Is it unfair to judge a Bond movie on the previous installment? Well, tough. Especially when the previous version boldly reinvigorated a franchise that had been laughably long dead.
Too concerned with thrilling and wowing its audience with uncontrolled chaotic-ness, Marc Forster’s “Quantum of Solace” may eschew traditional Bond tropes like his favorite corny tag-line and beloved fan characters like Moneypenny, but the blockbuster embraces the hollow and emptiness of that made most discerning audiences abandon this series more than a decade ago.
Perhaps trying to prove himself Forster goes for kick and thrill while mostly forsaking the emotional notes that made “Casino Royale” so disarmingly good. Even the post ‘Bourne’ action sequences seem rote and phoned in – haven’t we seen this before? Is he really fighting with a book in close quarters and jumping from veranda to veranda? The opening car-chase is meant to rip you right into the action – the flurry of messy camera and artless whirling chaos just made us ill.
Bond producers may have explicitly hired Forster for his emotional and dramatic strengths (“Finding Neverland,” “Monsters Ball”), but to use where exactly? In those three key (and requisitely contrived) moments that last all of 30 seconds each? It doesn’t help that Daniel Craig’s 007 is carved out of ice, so there won’t be crying let alone even getting angry for a second.
‘Solace’ is a revenge story that picks up just days after ‘Royale’ ended, but so what? Furthermore the “revenge” is totally sidelined until the end (where it neatly and randomly picks up) by the new villain, one for the 21st century! An evil and greedy environmentalist hellbent on ruling the world’s tastiest new evaporating resource: water! God, we had to laugh at this and poor little Mathieu Amalric who we love but clearly over his head as a one-dimensional nemesis (his fighting style at the end had us in unintentional stitches as he kept wailing an Arabic- Aieyeyeyeyeyeyeyeye! – for some nonsensical reason with every axe thrust). The confusing and slapped-together “plot” is as ridiculous and implausible of the old Bond and you quickly feel the goodwill acquired in ‘Royale,’ going up in flames.
‘Solace’ is the bland Bond from the Roger Moore era with a touch of grit and ouch-that-hurt! Bourne style realistic action, but never does it feel alive, frenetic and charged as those winning action films. Instead it feels like what ‘Casino’ should have, but transcended thanks to a good story, soul and inventiveness – a lazy Hollywood-style Bourne-style ripoff. It lacks any heart and puts the franchise squarely back in the disposable and pointless movie jail where its lived for so long now. Bring back Martin Campbell and Paul Haggis (in full) or just throw this series back into the McDonald’s world of movies we can’t be bothered with. This thing my be burning up the box-office overseas (and likely Stateside too), but make no mistake, this is the same tripe of yore with a dirty, “gritty” sheen to try and fool you. [C+]
