"Quantum" of disappointment
Matthew Howard
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Life!
The plot is standard Bond, albeit minus the whole idea of world domination. After all, the bad guy, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), isn't out to dominate the world, he only wants to cause a few droughts and control Bolivia's water supply. Bond gets involved because he's tracking down the people who were responsible for Vesper Lynde's death at the end of Casino Royale. Clues lead him to the sexy but dangerous Camille (Olga Kurylenko). She in turn leads him to Greene. Meanwhile, M is getting pressure from her superior to rein in 007… or else. This gives Judi Dench an opportunity to get out from behind her desk. She hops from country to country about as easily as Bond hops from rooftop to rooftop, leading to about six location changes, and just as many head scratches.
Sadly, there's something hollow about the proceedings. There's no real rhyme or reason. In fact, the whole thing doesn't feel like a complete movie, or at least not a complete Bond movie. The SPECTRE-like Quantum, an organization that has members in powerful places, is likely being established as an umbrella villain for future stories. Their role here is shadowy, and the way they are handled is part of the reason why the movie feels incomplete.
In addition, while there are plenty of nods to previous Bond outings, the missing staples leave unfilled holes. For example, there is no utterance of "Bond. James Bond" or "Shaken, not stirred." There are no verbal puns and one-liners we have come to relish. There's no bloody gun barrel at the beginning (it's at the end). Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" is relegated to subtle cues in the generic score, with the theme occurring only over the end credits. For a die-hard Bond fan, such as myself, the exclusion of these staples are about as disappointing a choice in the franchise since Roger Moore swapped Bond's signature Aston Martin for a Lotus in The Spy Who Loved Me.
The film's biggest problem is its directing. Director, Marc Forster is a successful art house filmmaker with impressive credits (Monster's Ball and The Kite Runner), but he is clueless when it comes to action sequences. Forster seems to overcompensate for his inexperience and, to put it bluntly, his incompetence directing action sequences. His approach seems to be to shake the camera as much as possible and by using, as I call it, ADD editing; shots seemingly don't last for more than about a half-second.
Sadly, there's something hollow about the proceedings. There's no real rhyme or reason. In fact, the whole thing doesn't feel like a complete movie, or at least not a complete Bond movie. The SPECTRE-like Quantum, an organization that has members in powerful places, is likely being established as an umbrella villain for future stories. Their role here is shadowy, and the way they are handled is part of the reason why the movie feels incomplete.
In addition, while there are plenty of nods to previous Bond outings, the missing staples leave unfilled holes. For example, there is no utterance of "Bond. James Bond" or "Shaken, not stirred." There are no verbal puns and one-liners we have come to relish. There's no bloody gun barrel at the beginning (it's at the end). Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" is relegated to subtle cues in the generic score, with the theme occurring only over the end credits. For a die-hard Bond fan, such as myself, the exclusion of these staples are about as disappointing a choice in the franchise since Roger Moore swapped Bond's signature Aston Martin for a Lotus in The Spy Who Loved Me.
The film's biggest problem is its directing. Director, Marc Forster is a successful art house filmmaker with impressive credits (Monster's Ball and The Kite Runner), but he is clueless when it comes to action sequences. Forster seems to overcompensate for his inexperience and, to put it bluntly, his incompetence directing action sequences. His approach seems to be to shake the camera as much as possible and by using, as I call it, ADD editing; shots seemingly don't last for more than about a half-second.