Quantum of Solace (2008)

Wow. From one of the very best Bonds in the series (Casion Royale) to one of the worst, in one fell swoop. But curiously, I'm VERY optimistic.

Don't get me wrong. "Quantum of Solace" (and yes, the title makes sense) has a fabulous Danial Craig, sexy women, a nasty villain, stunt work the equal of anyone's, anywhere. Decent music (the title song by Alicia Keyes actually works better than I'd feared, and a basic plot that I grooved to.

The problem? Something I never thought I'd say: too much action. By the time you have the fourth major action scene in the first 30 minutes, I'm damned near yawning. I place the fault cleanly in two camps:

1) The Bond Machine. Broccoli Inc. needed to strike while the iron was hot, and get this film in the bag. The problem was that Paul Haggis, the writer who breathed new life into the series, had to rush to finish the script--he was up against the writer's strike. As a result, I would think that the script was two drafts away from perfect. The dialogue isn't as sharp, the interstitial material between stunts is so thin that you can feel the blunt mechanics at play. Undercooked script, due to time pressures. Like they say in "Jerry McGuire": it ain't "show friendship. It's show business."

2) The direction. Mark Forster ("Monster's Ball") simply is shit at action direction. The stuntwork is some of the best ever committed to film, but the editing sucks big time. Too much Bourne-ish "shakicam"(no complaint with borrowing from current action tropes: Bond has always done that, and anyone who initials his lead character "J.B." can't complain about being borrowed from. Jason Bourne. Jack Bauer. We understand the game."

But that ultra-close work is intended to convey confusion and chaos. In small doses, it's an excellent approach. Just too much of it here. Bond is master shots, letting you see and understand what you're seeing. Even the chaotic stock car race in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was easier to understand than this. Do these problems completely sink the movie? No. In fact, I can still see clearly where the series is going, and feel it to be in good hands. But they are dis-assembling a formula that has worked like gangbusters for 40 years. Not surprising that they would run into problems.

That said, it has one of the few moments in a Bond film to give me genuine chills: when the nature of the "Quantum" organization is revealed at an opera performance, you realize that MI6 is up against a neural net rather than a hierarchical structure like "Spectre". No Blofeld with a cat here. Can't just drop one guy down a smokestack to solve THIS one. This may be a threat beyond any organization's ability to control. But Bond is only controllable by the tiniest of threads--he is a homicidal sociopath reigned in by NOTHING other than his sense of duty and maternal affection for "M." This is exactly what we'd need against a threat like that the 21st century offers. Pierce Brosnan in a dinner jacket just wouldn't cut it.

Every Bond movie is about the same thing: the revelation that the dinner jacket is just a costume. The real man is a killing machine, the deadliest commando in the world. But when you START with that reality, the movie has nowhere to go. And "Quantum," to a disturbing degree, went nowhere. Damn you, WGA!

A real disappointment joined to genuine exhilaration at what is ahead. "Quantum" is a failure, but a seriously worthwhile one. Compared to, say, "A View To a Kill"--which succeeds at what was better left undone. I'll give it a "C", with real pleasurable anticipation for what is about to come.