"Six of them..."
I tried to wait as long as possible before making a review about the new Bond film 'Quantum of Solace'...
(This will probably be horribly random and out of order... I can't manage to keep all of the fight scenes in a proper time line after only one screening, damn you memory!)
All right, I have to start with the title, personally I LOVE it. I know, shocking. But it might be important to mention that I adore Ian Fleming's Bond and his short stories.
"The quantum of solace is a precise figure defining the comfort, humanity and fellow feeling required between two people for love to survive. If the quantum of solace is nil, then love is dead. Bond, who understands the limits of love, catches the governor’s meaning at once. When mutual solace falls below a certain point, 007 reflects, “you’ve got to get away to save yourself . . . when the other person not only makes you feel totally insecure, but actually seems to want to destroy you”.
I don't think a title could be more amazing... but that is my very biased opinion.
I enjoyed the title song, seeing as it fits the more modern versions of Bond, but I have to question if it will "last" as a good theme for Bond or just look ridiculous in ten years...
The film starts off with a fabulous chase scene, with Bond's poor Aston Martin dying.... he does have a habit for destroying those, doesn't he? Maybe it is better that Q isn't in Daniel Craig's incarnation.
I love the Bourne-style roof/window jumping scene because it acknowledges the Bond-Bourne connection in a honorary way, though Bond doesn't manage to jump with quite the grace of Jason, but that is one of the best aspects of Daniel Craig's interpretation of Bond.
The fight involving Bond's leg getting caught in the rope while hanging upside down was fast-paced and new like I have come to expect from a good Bond film, but I have one question: How does he ever manage to get his foot out?
The reference to an organized "villain" is a hint at the earlier Bond films which worked well in the story. It's no SPECTRE with an infamous white cat-loving villain, but QUANTUM is still a nice change to the typical Bond badie.
The homage to 'Goldfinger' with Strawberry Fields (gotta love Bond girl's names...) oil version of Jill Masterson's gold covered girl fit both into the story yet managed to still be a wink at the fans.
Jeffrey Wright and Giancarlo Giannini are both just as interesting characters and marvelously portray their respective characters of Felix Leiter and Mathis. I am still in denial about Mathis' death though.... but the 'hold me' definitely struck me as a little slash, but that could just be my warped mind. And I have always seen Felix and Bond as 'friendly' and this film doesn't stop me from thinking that either...
Judi Dench is still as interesting as 'M'', though I know a slash community will be sad to see that Villiers didn't return as one of her assistants, because you know he wouldn't have tried to kill 'M' and Bond....
The Bond girls deliver in the 22nd official film, with Agent Fields being feisty and as my friend Emily stated, "You know she isn't wearing anything under her trench coat." I was sad to see her go, but at least her death had an impact and Bond said something along the lines of her 'fighting until the end' or 'doing her mission', which is a touching moment that shows while Bond may sleep with a lot of women that he does admire them and care for them at some level.Camille is a more complex character with her back story of seeing her family die and then be trapped in a burning house. This makes her scenes towards the conclusion of the film all the more poignant and unique. Also Camille doesn't sleep with Bond, making her character that must more likable and different.
I have to say, the boat chase scene seemed a little repetitive of earlier water chases in Bond films, but that isn't a big factor in my overall perception of the film.
The vehicles in the film also tended to be crappy (the boat, plane, cars), yet that made the film all the more enjoyable and realistic. We wouldn't want any more beautiful cars like Aston Martin's being damaged, now would we?
The locations throughout the film were amazing and an interesting fact is that this particular Bond film visited the most shooting locations of any of the 21 movies that came before it.
The cinematography was amazing. Really. I loved the variety of shots featured in the film and the fast-paced editing (the second of which is a change from the longer poker scenes in Casino Royale), so thank you Marc Foster and Roberto Schaefer.
I liked the villain Dominic Greene's connection to environmentalists... only Bond films could make someone so crazy/evil who pretends to save the trees/water supplies. I like Mathieu Amalric's presentation of the character, he is both simple and less overtly evil looking, but still fills a Bond villain's shoes. Can I just say I don't want to work for Greene, he makes you throw his partially eaten apples away for him. Also, what a amazing death... you have to love irony.
Okay, the rape scene. I was spoiled to this particular sequence so it wasn't much of a shock to me, but I have heard a couple of complaints about it being to graphic for Bond films (which are fairly tame when you think about it... I know it sounds weird, but its true!). My only comment is that it WAS important to the storyline so it fit for me. Also 'License to Kill' had a similar scene hinted at, making this film not the first to push the boundaries of Bond film acceptability.
Quantum of Solace blew me away and in my opinion, proved that a film doesn't need the line "Bond. James Bond." or Moneypenny and 'Q' or even a ton of gadgets to still be great. The length seemed to be a little more assessable than 'Casino Royale' , though i would never complain about more Daniel Craig....
Random note:
I hope I wasn't the only person who laughed when Bond looked up at the camera during the film, because I was having some flashbacks to his camera footage mishaps in Casino Royale....
I thought I would end with some of the best quotes from the film:
(I don't know why they are all white... just highlight to read them... or something.)
James Bond: How long have I got?
Felix Leiter: Thirty seconds.
James Bond: That doesn't give us a lot of time...
Dominic Greene: Be careful of this one, Mr Bond. She will not go to bed with you unless you give her something she really wants... but you make a fine couple - you are both, what is the expression? Damaged goods.
Dominic Greene: [regarding James Bond] Everything he touches withers and dies.
Mathis: I think she has handcuffs.
James Bond: I do hope so.
Mathis: [speaks to Bond regarding Vesper] She would have done anything for you... forgive her, forgive yourself.
M: Bond, I need you to come back.
James Bond: I never left.
James Bond: [while spying on Greene and his crew having a meeting] Can I offer an opinion?
[they all listen on their ear-pieces]
James Bond: I really think you people should find a better place to meet.
James Bond: [to Camille] Take a deep breath, you only got one shot, make it count.
James Bond: We're school teachers on sabbatical and we just won the lottery.
And now a few pictures:
This has to be one of the most funny pictures I have ever seen...
Slightly different....
