By Callum Goodwilliam

This review contains spoilers.

James Bond (Daniel Craig) is back and seeking revenge. In the pursuit of the people responsible for the death of Vesper Lynn he uncovers an organisation known as Quantum and Dominic Greene’s (Mathieu Amalric) plot to control a county’s water supplies.

The James Bond franchise is something of a peculiarity. Whilst I was sitting in the packed cinema, happily singing along to theme tunes from his past outings, I realised how much of an event a new Bond film is for many people. Like tea and complaining about the weather he seems to have a special place in the hearts of the British general public. So much of a special place it would seem that when discussing Bond, like a well placed henchman, logic seems to go right out of the window.

So much analysis revolves around the actor’s performance and looks. After his critic-silencing turn in Casino Royale (Martin Campbell, 2006) there is nothing else to say about Daniel Craig except he is a great Bond. In fact, what makes this film so frustrating is that Craig, Judi Dench and Mathieu Amalric are all brilliant. Craig continues to portray Bond as the womanizing, heavy-drinking and ruthless killer that Ian Fleming first created in a refreshingly human and fallible manner. Similarly, Judi Dench is fascinating as ‘M’, both his boss and a mother figure, desperately trying to prevent Bond from completely destroying himself and Britain’s diplomatic relations.

I desperately wanted to love this film but there were too many serious flaws that prevented the first sequel in the franchise’s history from being a worthy follow up to Casino Royale. Sadly, despite a few moments of inspiration the action sequences were pretty awful. I did like the continued use of the Jason Bourne-inspired ‘realistic’ sequences (the roof top pursuit and the hand to hand combat in particular), but unlike the excellent Bourne trilogy they were rarely breathtaking and I left the cinema underwhelmed. Crucially, many of these sequences were shot so tightly that it was often difficult to work out what was happening. The worst of which being the opening pursuit, and later, the boat sequence, I was shocked at how badly they were constructed.

Marc Forster’s previous work suggests he should be an excellent choice to explore Bond as a character but the script barely allows him to do so. The plot is often incoherent and seems like a poor excuse to tear through as many exotic locales as possible. There are no scenes that quite manage the sexually-charged exchange between Bond and Vesper on the train or the luxurious style of the poker match in Casino Royale.  What’s worse is that there are some great moments that hint at how great Quantum of Solace could have been with a better script. The opera scene is the one moment when the film matches Casino Royale and Bond going rouge is a fantastic concept, it’s such a shame that it lasts for such a short time, it would have been a much stronger plot device than the evil environmentalist, who, thanks to an underdeveloped character and a lack of scenes with Bond, never really gets to be evil enough.

Ultimately Quantum of Solace is an average action film that is elevated by a fantastic performance by Daniel Craig; it never quite lives up to standards set by its predecessor. The script by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis is just not good enough and, despite the best efforts of everyone else, lets the film down. I cannot help but think that the producers should have rehired Martin Campbell to helm the project. Campbell directed both Goldeneye (1995) and Casino Royale which are, in my opinion, the best two Bond films of the last twenty years, I cannot understand why they would choose to change a formula that worked so well.

Rating: 7.0

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