Have regrets. Get revenge.
Quantum of Solace is a 2008 spy film directed by Marc Forster, written by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade, produced by Eon Productions, MGM Pictures, and Columbia Pictures, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film is based on various James Bond stories by Ian Fleming. The film stars Daniel Craig and Olga Kurylenko. The film was not nominated for any Academy Awards. This is the twenty-second film in the 007 series and the second in the Daniel Craig era. It was preceded by Casino Royale and followed by Skyfall.
"I don't think the dead care about vengeance." -James Bond
Plot
After the death of Vesper Lynd, 007 returns to MI6 to track down Dominic Greene, a ruthless businessman who is part of the organization that killed Vesper. He learns that Greene is planning to take control of a natural resource that could collapse entire cities.
Positive Aspects
One of the only positives that I have on this film is some of the acting. Daniel Craig is as good as ever in Quantum, and shows us a vengeful James Bond that we have very rarely seen. Mathieu Amalric is good enough as Dominic Greene. He gives an odd performance that somehow works in a movie where an odd villain performance shouldn't work. He is a creepy guy that intends to do bad things. Finally, Judi Dench is great, as always, as M. She is careless and intelligent and harsh, which is what M should be.
Some of the action sequences are cool enough, I guess. The theatre scene is pretty cool. I liked the idea of Bond intercepting a secret meeting on an earpiece and then blowing up an opera with a gunfight.
Sorry, Quantum of Solace. That is the only thing that I can say was good about this film.
Negative Aspects
This movie is a hot mess of a film. The writing and plot are clunky and make no sense at all. It is incredibly hard to follow, and there are no stakes. The characters are all the worst versions of themselves, which also makes the movie not fun at all. There is no forward momentum in the film, making it just horrible.
Let's start with the plot. It starts with Bond following a guy who works for Quantum, the organization that killed his girlfriend. The man escapes from MI6's custody, and then finds out that the entrepreneur Dominic Greene also works for Quantum. Greene is trying to kill his former lover, Camille Montes. That plot line seems interesting, right? Nope. Not at all. Bond easily swipes her off of the boat of a disgusting general and she's rescued.
There is a bit of a leap in quality when MI6 tries to get Bond back in London, but the agent that was sent to retrieve him gives up when he sleeps with her. So that plot line was a dud. The entire thing about Dominic Greene and the oil and stuff was all super jumbled, confusing, and forgettable. A day after I watched this movie, I didn't remember what it was about.
Besides Bond and M, the characters in this film are downright terrible. Camille is Bond's supposed love interest, even though there's no hint of this until they kiss at the end of the film. She is, like everything else in this movie, forgettable. Dominic Greene is a terrible villain who is not physically intimidating in any way, shape or form. He doesn't feel like a villain because you don't actually know what he's doing with the Tierra Project in a barren piece of desert.
General Medrano is disgusting. I don't know if this is what the filmmakers were trying to do when making him, but he is a horrible character that should not be in the darkest of James Bond films. These movies are still supposed to be somewhat kid-friendly, and a big general that's also a rapist and licks a woman's face in the middle of a fire is not kid-friendly.
Strawberry Fields is simply a waste of a character. She serves no purpose in this film, except to try to get 007 back to London and then get killed by getting oil dumped down her throat.
The two big deaths in this movie have no emotional weight at all. They aren't surprising or sad, even the one that's meant to be sad.
The acting, besides the three that I mentioned before, is garbage. Olga Kurylenko could be sleeping and I wouldn't know the difference between that and her performance in Quantum of Solace. Joaquín Cosío is also horrible, but maybe that's because I hated his character a ton.
Final Score
This is a bad, bad movie. Despite a portion of the cast being good and a couple of fun sequences, this movie has the problem of a bad plot, no stakes, bad characters, and it is just a big mess of a film.
I will give it a Moldy rating. Age range is 12+.
SWEET N' SOUR SCALE
Sweet (Great)
Savory (Good)
Sour (Bad)
Moldy (Terrible)
"Quantum of Solace"
Fun Factor: 3/10
Acting: 5.5/10
Story: 2/10
Characters: 4/10
Quality: 3.5/10
WHERE TO WATCH
Netflix: Available with subscription
Amazon Prime Video: Available for rent
Apple TV+: Available for rent
Directed by Marc Forster
Released on November 14, 2008
Rated PG-13 for moderate violence, sexual elements, language, thematic elements
1 hour and 46 minutes
Daniel Craig as James Bond
Olga Kurylenko as Camille Montes
Mathieu Amalric as Dominic Greene
Judi Dench as M
Giancarlo Giannini as Rene Mathis
Gemma Arterton as Strawberry Fields
Joaquín Cosio as General Medrano
Jeffrey Wright as Felix Leiter
Jesper Christensen as Mr. White
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