Brief Review: Quantum of Solace

I enjoyed the movie and thought Roger Ebert was too harsh in giving it the two stars of death. I do think that, for all of Casino Royale's flaws, it is the superior of Daniel Craig's two outings. QOS's action sequences are too messily edited, at times bordering on incoherent. Michael Bay's long and awful shadow falls over them. Aside from Judi Dench's M, I found the female characters in QOS to be too sketchily written. And I'm beginning to wonder whether it's advisable, in a series that's based primarily on wish fulfillment fantasies about the wild life of "00" agents, to turn James Bond into yet another moody adventurer bent on avenging himself upon an unfair world. It's not Daniel Craig's fault. His Bond clearly does want to have a good time and enjoy some luxury; it's just that QOS never takes time to allow the character to savor the more fun aspects of the 007 life.

That said, I did enjoy Craig's work as 007 and Judi Dench's work as M. I thought the dialog was frequently close to witty, and that the villain, while not in the first rank of Bondian adversaries, brought enough menace to the role to keep me interested. All in all I had a good time with Quantum of Solace. It's in the middle of the Bond pack, fun to watch but not outstanding. Think Thunderball or Octopussy.

Oh, two final quibbles. I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated the title sequence, which stands as the most pedestrian one since License To Kill, and loathed the meandering, pointless title song. I also question the decision to save the gun barrel sequence for end. I missed it at the beginning, and I really want them to put it back. It just doesn't feel like a Bond movie without it.