The latest installment in the Bond franchise and only the second with Daniel Craig playing the titular spy, Quantum of Solace is enjoyable but not as brilliant as Casino Royale, Craig’s first foray into the Bond universe.
The drop in quality, however, is not attributable to Craig’s work as much as to a disjointed script, poor editing and the wrong director.
The script seems to push Bond in two different directions. There’s his quest to revenge his lost love from Casino Royale, which he denies, and the pursuit of this round’s bad guys. We are never really sure what he’s pursuing when, and while this might be construed as a plus, adding mystery to the proceedings, in reality it only adds confusion – and false expectations.
The editing is way too choppy to either help understand what’s going on during the action scenes or honor the Bond tradition of vibrant and exciting action scenes in the first place. Oftentimes the cuts are so short that it’s hard to keep track of what’s going on and the direction doesn’t help either. Marc Forster, who did a great job on Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland, and The Kite Runner, was probably not the best choice to direct such an action driven movie. His choice of close ups during action scenes, for instance, contributes to the diminishing understanding of what’s happening on screen.
As I said, Craig is still very good as Bond: rough, tough, focused and lethal, and Judi Dench is excellent as always as M. However, Olga Kurylenko, this episode’s Bond girl, is “ok” but forgettable, as is Mathieu Amalric as the bad guy. The lack of a memorable Bond girl is not good, but a weak bad guy is just unforgivable.
Overall, Solace isn’t a complete let down but isn’t compelling either. Given the financial troubles that MGM, the Bond studio, has found itself in, will Craig, who was all set to start work on a third chapter, ever don the spy’s tuxedo again? Let’s hope for better results if he does...
Grade: 6
No comments:
Post a Comment