Never say never
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre November 5 2008
Directed by Marc Forster
Starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko
In Quantum of Solace, Agent 007 returns in a revenge mode, seeking the people who blackmailed Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) into betraying James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale. Consider this a summation of the previous Bond film, but more importantly, Quantum of Solace gives James Bond true human form – with more emotion, more action, but never the same as before.
While interrogating Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), Bond (Craig) and M (Judi Dench) discover that the organization behind Vesper’s betrayal runs far more complex and powerful. White escapes with the aid of a double-agent who nearly kills M and Bond. MI6 traces the traitor’s bank account to Haiti, where Bond meets the mysterious Camille (Olga Kurylenko). Camille introduces Bond to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a billionaire philanthropist and member of a secret criminal organization known as Quantum. Greene and Quantum conspire to control the natural resources of various third-world nations by means of economic and political sabotage.
Risking life, limb and license, Bond allies with former Casino Royale contacts Mathis (Giancarlo Gianini) and CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) in a mission that brings him from Italy to Austria to Bolivia and tests the limits of his personal and professional relationships in the pursuit of truth.
In 2006, I complimented Casino Royale as a “great movie, a successful reboot of a franchise, like it was an edition of the Jason Bourne series,” (Ante-Bond, Inquirer Libre, November 2006.) Don’t expect more of the same Bond, if more of the same means the usual, clichéd Bond who looks perfect even after a fistfight. Expect a real movie, but not the usual Bond movie. Of all the James Bond films, this may be one of my favorites.
Credit director Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) and the writers led by Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby) for continuing on this trend and giving Bond a fleshier character. This way, not only does QoS resolve Bond’s emotional turmoil in Casino Royale, producers can now take the franchise into any direction they want, given that Bond is now free of “personal issues”. No longer is James Bond a caricature of the ultimate male fantasy, James is now a real movie character.
Needless to say the action is packed and knuckle-baring, blood staining Bond’s dapper suits more than half the time. What’s also interesting is that QoS has a sly political significance, in the sense that (spoilers beware!) Quantum’s criminal plot to control natural resources, in particular fresh water under the barren soils of Bolivia, represents what may truly happen in the real world when the time comes that natural resources, particularly potable water, become scarce and nations protect their own interests. We already know petroleum oil will run out in a few decades. The next battle for supplies will be for drinking water, when the water tables under the earth run dry due to climate change. All of a sudden, Quantum of Solace becomes an important environmental movie, one that features a billionaire villain disguised as an environmentalist (note that in 2010).
There’s a reason why the James Bond series has survived 22 outings throughout the years and that is because it has always worked around its definition as a mere spy movie. Quantum of Solace shuts the door on Bond’s self-doubt that began in Casino Royale and becomes the movie when Bond fully understands and accepts his license to kill.
Review by Vives Anunciacion
Inquirer Libre November 5 2008
Directed by Marc Forster
Starring Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko
In Quantum of Solace, Agent 007 returns in a revenge mode, seeking the people who blackmailed Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) into betraying James Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale. Consider this a summation of the previous Bond film, but more importantly, Quantum of Solace gives James Bond true human form – with more emotion, more action, but never the same as before.
While interrogating Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), Bond (Craig) and M (Judi Dench) discover that the organization behind Vesper’s betrayal runs far more complex and powerful. White escapes with the aid of a double-agent who nearly kills M and Bond. MI6 traces the traitor’s bank account to Haiti, where Bond meets the mysterious Camille (Olga Kurylenko). Camille introduces Bond to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a billionaire philanthropist and member of a secret criminal organization known as Quantum. Greene and Quantum conspire to control the natural resources of various third-world nations by means of economic and political sabotage.
Risking life, limb and license, Bond allies with former Casino Royale contacts Mathis (Giancarlo Gianini) and CIA agent Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) in a mission that brings him from Italy to Austria to Bolivia and tests the limits of his personal and professional relationships in the pursuit of truth.
In 2006, I complimented Casino Royale as a “great movie, a successful reboot of a franchise, like it was an edition of the Jason Bourne series,” (Ante-Bond, Inquirer Libre, November 2006.) Don’t expect more of the same Bond, if more of the same means the usual, clichéd Bond who looks perfect even after a fistfight. Expect a real movie, but not the usual Bond movie. Of all the James Bond films, this may be one of my favorites.
Credit director Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) and the writers led by Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby) for continuing on this trend and giving Bond a fleshier character. This way, not only does QoS resolve Bond’s emotional turmoil in Casino Royale, producers can now take the franchise into any direction they want, given that Bond is now free of “personal issues”. No longer is James Bond a caricature of the ultimate male fantasy, James is now a real movie character.
Needless to say the action is packed and knuckle-baring, blood staining Bond’s dapper suits more than half the time. What’s also interesting is that QoS has a sly political significance, in the sense that (spoilers beware!) Quantum’s criminal plot to control natural resources, in particular fresh water under the barren soils of Bolivia, represents what may truly happen in the real world when the time comes that natural resources, particularly potable water, become scarce and nations protect their own interests. We already know petroleum oil will run out in a few decades. The next battle for supplies will be for drinking water, when the water tables under the earth run dry due to climate change. All of a sudden, Quantum of Solace becomes an important environmental movie, one that features a billionaire villain disguised as an environmentalist (note that in 2010).
There’s a reason why the James Bond series has survived 22 outings throughout the years and that is because it has always worked around its definition as a mere spy movie. Quantum of Solace shuts the door on Bond’s self-doubt that began in Casino Royale and becomes the movie when Bond fully understands and accepts his license to kill.
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