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I'll break up my critique categorically, but first some general comments:

It's not as iconic or great as Casino Royale. Not by a long shot. It has moments of feeling like it belongs, but Forster's 'sequel' is too disconnected at times. Some of the set pieces revert back to 'James Bond: Superhero' form, which was disappointing. This Bond needs to be given to a director who 'gets it' and I don't think Forster got it. Overall, it's a good action flick and a fairly confident film but ultimately it's not up to the standard of quality set by Casino Royale.

Plot:

I'm kind of disappointed by the script. The 'plot' scenes are generally boring and too talky without saying much. They really did feel like expositional filler. Solace moves too mechanically and doesn't have the organic heart Royale did. I get that it's a revenge movie and the tone will be different, but I don't think we really conect to Bond like we did in the first film. The plot itself is pretty uninteresting: Greene isn't a good villain, White is mostly invisible, and Quantum doesn't do enough damage to feel very threatening. The girls aren't bad - they're well acted - but the story arc feels too tacky. I'm also pretty sick of the constant need for left-wing filmmakers to inject their oil-fueled anti-American politics into their films. It especially doesn't belong in this series.

Action:

There's some spectacular action here. The first two set pieces in particular are excellent - clever like Royale's. The action in the second half is more uninteresting and drags, including the boring finale. Action for the sake of aciton doesn't work in this reboot. The strength of Craig's Bond is more about what he can do between the action. I can't connect with a superhero, which is what this film tries at times to make Bond feel like. The plane scene was not only boring, but its resolution was ridiculous.

Music:

David Arnold mailed this one in. There are a couple really nice moments but overall it doesn't stand up to Royale's (there's a lot of this going on here, mostly because it's true).

Highlights:

The clever opera scene. It fit perfectly with the style established in Royale.
The opening car chase scene.
The nod to Goldfinger.
The ending.

watched this tonight. It was no where near as good as Casino Royale. The shaky cam / quick edits killed the action, and the plot is bare. You don't get a chance to get attached to any characters other than Bond before they're killed. In and out, quick hits, quick edits, quick location moves, you're in a tail spin the entire movie with a real let-down of an ending. The title fits because you are begging for just a "quantum of solace" to catch your breath for a moment.

The villian is some whiney french dude that just wants to buy land in South America to control it's oil before Britain or the US does, thus controlling the world... . 50 years later! HA! And he ends up just being some croney for the REAL bad guys who are always lurking somewhere laughing maniacally with their shark tanks or something.

And Bond's motivation is purely revenge for Vesper in CR. He learns Frenchy dude had a little something to do with it, knew a guy who knew a guy who ordered her boyfriend to pretend something and that's why Bond goes after him. It's really as in-personal as that. You learn nothing and are left with less in the end.

The only redeeming thing is I swear you see a full on vagina shot from this chick that is getting up from an attempted rape towards the end.

Hit delete on this one folks.

I couldn't agree more. You've said it more eloquently than I feel to right now.

I felt some characters were out of place. Felix and Mathis? Come on, their stories ended in Casino Royale. Fields existed only to get fucked and then fucked up. At the end of the whole thing we don't have anything more than a name for the 'organization.' Bond gets a little closure regarding Vesper, but I don't think the character went through any transformation or changed from the beginning of the film. He felt disconnected throughout.

I can't say I hated the film. There's some great action but nothing compared to Royale.

The organization was far more menacing in Royale, and it wasn't even featured.

If they choose to stick with Quantum as the main enemy in future flicks, it's got to get back to what Campbell established. I'd love Campbell to return. His absence really hurt this movie.

Long time lurker.

It wasnt oil. I am not sure if you are trying not to give away a non-important plot twist, but the plot I followed involved a different liquid as the main plot point.

maybe I missed something then,

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[align=left]I thought it was to control the oil supply to leverage Britain and the US into submission. That's what he dumped that girl in to send a message to Bond. And that's what the main villain was killed by in the desert. He was bashed in the head by his friends in Quantum that knew he told Bond everything and forced to drink motor oil and left in the desert . Maybe you saw a bad translation.
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[spoil][align=left]The resource Greene was controlling was fresh water. Since he was in control of 60-something percent of the fresh water in the country, he basically jacked up the price of fresh water and forced his newly installed dictator to sign off on it.

That's what I gather Quantum does - they 'have people everywhere' (metaphorically, monopolistic business and corporations) control the vital natural resources that nation-states rely on to survive and then forces them to play by Quantum's rules. It's essentially an attack on economic imperialism - specifically that of the United States (which is why the CIA was 'on-board' with Greene's plan; while the UK is portrayed as having to reluctantly participate in order to survive).

Bond gave him the oil from the car to drink to save himself from suffering in the desert. Does Quantum deal in oil? Yes, presumably. Not to mention that all the allusions to oil really misled Bond and MI6 from what was Greene's real goal: the fresh water wells.[/align][/spoil]

well I certainly missed the water part. and though Bond DID give him the oil to drink, I thought it was implied at the end by M that he was beaten as well, found by his Quantum friends for ratting them out.


Either way, water or oil, it wasn't that great a plot. I like Craig as Bond, but I'm ready for a new story. Bring on the next one.

I was under the impression Greene was found be quantum and shot twice in the back of the head. He had already drank some of the motor oil. After twenty miles or so. I didn't like the choppy cuts but I felt the movie was a good closing to casino royal. Almost like the last third or so of a 4 hour movie.