regime change and seeks to become the countries’ chief provider of fresh water at an obviously bloated price.

Much has been said about Daniel Craig as the new James Bond and while he basically reinvigorated the role from scratch in his first outing giving the character a wonderful melding of untamed brutality coupled with surprisingly thoughtful insecurities this time he turns in an incredibly one-dimensional robotic performance. It’s as if both Craig and director Marc Forster have decided to just hone in on his violent rage and ignore everything else. While this works for an unthinking killing machine it creates an odd dichotomy for the audience as they are basically rooting for an unfeeling lout to clobber his way to the goal regardless of ramification. Craig’s Bond is still as raw as sashimi and has no tact whatsoever making his actions akin to a common thug. This is not Pierce Brosnan or Roger Moore who attempted more stealthy infiltrations or when that failed, employed their ample charisma to cajole or seduce needed targets.

While Craig’s manic energy is initially refreshing it quickly devolves into an odd joke or two as M chastises her agent for killing first and asking questions later but after the umpteenth time it occurs it veers into outright farce. We get that Bond is hell-bent on revenge but certainly the basic fundamentals of interrogating the suspect first to obtain relevant information still applies. It doesn’t make much sense for Bond to go on a killing spree and then conveniently find clues that the victim has left behind that lead him in the correct direction.

While Casino Royale had a much tougher job of reintroducing a new Bond and a refreshingly multilayered take on the series the sequel seems content to be nothing more than your rote action spectacle. Gone are the intricate character studies or internal conflicts replaced with a series of increasingly incongruous stunts. In fact, the first third of the film is so chock full of successive action routines that it becomes increasingly mind numbing. Craig certainly has the gravitas and the physicality down pat but having him run around like a loose cannon without rhyme or reason is not enough to keep the audience involved.

I can’t remember a previous Bond movie that concentrated this much on outright action and it even prompted my wife to remark, “There’s a lot of action so I guess the plot hasn’t started yet.” Just look at the first act and follow along with the action bouncing ball here – you get a car chase opening; a truly awful and uninspired opening theme song along with one of the most visually stunted opening credit sequences; an extended chase featuring Bond and a MI6 mole that starts amidst the sewers and manages to traverse rooftops and even the Siena horse running race; Bond arriving in Haiti whereby he gets into a brutal fistfight with the person he should interrogate; finally going to a nearby pier and meeting Bond girl Camille (Olga Kurylenko) whereby the duo get involved in a long speedboat action spectacle. All this in the first 30 minutes before Bond flies to Austria and has the entire evil scheme exposed to him in a perfunctory theatrical performance at the stunning Bregenzer festival within the Seebühne theatre that sits on a lake. Real life detectives and secret agents would be so lucky to have the entire nefarious scheme plainly told to them without an ounce of sleuthing.

Make no mistake, even if you love exciting sequences this is excessive and glosses over the fact that when the true narrative thrust appears it’s so underdeveloped and ignored that it basically makes little sense. While it is refreshing to see a villain whose scheme is not an overtly megalomaniacal one based on taking over the world or deploying some sort of super powered weapon like a space laser, Quantum’s machinations to basically monopolize Bolivia’s water supply are about as exciting as Craig’s taciturn visage throughout the movie. The film makes a rather unconvincing attempt at displaying world geopolitics in motion vis a vis the CIA knowing about Quantum’s regime change tactic but it’s never expanded upon except to show morally upstanding American agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) warn Bond of his own countries’ greed.

Screenwriters Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis and Robert Wade do attempt some salient juxtapositions such as the one between new girl, Camille (Olga Kurylenko) and Bond himself both of which are motivated by a strong sense of vengeance for past deeds. The issue however, is in its execution as expository screentime is as sparse as water in a desert. Though Kurylenko makes a fetching partner, the film makes the error of introducing her and then proceeding to split the duo apart for a huge section of the film as Bond goes off on his own tangent. Along the way he meets the requisite second girl, this time a British consulate aide named Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton) who seems thrown into the mix for no discernable reason but to give Bond a chance to bed someone. I must admit that the particular sequence in question is one of the most awkwardly dim-witted romantic teases I’ve ever seen and boils down to Bond saying, “I can’t find any stationary,” while giving Agent Fields a teasing glance. 30 seconds later while the duo are in bed she’s already lamenting that she was too weak to resist his overture. Now, why didn’t I use that excuse back in high school? Who would have thought that the lack of paper would act like a babe magnet? If only I had a time machine…

Of course, we all know the formula and what happens to Bond’s secondary girls and in a homage to previous films Quantum doesn’t disappoint except for the fact that the reveal comes off as stilted and leaves no impression whatsoever. Without ruining the scene just compare it to its more famous counterpart and you’ll be left with the impression that the screenwriters threw it in as nothing more than a token wink.

Being a direct sequel the movie also is heavily reliant on knowledge from the previous film. In short, those who never saw Casino Royale are going to feel incredibly lost amongst the various plot threads that openly link back to Craig’s Bond debut. While one can attempt to watch outright action there’s just no way that someone will get engaged with Bond’s revenge motive without an understanding of what got him to this position in the first place. Not to mention, other Casino Royale elements are included such as the character of René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) whom Bond contacts as a last resort while on the run from MI6. Without knowing his connection to Bond most viewers will likely scratch their heads wondering just who this person is and why he’s important to the redemption undertones.

The best Bond movies feature a convincing villain who matches wits mano a mano with our hero. This time around Dominic Greene’s Mathieu Amalric is nothing more than a weaselly corporate suit more at ease with political machinations than physical violence. Not since Jonathan Pryce’s media mogul turn in Tomorrow Never Dies has a Bond villain been this non-threatening. That is not to say Greene is phoning in his performance as there’s nothing wrong with a paper pusher but without a significant heavy as a sidekick or bodyguard at his side watching Greene flail away with a hatchet in a vain attempt to kill Bond is like watching an ant facing off against the sole of your steel toe boot. Not to mention, due to Bond’s bull in a China shop mentality he never manages to dig deeper into Quantum to discover just what exactly the fate of the free world is up against. I suppose that will be left for the inevitable sequel.

Director Marc Forster was an odd choice to helm this movie but his past work on truly dramatic films such as Monster’s Ball or Stranger Than Fiction that coaxed intimately restrained yet poignant performances out of Halle Berry and even the usually manic Will Farrell bode well for Quantum as most expected him to focus on character drama. Yet, he has done the polar opposite and turned his attention to action leaving his stylistic background on the editing floor. The result can tactfully be called an incoherent jumble with a high degree of rapid cuts and machine gun edits that basically shred any action sequence into millisecond shots that carry no significance. Even a basic car chase that opens the film is rendered impossible to follow as Forster never bothers to slow his editing down to give the audience a better idea of the location. Each car involved begins to resemble the other every so often intercut with a close up of Craig’s sweaty face as he attempts to weave his way through the traffic. Wider establishing shots are woefully underused instead replaced by countless tight shots of henchmen aimlessly shooting rounds or wheels spinning on the concrete.

Some of the action indeed also makes little sense such as the spectacular hotel in the middle of the desert that blows up in sequence as each room detonates as if on a timer even though a violent fire is suppose to be raging in the entire structure or the plane chase through deserted canyons that does nothing but further emphasize how bad a shot Bond villains truly are. Of note to producers, please keep excessive CG out of a movie as much as possible or use some nifty stunt teams as watching atrociously formatted green screen work in a movie that is suppose to highlight realism seem hypocritical.

Perhaps Quantum’s biggest faux pas is that it just does not feel at all like a James Bond movie. Replace Daniel Craig with Jason Statham and you’d barely notice. It’s commendable that the filmmakers are trying to shy away from Bond stereotypes such as an excessive use of gadgets, location shoots that make you want to run out and book your next vacation, or Bond bedding a hundred women but by stripping all of these aesthetics away the audience is left with a movie that could feature Jean Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal albeit with a bigger budget. What exactly are the producers trying to say to the public when one of their major selling points boils down to Bond girl Camille being the first woman that Bond does not seduce? Is that such a big deal in this day and age? There’s nothing wrong with a true partnership amongst equals but Camille is no cold-blooded killer differing to Bond for advice during tough situations. Olga Kurylenko certainly exudes enough sexual energy and poutiness to melt an iceberg and makes a good companion for Bond but her lack of overall screentime and presence that does not affect the overall plot make one yearn for a better narrative that could better integrate her character into the proceedings.

Taken as nothing more than a standard action ensemble, Quantum of Solace might pass the mustard but coming after the vaunted Casino Royale this is a massive step backwards. Bond fans shouldn’t fret as this is not on the level of Timothy Dalton’s disastrous License to Kill but they should at least be concerned with the overall direction of the franchise if the producers veer the formula into being nothing more than a mainstream action blockbuster. Lacking any sort of dry wit or marked sense of exuberance this Bond is incredibly stale and lifeless. Although it has a short 106 minute running time it certainly feels as if three monotonous hours of ill-conceived action that is suppose to excite has instead taken a jack hammer to your brain leaving you less than content and most wanting to make a bee line to your local pharmacist for a large dose of aspirin.

** out of ****

2008, USA/UK, 106 Minutes, PG-13, MGM
Directed by Marc Forster
Screenplay by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade
Produced by Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson
Executive producer: Callum McDougall & Anthony Waye
Original Music by David Arnold
Cinematography by Roberto Schaefer
Film Editing by Matt Chesse & Richard Pearson

James Bond: Daniel Craig
Camille: Olga Kurylenko
Dominic Greene: Mathieu Amalric
M: Judi Dench
René Mathis: Giancarlo Giannini
Strawberry Fields: Gemma Arterton
Felix Leiter: Jeffrey Wright
Gregg Beam: David Harbour
Mr. White: Jesper Christensen
Elvis: Anatole Taubman
Bill Tanner: Rory Kinnear
Foreign Secretary: Tim Pigott-Smith
General Medrano: Joaquín Cosio
Colonel of Police: Fernando Guillén Cuervo
Lieutenant Orso: Jesús Ochoa
Gemma: Lucrezia Lante della Rovere
Henry Mitchell: Glenn Foster
Guy Haines: Paul Ritter

© 2009 The Galactic Pillow