If James Bond is seeking revenge for his murdered lady friend and we’re observing it, does that make his solace a particle or a wave?
After postponing it as long as I could, I finally had to give in and watch Quantum of Solace with the Mrs. It’s the second James Bond movie featuring Daniel Craig as 007. Regular visitors know I’m a mild fan of the series; my wife and I enjoy those summer marathons when they show all the Bond movies going back to the classic ones made before either of us was born. I tend to favor Roger Moore a bit over Sean Connery, only because he’s the Bond I grew up with (I saw The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker as a boy in the theaters), but I acknowledge his cartoonishness compared to the real thing.
The real thing being, of course, Ian Fleming’s conception of the man. See here.
Intellectually, I don’t like the new incarnation; however – and this is a big, big however – viscerally it appeals to me. Craig’s Bond is a brute, almost an automatic killing machine. Unstoppable, fearless, ruthless. He’ll stop at nothing to get the bad guy, and, in the process, serve Queen and country. And M, of course, now affectionately referred to as “Mom” by all her boys at MI6 (What would Fleming think of that 21st-century development?) This Bond is lightning quick, trained in every martial art system devised by man, and proficient in just about everything, including gambling, self-resuscitation, plane piloting, iPhone supertechnology, geology, and fashion. He’s not really a talker, at least compared to his previous portrayers, though the witty remark slips through now and then.
In other words, he’s Jason Bourne.
Which can be a good thing. The opening scenes of Casino Royale, the unstoppable, fearless, and ruthless footchase to capture the terrorist suspect, is pure genius. As a superior example of character definition, I likened it to one of the early scenes in the first Bourne movie where that hero avoids capture in a US embassy. But being overly influenced by Bourne can be a bad thing, too. It’s all due to one simple, hyphenated word:
Shaky-cam.
You know, when the hero grapples with the thug, and all of a sudden it’s like that 70s disaster movie Earthquake suddenly meets cute with the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise taking massive photon torpedoe damage from the Klingon ship, have a whirlwind courtship and spawn a bastard child before splitting up, and our tax dollars have to support the damn thing. It’s like watching Cloverfield on a trampoline with a crazy uncle knocking your feet out from beneath you with a pillow.
In other words, shaky-cam makes me want to throw up, and there’s by far too much use of it in Quantum of Solace. Everytime Bond sees a motorcycle, I realize in thirty seconds I’m gonna be vomiting as he’s sure to be poppin’ wheelies and vaulting over fences and cars on it. Every time Bond approaches a closed door I reach for the dramamine as I realize in ten seconds he’s gonna be flipping and Greco-Roman wrestling some greasy-haired fashionable young thug. Seriously, every ten minutes there’s about two-and-a-half minutes of shaky-cam, which makes for about twenty-five minutes of deep sea Perfect Storm-type sea sick nausea in this movie.
All right – you get my point. Now, you’re wondering: did LE like Quantum, barf-bag aside? Well … the plot was a little too convoluted, the bad guy’s world domination scheme a little to mundane, the chicks filled with a little too much testosterone, and some kinda neat possibilites left unexplored and unfulfilled.
What I’d like to see in the next one is a really, really good villain, a supervillain, something like a nod back to the old days of the 60s and 70s (which Mike Myers parodied perfectly). Somebody like Geoffrey Rush would be the perfect nemesis, because a Bond bad guy needs to be a little odd physically and has to be able to really, really convey menace. Even someone from left-field, like, say, Dennis Quaid, with his best Texas twang and semi-psychotic stare would be welcome. Enough of these Eurotrash weenies. With three Bourne movies and now two Daniel Craig movies, Eurotrash weenies are now definitely overrepresented in film. Call SAG and complain. Oh, and the bad guy’s plan has to be really, really grandiose. Nothing like cornering the market on, oh, manganese or something. Remember Bloefeld’s schemes? Stromberg and his Under-the-Sea totalitarian utopia? How about Drax wiping out humanity to start an new Eden in outer space? I mean, c’mon!
I do think the Daniel Craig version of Bond rocks, though. The base is there. But, the next story has got to be really, really, really well-thought out, well-written, and, well, just damn good.
Grade: C+
After postponing it as long as I could, I finally had to give in and watch Quantum of Solace with the Mrs. It’s the second James Bond movie featuring Daniel Craig as 007. Regular visitors know I’m a mild fan of the series; my wife and I enjoy those summer marathons when they show all the Bond movies going back to the classic ones made before either of us was born. I tend to favor Roger Moore a bit over Sean Connery, only because he’s the Bond I grew up with (I saw The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker as a boy in the theaters), but I acknowledge his cartoonishness compared to the real thing.
The real thing being, of course, Ian Fleming’s conception of the man. See here.
Intellectually, I don’t like the new incarnation; however – and this is a big, big however – viscerally it appeals to me. Craig’s Bond is a brute, almost an automatic killing machine. Unstoppable, fearless, ruthless. He’ll stop at nothing to get the bad guy, and, in the process, serve Queen and country. And M, of course, now affectionately referred to as “Mom” by all her boys at MI6 (What would Fleming think of that 21st-century development?) This Bond is lightning quick, trained in every martial art system devised by man, and proficient in just about everything, including gambling, self-resuscitation, plane piloting, iPhone supertechnology, geology, and fashion. He’s not really a talker, at least compared to his previous portrayers, though the witty remark slips through now and then.
In other words, he’s Jason Bourne.
Which can be a good thing. The opening scenes of Casino Royale, the unstoppable, fearless, and ruthless footchase to capture the terrorist suspect, is pure genius. As a superior example of character definition, I likened it to one of the early scenes in the first Bourne movie where that hero avoids capture in a US embassy. But being overly influenced by Bourne can be a bad thing, too. It’s all due to one simple, hyphenated word:
Shaky-cam.
You know, when the hero grapples with the thug, and all of a sudden it’s like that 70s disaster movie Earthquake suddenly meets cute with the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise taking massive photon torpedoe damage from the Klingon ship, have a whirlwind courtship and spawn a bastard child before splitting up, and our tax dollars have to support the damn thing. It’s like watching Cloverfield on a trampoline with a crazy uncle knocking your feet out from beneath you with a pillow.
In other words, shaky-cam makes me want to throw up, and there’s by far too much use of it in Quantum of Solace. Everytime Bond sees a motorcycle, I realize in thirty seconds I’m gonna be vomiting as he’s sure to be poppin’ wheelies and vaulting over fences and cars on it. Every time Bond approaches a closed door I reach for the dramamine as I realize in ten seconds he’s gonna be flipping and Greco-Roman wrestling some greasy-haired fashionable young thug. Seriously, every ten minutes there’s about two-and-a-half minutes of shaky-cam, which makes for about twenty-five minutes of deep sea Perfect Storm-type sea sick nausea in this movie.
All right – you get my point. Now, you’re wondering: did LE like Quantum, barf-bag aside? Well … the plot was a little too convoluted, the bad guy’s world domination scheme a little to mundane, the chicks filled with a little too much testosterone, and some kinda neat possibilites left unexplored and unfulfilled.
What I’d like to see in the next one is a really, really good villain, a supervillain, something like a nod back to the old days of the 60s and 70s (which Mike Myers parodied perfectly). Somebody like Geoffrey Rush would be the perfect nemesis, because a Bond bad guy needs to be a little odd physically and has to be able to really, really convey menace. Even someone from left-field, like, say, Dennis Quaid, with his best Texas twang and semi-psychotic stare would be welcome. Enough of these Eurotrash weenies. With three Bourne movies and now two Daniel Craig movies, Eurotrash weenies are now definitely overrepresented in film. Call SAG and complain. Oh, and the bad guy’s plan has to be really, really grandiose. Nothing like cornering the market on, oh, manganese or something. Remember Bloefeld’s schemes? Stromberg and his Under-the-Sea totalitarian utopia? How about Drax wiping out humanity to start an new Eden in outer space? I mean, c’mon!
I do think the Daniel Craig version of Bond rocks, though. The base is there. But, the next story has got to be really, really, really well-thought out, well-written, and, well, just damn good.
Grade: C+
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