Flying high off the back of Casino Royale, Daniel Craig and co. return with this poorly-titled, somewhat short entry into the annals of Bond history. The most glaring sore point is the weak, badly executed plot. We follow a businessman backing a Bolivian coup in return for the nation’s water supply. It seems like something for a larger authority to get involved with rather than a semi-rogue super spy. This feels like a real MI6 operation, and a dull one at that. Quantum of Solace was made during the writer’s strike and Craig himself has admitted that he had to co-write much of it with the director, the two making it up as they went along. This is a reasonable excuse but obviously it doesn’t make it a better story. There’s a lot of action packed into the film. None of it really serves any real purpose other than to distract from the fact nothing is happening; but some of the sequences are really quite entertaining so in a way this tactic pays off! The opening car chase is a like-it-or-loathe it pastiche of a Bourne film; it’s a brash start and at least it tries to make some sort of statement. There’s just something missing there though and things quickly become confusing instead of enthralling. The opera scene is also noteworthy, it’s a cool idea and Craig’s smug superiority fits the moment. As he uncovers the members of an illegal organisation one by one, it’s satisfying to see they have been rumbled. Unfortunately like the rest of the film it starts with a bang and ends with a whimper, the scene not really going anywhere. There are some good central performances as usual. Daniel Craig has successfully put his own spin on Bond now and makes you want to see anything he does. Judi Dench gets a little more to do than last time. Olga Kurylenko is exotic enough to fit the bill but doesn’t actually get anything to do. It’s a shame that the only Bond girl who doesn’t sleep with Bond should be so wishy-washy. Gemma Arterton suffers a similar fate although she does manage to give some extra depth to her limited role. The same can be said for the villain, who is so unremarkable it’s hard to remember what role he actually plays. The idea is supposed to be that Bond is up against a ‘normal’ bad guy, which is ‘real’ and therefore scary but it doesn’t actually make it any more menacing, just boring. Quantum of Solace isn’t a particularly bad Bond film compared to some of the dreck we’ve seen so far, but just when Casino Royale showed us that the franchise was beginning to take a fresh start; this is a step in the wrong direction. It’s a film like no other in the series, and Craig is always a joy to watch, but otherwise this is a forgettable moment in Bond’s history. http://benoliver999.com/film/2015/09/26/quantumofsolace/

An underrated Bond film. People like to make fun of the title. Whatevs. I'll admit the script was hurt by the strike, they did what they could, it's the shortest Bond film and Craig's least successful outing. I still like it, and a revisit is always worth it for the GREAT song, and that motorcycle flip Bond does in the beginning. So badass.

James Bond versus Nestlé, featuring: greenwashing, offhand showing the CIA being terrorists, and only a little unintelligible British mumble acting. Possibly the only Bond film made, even to date, that has what counts as meaningful commentary on the geopolitical and economic events it sensationalizes. I have to admit, I came away unimpressed upon my initial viewing in theatres, and I can chock that up to my own ignorance of the world. I just re-watched it, and I have to say it may be the best executed Bond film of the ~15 I've seen. I'll have to re-watch _Skyfall_, but this may actually be the best all-around Bond film. The reality of the plot seems to have mirrored the backdrop of real world power structures too much for audiences to have appreciated it, ironically enough, given how high stakes the reality is, but I can't point to any particular flaw in the plot or script, which is nearly unheard of (perhaps the mention about running out of oil, but that will still happen eventually, and people thought it was more imminent around 2008.) It's very tight, and that's something that the extremely bloated Bond films have needed since the sixties. People may have complaints about the action, though I'm not sure why. Action scenes have always been the downfall of the pacing for most Bond films in my experience, but this film neatly opens and intersperses the plot with them instead of having the entire film overtaken by laboriously long and tedious action scenes and, followed by the perennial favorite of "Bond gets captures, but the villain doesn't kill him for ~reasons~", which was thankfully absent here. I can't help but think this would have fared better and been memed instead of forgotten, had it been released ten years later.

This film aged like fine wine in my opinion as it is so much better than I remember it being, the story is actually fairly solid and well-directed by Marc Forster who is not a super well-known director but he handled the action really well but not as good as Casino Royale or Skyfall. I think the reason this film feels every better now if firstly I recommend watching straight after Casino Royale which shows it is actually a perfect continuation and also the bond lady is probably one of the strongest in the entire franchise as she is not a romantic interest and yet you find you love every moment between Olga Kurylenko (Camille Montes) and Daniel Craig (James Bond) who proves he is definitive as the character and loves the franchise. The fact that this film is much better than I remembered and knowing it was made during the writing strike, just makes me love it more and more. Give it a second chance.

This movie gets better and better with every viewing. It has a great opening, the best bond, the best two bond girls, the Opera scene is as close to perfect as you can get, the ending is also near perfect, and there are numerous sections of this movie that are stellar. really the big problem with this movie is that it feels like it's telling 8 different stories. if you think about it, all of the various sections relate really well but it undeniably feels fractured. Still an amazing flick though