“Quantum of Solace” (2008)

“Quantum of Solace” is the twenty second official James Bond film, the twenty fifth if you count the two earlier, non-Daniel Craig versions of “Casino Royale” and Sean Connery’s last attempt at the role, the partial remake of “Thunderball”, “Never Say Never Again”.  Forty six years worth of baggage is a lot to carry around.  Thankfully director Marc Forster and his writers take their lead from the last instalment, with Craig’s Bond hell bent on extracting revenge for the death of his “Casino Royale” girlfriend, chasing her former criminal associates around the world.

“Quantum of Solace” is the first Bond film to function as a direct sequel.  There are pros and cons involved with this.  On the plus side, 007’s motivation, his intensity and drive, can be immediately established, something which allows the film to open with a couple of spectacular set piece chases every bit as involving as those in the previous film.  There is little need to slow things up with wordy exposition.  Craig really is riveting in the role, his Bond combining a steely toughness with a just below the surface emotional vulnerability that previous actors - even the great Connery - never even hinted at.  In other words the Craig Bond is neither Ian Fleming’s smug snob nor the cardboard cutout figure of the Moore and Brosnan years, rather he is a credible human being.

The downside to positioning  “Solace” as an extension of “Casino Royale” is that it presupposes audience familiarity with a prior storyline.  If, like myself, you haven’t seen the first film since it was in the theatres, it is a struggle to keep up with who is who, who did what to whom, and which actors are reprising roles.  This isn’t just an issue at the outset, it is a continuing problem throughout the narrative: when Jeffrey Wright shows up about forty minutes in I could not remember if he had played Bond’s CIA mate Felix Leiter before or not or if so what their relationship was.

It is one thing for the “Star Wars” franchise to bank on its fan-base’s detailed knowledge of its universe, quite another for a Bond film to change the rule of self-contained plot-lines after four decades.  Certainly “Quantum of Solace” will date more quickly than previous 007 movies, existing as it does essentially an adjunct to another, better film.

Clearly the Bond producers have been influenced by the success and the aesthetic of the Bourne trilogy.  The frenetic use of the hand held camera and rapid-to-the-point-of-being-incomprehensible editing techniques have their roots in “The Bourne Identity” and its sequels, as does the close tie-in between narratives.  Whilst generally exciting there are limits to this kind of film-making. It can be overdone.  Forster manages to walk the right side of a fine line.

The way in which “Quantum of Solace” engages political issues like global warming and environmental change also mark it as very much of its period.  For a franchise that in the past has been either fairly conservative or indifferent to the realities of international politics “Quantum of Solace” is cynically topical, having a Greenpeace like organisation as a front for criminality, and depicting the American and British governments as willing accomplices to a Bolivian coup.  Bond, as vengeful and insubordinate as he is, emerges as an unlikely moral force, his mind so much on the job that he doesn’t have time to bed quite as many lovelies as per usual.

Having the heroine as obsessed with revenge as Bond himself makes her alliance with him all the more likely whilst explaining why neither party seems much interested in getting the other into the sack.  The sole erotic moment in the movie is also a rare instance of humour, with 007 casually laying a work colleague who has been detailed to try and control him.  If Strawberry Fields is the only example of a character with a silly, old school James Bond name her sticky demise is also a homage to the tradition of expendable secondary female leads.

Clocking in at mere one hundred and six minutes “Quantum of Solace” is supposedly the shortest Bond film ever.  Even at that length it runs out of steam, climaxing too early.  The concluding ten minutes or so are particularly flat, almost as if the writers needed to compensate for the lack of exposition at the outset with end scenes that redeem their hero.  Judi Dench does get to deliver one or two lines with her trademark gruffness, leaving things all square between M and her number one killer.

“Quantum of Solace” sustains the promise of “Casino Royale” without ever really bringing anything fresh to the table.   Still, the devastatingly well cast Craig is now embedded in the role of Bond and the future looks bright for a film series that with Pierce Brosnan always threatened to collapse under the weight of tired and outmoded cliches.