Quantum of Solace
2008
There isn't much I can write about the new
James Bond film that has not already been covered elsewhere. The Daniel Craig
version of Bond retains minimal continuity from the earlier Bond films. There's
almost no witty dialogue. Q and his gadgets are gone, ditto Moneypenny. There's
no super-villain, just some hypocritical sleazebags trying to make a dishonest
buck in corrupt third world countries. This version of James Bond is not a very
sympathetic character unless one remembers his great deeds of yesteryear. In
fact, if his name were simply changed to Nigel Ludwick, he would be totally
impossible to like if the viewer had not seen Casino Royale, and difficult to
like even with the CR back-story.
I'm not saying it is a poor movie. Many people
prefer this frigid, serious Bond to the jokey Roger Moore version, for example.
It's just not a Bond movie. The entire series has been re-jigged to make 007
into Jason Bourne with a British accent. To that end it is a great travelogue
and a spectacular action picture with plenty of shaky cam work and rapid-fire editing
rather than long tracking shots. Hell, it even has some surprising character
depth. It just doesn't have James Bond in it anywhere.
The nude scene is a nice homage to Goldfinger. After Bond seduces a woman,
the baddies kill her, strip her naked and paint her entire body black with oil.
Bond next sees her dead, naked, and lying on her stomach. Since oil is called
"black gold," one might reasonably call this film Black Goldfinger, except that
such a title would make it sound like it should star Jim Brown, or Richard Roundtree, or
maybe Fred "The Hammer" Williamson. Even with that confusion, "Black
Goldfinger"
might still make more sense than "Quantum of Solace."
Gemma Arterton film clip