Daniel Craig, the new Bond, James Bond for the 21st century, hits the ground running in his second outing as the formidable British secret agent 007. Taking place moments after Casino Royale ended, when Bond finally captured the mysterious Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), Quantum Of Solace opens with a wild car chase in a mountainous region of Italy. Bond is taking White--who’s stuffed in the trunk--into custody, but Mr. White’s associates have something to say about this, and they protest violently. When he’s briefly interrogated, Bond and his boss, M (Judi Dench) discover that Mr. White is part of a larger malevolent organization named Quantum. A criminal group that hires itself out to the highest bidder, Quantum is responsible for a large part of the destabilization of smaller governments and terrorism around the world.
And the kicker this time is that the United States, personified by an uneasy Felix Leiter and his sleazy CIA college Gregg Beam (David Harbour), not only doesn’t mind Quantum playing around in South America, they’re practically partners in the affair. When Bond starts sniffing around in Bolivia, he finds himself the target of the CIA, just as much as Quantum’s people. But Bond’s main motivation this time out is more than just stopping a bunch of bad guys--Quantum was responsible for the death of his beloved Vesper in Casino Royale, and 007 is seeking revenge. Craig is superb once more as the meaner, leaner Bond. Watching him coldly and calmly waiting for an assassin he defeated in hand to hand combat to die is a very effective moment.
But while the film itself works very well as a direct sequel to CR, instead of maintaining, or going above, the high bar set by that film, QOS relies on the same Bond movie formula--complete with unbelievable stunts that are so over the top, they boarder on being very silly (such as the airplane battle), and the second banana Bond girl (Gemma Arterton) who’s the equivalent to this series what the red shirted crewmen were to the original Star Trek. Olga Kurylenko has a great screen presence as Camille, the main bond girl this time out, and Judi Dench is great--as always--as M, the tough-minded mother hen to Bond. But despite the minor quibbles, I still enjoyed this film a great deal, and look forward to seeing more 007 adventures with Craig as Bond.
--SF
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