Post by Cpt. Sir Dominic Flandry on Oct 20, 2008 6:01:43 GMT -5
uk.movies.ign.com/articles/921/921477p1.html
"Quantum of Solace UK Review
Brilliant, brutal, but dissapointing.
by Orlando Parfitt, IGN UK
UK, October 19, 2008 - Occasionally brilliant, brutal and thrilling, yet ultimately a crushing disappointment; enter the Quantum of Solace.
The first out-and-out sequel to a Bond movie, QOS sees Daniel Craig's much-lauded incarnation of the British secret agent return even more angry and ruthless than he was in franchise reboot Casino Royale back in 2005.
Picking up literally minutes from the finale of that film, we open with Bond still in Italy, speeding away from police and enemy agents in his Aston Martin, with the sinister Mr White tied up in the boot. Bond discovers that White is part of the far-reaching organisation Quantum ("we have men everywhere!" he grins), that blackmailed his now-dead girlfriend Vespa in the previous film. Naturally, Bond decides to go after the group's shadowy main man; creepy Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric).
On the surface, the reptilian Greene is a kind of eco-philanthropist, but secretly his organisation is involved in an evil plan to control Bolivia's water supply, as well as more run-of-the-mill criminal activities such as destabilising governments and arming terrorists. Bond resolves to stop his nefarious scheme, and exact his own personal vengeance.
So - why a "crushing dissapoinment"? Allow us to explain. OO7's narrative arc in the movie - his raison d'etre - is revenge. He's going after the guys that casued the girl he loved to die. And yet during the course of the film, you never get the sense that this is his motivation. As Bond jumps from one exotic locale to the next, killing henchmen, riding speedboats and jumping out of planes, the script barely gives us a sense of the hurt or pain that is driving him and his mission.
There are only glimpses of his anger. Bond keeps killing suspects before they can be questioned; he mostly ignores M's orders, and so on. But then in every film since Dr. No the character has been a maverick that doesn't play by the rules. Never do we feel that the agent is so irreparably damaged by Vespa's death that he's willing to go completely over the edge in seeking retribution.
Indeed if you hadn't seen Casino Royale, you would barely be aware that the reason for all this violence and death was Bond's anger that his girlfriend was forced to betray him and then kill herself. This theme was deliciously set up by the first movie, but left criminally half-baked in QOS.
Mathieu as the slimy arch-villain Dominic Greene.
It's a shame for Daniel Craig, who despite the issues with the script, continues to excel as Bond, debunking once and for all the idiot trash talk of those at craigisnotbond.com and their ilk. Playing the role like a suave nightclub bouncer, Craig expertly conveys the violent tendencies that lurk just beneath his paper-thin veneer of upper-class British civility. He simply inhabits the character in a way no-one has since Sean Connery.
The actor is also once again willing to smash himself through windows, walls and tables in the various action set pieces. As with Casino Royale, we see Bond battered, bruised and bloodied in various Bourne-style hand-to-hand fight scenes and 'parkour' inspired chases. It's all thrilling stuff, but - and here's another big criticism - never quite as heart-pounding or thrilling as we'd expected.
Maybe helmer Marc Forster is somewhat to blame for this. An intriguing choice for the gig having built his career on well-acted emotional dramas such as Finding Neverland and Monsters Ball, his direction of the action sequences is nonetheless slightly too choppy and disorientating to truly thrill.
Another couple of big set-pieces, a brilliantly realised, but kind-of-unrealistic jump out of a plane, and the film's big face-off finale, also didn't quite push our adrenaline buttons. There is nothing to match the genius of Casino Royale's free-running sequence for example, or The Bourne Ultimatum's Morrocan knife fight.
Mathieu Almaric (who made his name with a quite sublime turn in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is another of QOS's near misses as the head villain. The actor is perfect 'evil criminal mastermind' material, with his bulging eyes, twisted smile and Gallic arrogance. But the script never lets him be quite as sick, threatening or slimy as you feel he could be.
.
Luckily Bond's babes don't disappoint. The ridiculously beautiful Olga Kurylenko is a kind of counter-point to 007. She excels as another damaged secret service agent who is similarly motivated by revenge - in her case against the Bolivian general who killed her family.
Gemma Arterton meanwhile, whose stern British consulate worker appears seemingly wearing a mac with nothing underneath, is underused but still gets the film's best line. Having shown 007 to this hotel room, we cut to a few hours later, with the pair in bed and Bond kissing her back - "I hate myself for this!" she says, smiling ruefully.
Judi Dench's M, whose character seemingly grows in importance with every movie, is also superb. Her complex relationship with 007, part despairing boss, part mother-figure, is one of the most well developed aspects of the film and in a sense its emotional heart - with her MI5 chief the only woman Bond can really connect with.
Ultimately QOS is a difficult film to review in the sense that there is nothing outrageously wrong with it. The movie is an excellently acted, gritty, crunching thriller that seldom lets up its pacy intensity. Despite some of the problems with Forster's direction, it's still a cracking action film.
However, we were hoping for something more. There's a moment in the trailer where Bond emerges from the top of a hill in a desert, sub-machine-gun in hand, his face drained of emotion, seemingly poised to complete the character's journey from rookie agent to avenging, emotionally broken, vengeful, cold-hearted killing machine. QOS never lives up to that spine-tingling moment of promise."
"Quantum of Solace UK Review
Brilliant, brutal, but dissapointing.
by Orlando Parfitt, IGN UK
UK, October 19, 2008 - Occasionally brilliant, brutal and thrilling, yet ultimately a crushing disappointment; enter the Quantum of Solace.
The first out-and-out sequel to a Bond movie, QOS sees Daniel Craig's much-lauded incarnation of the British secret agent return even more angry and ruthless than he was in franchise reboot Casino Royale back in 2005.
Picking up literally minutes from the finale of that film, we open with Bond still in Italy, speeding away from police and enemy agents in his Aston Martin, with the sinister Mr White tied up in the boot. Bond discovers that White is part of the far-reaching organisation Quantum ("we have men everywhere!" he grins), that blackmailed his now-dead girlfriend Vespa in the previous film. Naturally, Bond decides to go after the group's shadowy main man; creepy Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric).
On the surface, the reptilian Greene is a kind of eco-philanthropist, but secretly his organisation is involved in an evil plan to control Bolivia's water supply, as well as more run-of-the-mill criminal activities such as destabilising governments and arming terrorists. Bond resolves to stop his nefarious scheme, and exact his own personal vengeance.
So - why a "crushing dissapoinment"? Allow us to explain. OO7's narrative arc in the movie - his raison d'etre - is revenge. He's going after the guys that casued the girl he loved to die. And yet during the course of the film, you never get the sense that this is his motivation. As Bond jumps from one exotic locale to the next, killing henchmen, riding speedboats and jumping out of planes, the script barely gives us a sense of the hurt or pain that is driving him and his mission.
There are only glimpses of his anger. Bond keeps killing suspects before they can be questioned; he mostly ignores M's orders, and so on. But then in every film since Dr. No the character has been a maverick that doesn't play by the rules. Never do we feel that the agent is so irreparably damaged by Vespa's death that he's willing to go completely over the edge in seeking retribution.
Indeed if you hadn't seen Casino Royale, you would barely be aware that the reason for all this violence and death was Bond's anger that his girlfriend was forced to betray him and then kill herself. This theme was deliciously set up by the first movie, but left criminally half-baked in QOS.
Mathieu as the slimy arch-villain Dominic Greene.
It's a shame for Daniel Craig, who despite the issues with the script, continues to excel as Bond, debunking once and for all the idiot trash talk of those at craigisnotbond.com and their ilk. Playing the role like a suave nightclub bouncer, Craig expertly conveys the violent tendencies that lurk just beneath his paper-thin veneer of upper-class British civility. He simply inhabits the character in a way no-one has since Sean Connery.
The actor is also once again willing to smash himself through windows, walls and tables in the various action set pieces. As with Casino Royale, we see Bond battered, bruised and bloodied in various Bourne-style hand-to-hand fight scenes and 'parkour' inspired chases. It's all thrilling stuff, but - and here's another big criticism - never quite as heart-pounding or thrilling as we'd expected.
Maybe helmer Marc Forster is somewhat to blame for this. An intriguing choice for the gig having built his career on well-acted emotional dramas such as Finding Neverland and Monsters Ball, his direction of the action sequences is nonetheless slightly too choppy and disorientating to truly thrill.
Another couple of big set-pieces, a brilliantly realised, but kind-of-unrealistic jump out of a plane, and the film's big face-off finale, also didn't quite push our adrenaline buttons. There is nothing to match the genius of Casino Royale's free-running sequence for example, or The Bourne Ultimatum's Morrocan knife fight.
Mathieu Almaric (who made his name with a quite sublime turn in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is another of QOS's near misses as the head villain. The actor is perfect 'evil criminal mastermind' material, with his bulging eyes, twisted smile and Gallic arrogance. But the script never lets him be quite as sick, threatening or slimy as you feel he could be.
.
Luckily Bond's babes don't disappoint. The ridiculously beautiful Olga Kurylenko is a kind of counter-point to 007. She excels as another damaged secret service agent who is similarly motivated by revenge - in her case against the Bolivian general who killed her family.
Gemma Arterton meanwhile, whose stern British consulate worker appears seemingly wearing a mac with nothing underneath, is underused but still gets the film's best line. Having shown 007 to this hotel room, we cut to a few hours later, with the pair in bed and Bond kissing her back - "I hate myself for this!" she says, smiling ruefully.
Judi Dench's M, whose character seemingly grows in importance with every movie, is also superb. Her complex relationship with 007, part despairing boss, part mother-figure, is one of the most well developed aspects of the film and in a sense its emotional heart - with her MI5 chief the only woman Bond can really connect with.
Ultimately QOS is a difficult film to review in the sense that there is nothing outrageously wrong with it. The movie is an excellently acted, gritty, crunching thriller that seldom lets up its pacy intensity. Despite some of the problems with Forster's direction, it's still a cracking action film.
However, we were hoping for something more. There's a moment in the trailer where Bond emerges from the top of a hill in a desert, sub-machine-gun in hand, his face drained of emotion, seemingly poised to complete the character's journey from rookie agent to avenging, emotionally broken, vengeful, cold-hearted killing machine. QOS never lives up to that spine-tingling moment of promise."
