So How Good Was That Movie? 
Yet Another Bond for ages to come. If you have grown accustomed to the gadgets and the excessive product placements, this bond shall pass you by. But if you can soothe yourself into the rhythmic journey around the globe in 106 minutes, welcome aboard flight 007, fasten your sit belt, and take a deep breath.
Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace
So it is business as usual in the Spy world after the Casino Royale events. Bond is out for revenge, though he denies so. A secret organization is out to take over the world, and our favorite spy has to stop them. As usual, the CIA is playing nice with the bad guys, and James Bond’s behavior puts M on the hot seat.
All MI6 knows about this organization is that it is called Quantum. The Villains seem to have hatched a plan to acquire power through the control of the world remote natural resources. Oil you said, well we all thought so. Jeffrey Wright returns as Felix and is not really spectacular. 22 years old Gemma Arterton plays a British consulate attache. A typical bond girl. the not-so-typical Bond Girl performance is carried out here by Olga Kurylenko as Camille Montes a Bolivian secret service agent.
I disliked the theme song “Another Way to Die.” When will we ever hear a musical chef d’oeuvre like “Goldfinger?” I love Alicia Keys, but even her talent could not save Jack White’s song. On the positive side, anything after “Die Another Day” could be classified as good.
The closing dialogue of the movie is just superb. One line of M, followed by a soft yet determined reply from Bond, the whole exchange set under some street lights in a cold snowy Russian night. What a closure:
M: Bond, I need you to come back
Bond: I have never left.
The superb editing work delivered by Richard Pearson (the Bourne Supremacy) and Matt Chesse (the Kite Runner) reaches an epic point in the sequence set at the Opera. The film action is smoothly intertwined with the play being performed on stage, and the scene carries a powerful momentum to the point which unprepared eyes might have missed Mr White saying “I guess Tosca is not for everyone.”
Robert Wade, Neal Purvis reconnect with legendary writer Paul Haggis (Letters from Iwojima, Crash), but we all know that storyline has never been the strength of the Bond franchise. This one flows quite simply and no groundbreaking achievement was realized here.
Freshman Bond Director Mark Foster went for conservatism here. One feels like the goal here was not to make a great action movie but an excellent Bond movie, and it was quite exquisite. I will not be surprised if he gets invited back for the next settlement of the serie.
November 30, 2009 at 4:44 am
The video game is as thrilling as the movie. I simply love the franchise.