Quantum of Solace

While Casino Royale may not have been a perfect film it certainly took the Bond franchise back in the right direction with a more modern gritty feel and much toned down on the over the top gadgets and villans. Certainly it leaves Quantum of Solace with a lot to live up to.

The film continues straight on from Casino Royale and assumes you have a decent working knowledge of its plot. There's some great action set pieces and Craig gets the brutal, cold part of Bond just right. The film lacks some of the humour that has been a Bond trade mark but given the films theme of revenge this is probably acceptable (although I'd like to see it make a come back for tne next film).

The films main problems stem from the direction and editing which is a bit on the busy side for my liking. Cutting and changing every few seconds may be acceptable in a pop video but here it makes it difficult to really see what's going on. One particular on foot scene is inter cut with a horse race and gets particularly annoying. It's tiring over the films run time. It also borrows a bit too heavily from the last Bourne film too. A couple of sequences seem to have almost been lifted completely. Oh, and the Villan is a bit dull too (Certainly his henchmans haircut makes him look a bit too 'special needs' to be convincing).

Having said all that it's still a good film. The pacing is better than Casino Royale and the relationship between M and Bond is very convincing. I thoroughly enjoyed it even if it'll take a repeat viewing to understand exactly what was going on (whether it was our local cinema or the sound mix but some bits of dialogue where lost in the action). A worthy follow up to Casino Royale but next time the producers will want to establish their own identity a bit more.