Checking off the essential ingredients that make a James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace didn’t disappoint in the hard, fast action department. From the moment the cinema lights go down, the audience is thrust in to an exciting car chase in Siena, Italy, with our hero destroying yet another gorgeous automobile. This time round it’s the stunning, and expensive, Aston Martin DBS. Check one, our hero is in a bit of bother; check two, he’s driving a fancy sports car; and check three, he is not in Kansas. Number four on my list is Bond’s sense of humor, which is sadly lacking in Daniel Craig’s follow up to the superior Casino Royal. Fifth and sixth on my list are two of the most essential Bond movie elements of its 23rd outing: the Bond girl and the villain. I realize that this contemporary Bond movie is trying its best to be a real life story of a spy and Quantum of Solace certainly had me holding my armrests throughout the stunning violence that Bond inflicts and endures. But Bond’s villain, Dominic Greene (Matthew Amalric), the chairman of an ecological organization called Greene Planet, is about as sinister a foe as green salad. We know he’s no match for Daniel Craig’s Bond, who is an impressive killing machine. Disappointing still, is the lead lady and lover of Greene, Camille (Olga Kurylenko). She’s a delicate, skinny victim of a Bond girl who doesn’t even land on her back for the good of Her Majesty’s secret service. Where Vespa Lynd (Eva Green) in Casino Royale was tough, sexy, and intelligent, Camille fails to deliver much of any emotion.
But beside the nit picking, Daniel Craig is the most exciting Bond ever and demands our constant attention. The violence is obvious and has consequences; people are in pain, people scream, and people die. And more importantly, the effects, in most part, are real and more awe inspiring than much of the computer generated garbage we see today. I just wanted more: more humor, more evil bad guys, and an incredible knock-out of a female lead. Imagine Angelina Jolie as a Bond girl and then you know where I’m coming from.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iklZGuiLJVo]
