Review 167: Quantum of Solace
Quantum of Solace isn't quite the breath of fresh air that Casino Royale was but its still a pretty cool entry to the Bond canon.
Picking up where Casino Royale left off, James Bond (Daniel Craig) pursues Quantum, the organisation he believes responsible for the death of Vesper Lynd. Along with Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko),
a young woman seeking revenge, he goes after corrupt General Medrano (Joaquín Cosío) and Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric),
who plans with Quantum to stage a military coup in Bolivia and hijack
"one of the world's most precious natural resources".
The plot is great, while it doesn't have intricucy of Casino Royale, it has a lot to say about our world, Just as Casino Royale's theme was Terrorism, Quantum of Solace focuses on Environmentalism.
At its core, Quantum of Solace is a Geopolitical thriller mixed with a revenge story. The films focus on Bolivia's water supply issue
To quote Producer Michael G. Wilson: "If you control the water you control the whole development of the country. I think it's true. Right now it appears to be oil, but there's a lot of other resources that we don't think about too much but are all essential, and they're very limited and every country needs it. Because every country knows that raising the standard of living (and populations are getting bigger) is the way we're all going."
During the films third act, Bond and Camille uncover a plot by Quantum involving Bolivia's fresh water supply, giving Quantum of Solace a political angle, not just with
The plot is great, while it doesn't have intricucy of Casino Royale, it has a lot to say about our world, Just as Casino Royale's theme was Terrorism, Quantum of Solace focuses on Environmentalism.
At its core, Quantum of Solace is a Geopolitical thriller mixed with a revenge story. The films focus on Bolivia's water supply issue
To quote Producer Michael G. Wilson: "If you control the water you control the whole development of the country. I think it's true. Right now it appears to be oil, but there's a lot of other resources that we don't think about too much but are all essential, and they're very limited and every country needs it. Because every country knows that raising the standard of living (and populations are getting bigger) is the way we're all going."
During the films third act, Bond and Camille uncover a plot by Quantum involving Bolivia's fresh water supply, giving Quantum of Solace a political angle, not just with
According to Daniel Craig, despite bearing no resemblence from the Ian
Fleming short story of the same name; the film does share the primary
thematic element of the story as "it
relates to the fact that if you don't have that Quantum of Solace in a
relationship, you should give up. If you are not respecting each other,
it's over, because at the end of the last movie Bond doesn't have that
because Vesper has been killed."
It's also gets you thinking, it forces you to question Bonds actions yourself as you never no if he really is out for revenge or if he's doing what he thinks is right.
It's also gets you thinking, it forces you to question Bonds actions yourself as you never no if he really is out for revenge or if he's doing what he thinks is right.
I heard an interview with Forster where described the films action scenes as being based around the four elements: Air, Earth, Water and Fire. Personally, I don't see the connection at all as they're all basic subgenre of action scenes that we've seen in previous Bond films and it struck me as a little pretentious. Though if by Earth, he means an opening car chase partially taking place in Quarry then he succeeded.
Director Marc Forster's direction is handling the emotional integrity of the film.
The action scenes are fierce, well choreographed and intensely shot, the effects are tremendous, the score by David Arnold is bombastic and energy-filled, the title song by Alicia Keys and Jack White is great, the cinematography is colourful and captures the grit and beauty of the films locations, the production design is gritty and gets the films tone right, the costume design is stylish, it's well paced, the locations are gorgeous, there are some great scenes of suspense, the sound effects are cool, the make up is rich, the scenery is breathtaking and the ending has a beautifully bittersweet twing to it.
Once again there's great acting, Daniel Craig is great once again as James Bond. James is, of course, still hung up over the demise and betrayal of Vesper in Casino Royale, clearly motivating his avoidance of any serious entanglements. But the film wisely, smartly and even a little ingeniously postpones Bond's vendetta by he wants to know whether she loved him or not.
Olga Kurylenko is as tough as she is sensitive playing Camille Montes, over the course of the film, her vendetta for revenge becomes intertwind with Bond's. As Bond says "It seems we're both using Greene to get someone"
Giancarlo Giannini is as Mathis
Speaking of things that are a detriment to Writers Strike, Jeffrey Wright is only in a handful of scenes scattered throughout the film playing Felix Leiter though doesn't contribute much to the film. I read somewhere that Felix had a much larger role but his screentime was restricted by on-set rewrites. Despite this, Wright definately helps to elevate a somewhat underwritten part
Mathieu Amalric and Joaquín Cosío make for a peair of slimy villains playing Dominic Greene and Gen. Medrano. The former outwardly a businessman working in reforestation and charity funding who is supposedly devoted to buying large sums of land for ecological preservation. Greene is a character who is clearly modeled on politicians such as Tony Blair and Nicolas Sarkozy. Amalric bought a delightfully, weasley, childish spite to the role,
The action scenes are fierce, well choreographed and intensely shot, the effects are tremendous, the score by David Arnold is bombastic and energy-filled, the title song by Alicia Keys and Jack White is great, the cinematography is colourful and captures the grit and beauty of the films locations, the production design is gritty and gets the films tone right, the costume design is stylish, it's well paced, the locations are gorgeous, there are some great scenes of suspense, the sound effects are cool, the make up is rich, the scenery is breathtaking and the ending has a beautifully bittersweet twing to it.
Once again there's great acting, Daniel Craig is great once again as James Bond. James is, of course, still hung up over the demise and betrayal of Vesper in Casino Royale, clearly motivating his avoidance of any serious entanglements. But the film wisely, smartly and even a little ingeniously postpones Bond's vendetta by he wants to know whether she loved him or not.
Olga Kurylenko is as tough as she is sensitive playing Camille Montes, over the course of the film, her vendetta for revenge becomes intertwind with Bond's. As Bond says "It seems we're both using Greene to get someone"
Giancarlo Giannini is as Mathis
Speaking of things that are a detriment to Writers Strike, Jeffrey Wright is only in a handful of scenes scattered throughout the film playing Felix Leiter though doesn't contribute much to the film. I read somewhere that Felix had a much larger role but his screentime was restricted by on-set rewrites. Despite this, Wright definately helps to elevate a somewhat underwritten part
Mathieu Amalric and Joaquín Cosío make for a peair of slimy villains playing Dominic Greene and Gen. Medrano. The former outwardly a businessman working in reforestation and charity funding who is supposedly devoted to buying large sums of land for ecological preservation. Greene is a character who is clearly modeled on politicians such as Tony Blair and Nicolas Sarkozy. Amalric bought a delightfully, weasley, childish spite to the role,
Medrano, on the other hand, is just despicable. A terrifyingly ruthless Gen. whose willing to support Greene and Quantum's plans in exchange for plundering his nation into drought and famine, dooming loads of innocent people, just so he can have an excuse to seize power and become Bolivia's next dictator. Though he views himself as Greene's equal partner, it soon becomes apparent that Greene sees him as more of a means to end than anything else.
We also see the return of Jasper Christensen as Mr. White.
Judi Dench is fantastic as usual as M. Much like Casino Royale, the relationship between Bond and her is furthered in this film.
The film also features a noteworthy performance from Gemma Arterton as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields, she's witty and resourceful; Even though she falls for Bond's charms even though she has a
We also see the return of Jasper Christensen as Mr. White.
Judi Dench is fantastic as usual as M. Much like Casino Royale, the relationship between Bond and her is furthered in this film.
The film also features a noteworthy performance from Gemma Arterton as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields, she's witty and resourceful; Even though she falls for Bond's charms even though she has a
Rory Kinnear and David Harbour round out the films
Quantum of Solace isn't as impressive as Casino Royale, but it's a worthy sequel and I look forward to the new film Skyfall coming out soon, 4.5/5
The Anonymous Critic
Quantum of Solace isn't as impressive as Casino Royale, but it's a worthy sequel and I look forward to the new film Skyfall coming out soon, 4.5/5
The Anonymous Critic
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