Quantum of Solace (2008)

This film could have been so good, but Marc Forster's clichéd and ham-fisted direction completely ruined it for me. To be fair, his handling of the quieter moments between the action was adequate, but he clearly has no grasp of how direct action sequences, which are clearly central to any good Bond. I'm afraid the 'shake the camera and cut at least once a second' school of action direction doesn't really cut it.

It's tragic really, as the setup and the stunts for the sequences looked pretty promising, but you had to look pretty hard to tell once Mr. Forster's hopeless direction kicked in. Such a waste.

I think I'll hold out for the special edition DVD - you know - the non-directors cut!

Fmovies: Ever since the two last Bourne movies came out and made a bit of money, the film industry has suffered from a severe case of ADD. It now seems mandatory for directors to partake in the George Lucas "faster-more-intense" and Paul Greengrass "shakycam-mounted-on-top-of-paint-blender" schools of film making, only now it's called "contemporary gritty action." It seems like the whole movie was shot hand held with a 200mm lens, operated by a guy with Parkinson's disease. As icing on the cake, no cut is longer than three frames.

I guess the underlying logic is that this will make the movie more "real" and "documentary-like". The only thing it makes me feel is nauseous. I can't stand this trend in film making. To be honest, it feels like a cop out, like they can't trust their stunt team to do well enough, and have to shield their performance in shaky images and hysterical cutting. And surprise surprise, it turns out that the second unit director of this movie, Dan Bradley, worked on the last two Bourne movies.

But technical aspects aside, the story was less than engaging, which is a shame since I have an interest in the specific MacGuffin of the movie, having even written an academic article about it.

I think the main problem is that I don't really care about any of the characters. Craig may stare intensely and bite down as hard as he wants to, but I still don't really care about Bond. It's not that I don't like the Bond movies (I own all the other movies on DVD), I just don't buy this new story line where they try to make him into a sort of Bourne-light. I say let Bourne be Bourne, and Bond be Bond.

Olga Kurylenko sure is pretty to look at, but her character here is about as memorable as her character in Max Payne: one big yawn. As for Mathieu Almaric, he feels a bit too pathetic to be a criminal mastermind, although I like the whole thing that they don't give him an eye patch or scars, but that he's ordinary looking.

This was one incoherent mess of a film (what was the deal with the horse race?) that I'm not likely to watch again, nor am I likely to purchase the DVD.

Quantum of Solace or Quantum so less, as some of its critics may call it, definitely lacks certain aspects of a traditional Bond movie. It may be eccentric in the sense that it may not be able to titillate the esoteric Bond fans as it may lack their eclectic style and taste but it definitely succeeds in projecting a new Bond for the contemporary world who may not be a coeval of a superhero, who despite being vulnerable has got the killer instinct in him, which is the very defining characteristic of Ian Fleming's larger than life human incarnate. This Bond goes about his business in a fashion which is far more realistic compared to the Bond of the bygone era with an incredible passion and utmost devotion which is nothing but inexorable. Though Casino Royale was the pioneer of this graduation but its Quantum of Solace that consummates it and gives Fleming's agent a mystique which has always eluded him hitherto, an aura which gives him an opportunity to be mortal and hence a chance to qualify to be called a human.

Quantum of Solace is loaded with mind blowing action sequences which makes it a high octane extravaganza. The pace of the movie is such that you hardly get time to breathe freely. The plot though comparatively weaker than its precursor, is still good enough to keep one guessing thereby keeping one at the edge of the seat, all the way through.

The only aspect of the movie which should be under the scanner is its editing which is far from just and at times needless and severely annoying. A bit constraint editing under some meticulous vigilance could have done wonders and would have probably helped it, in its quest to be the best Bond movie of all time.

All being said and given what we have, the movie fails to disappoint the audience and will surely redefine the very prerequisites of an action movie and will definitely serve as a benchmark for the movies in the years to come.

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Quantum of Solace fmovies. This is my first review in IMDb (my first port-of-call for movie opinions) and unfortunately it's simply a reaction to what has been, this morning, a disappointing experience.

Unlike Casino Royale, which was as direct as a bullet from a gun, QoS spends a sizeable chunk of it's running time meandering aimlessly.

Firstly though, the intro car chase is in the style of an agitated, edit-obsessed director which means the entire scene is viewed in short random bursts from a multitude of angles - Fine, if that's your bag.

What follows is a series of action set pieces which are at turns exciting, manic and messy, but after which the film becomes flat and a little direction-less. That's not to say that there is little in the way of bullets and babes but the simple facts are that the set pieces are really not very exciting, and worse still the characters are pretty bland, in comparison to those in Casino Royale.

You'll struggle to think of a main bond villain that is less interesting than Dominic Greene, and agent Fields is utterly pointless in every aspect other than brief eye-candy.

As is mentioned in other reviews it is Judy Dench and Daniel Craig that keep this movie from leaving the tracks entirely but it doesn't bode well for future outings if this is to be the new template.

In short Casino Royale rejuvenated the franchise but Quantum Of Solace has gone some way to spoiling it's success.

The theme song isn't too good either, and just like the film it gets a tad messy at times. Get Chris Cornell back for the next one.

This film is about James Bond cracking down a multi-national corporation that works with dictators to get a share of precious natural resources.

"Quantum Of Solace" has an impressive opening sequence. It has high speed car chases with lots of collision and gunshots. The ultra short scenes (all under one second each) and the shaky camera gives urgency and thrill, but it is so hard to actually work out what is happening.

There is a lot of action and adrenaline in the film, but the plot seems not to have a focus. Nor does it make sense either, as it feels like an all-action-no-information film. All Bond does is to run around the globe after his target, and viewers are left to wonder how he made it. I don't find myself caring for the plot or the characters. I don't know why this happens, but something is not right with the film and I don't know what.

This is the first time I ever came out of a Bond film at the cinema thinking, 'I enjoyed almost none of that.' And there was no mystery for me as to why I felt this way. I didn't have to weigh up the other pros and cons (it is not an unsophisticated film) or think far or deeply. I couldn't stand Quantum Of Solace because ninety-five percent of its action sequences are appallingly directed and edited. Endless, wobbly extreme closeups are cut together too rapidly into a meaningless dirge which prohibits you from discerning anything about the nature of the scene.

How many cars are participating in this car chase? Will I be allowed to glimpse anyone's face in this scene other than Bond's? Will I be allowed to glimpse even Bond's face? Which boat is in front? Where is anything in relation to anything else, ever? And just what was that? That blur in front of me for the past half a second, what the hell was it? The answers to these questions respectively throughout Quantum of Solace are, 'I have no clue, no, no, I don't know, I will never know, I don't know, I still don't know.'

I'm tired of reading any defence for the most extreme incarnation of this style of action coverage. It is purposeless obfuscation. It's anti-exciting, annoying and just plain rubbish. Bond films in particular are known for their history of spectacular action and stunts, and if you briefly consider any eighties Bond film, you'll recall that somewhere in it was a long, held shot of something amazing. People fighting on the back of an airborne plane, racing cars through Paris or pursuing each other down a mountain on skis. Compared to any one of those scenes, everything in Quantum is a disgrace, incapable of engendering marvel or wonder.

Perhaps I should try to be less catastrophic about the direction of cinema in general and just apportion blame directly to the guy from the Bourne films whose second unit did this to Quantum, and to Marc Forster, who directed the film, and either sanctioned or did not repel the Bourne-on-steroids content. Call me Mister Insane, but I demand the context, information and sense of place delivered by even the occasional wide shot. To see how Bond kung-fu'd an elevator full of guys would be cool, right? The event happens in this film, but what you actually see is a camera jerking crazily over ten inch wide patches of dark clothing, to the accompaniment of cabbages being walloped on the soundtrack. Imagine if Bruce Lee tried to get away with this crap. And this wasn't a well considered case of indicating what had just happened by offering the impression of it rather than the depiction of it, it was simply a continuation of the house style.

Quantum Of Solace takes anti-illuminating film-making to new, stupid lows!