Monday, November 17, 2008

Quantum of Awesomeness

Don't believe the "Bond Traditionalists" and their negative hype. Quantum of Solace was great. The whole "James Bourne" line of complaints is just plain lame. Sure, there were a few stylistic elements that were similar. Most notably, the editing of some of the action sequences. Guess what, that is bound to happen when an editor from Bourne Supremacy also edits Quantum of Solace. Deal with it. I could continue to rant about the "Bond Traditionalists" but I am going to stop here. I don't want to let their Negative Nancy attitudes ruin a perfectly good movie going experience. Instead I will briefly list a few of the things I liked:





  • The Bolivian desert was the perfect setting for the revenge theme of the movie and where Bond was at emotionally.
  • Judi Dench was excellent.
  • I thought the run time was perfect. It didn't feel too long which was one of my only complaints about Casino Royale.
  • The opening car chase was off the heezy fo sheezy.
  • I thought the two vengeance story lines came together quite nicely.
  • The two Bolivian hotels were amazing.
  • Absolutely loved the opera scene. My favorite shot from the movie took place at the opera. It was the low/wide angle shot when Bond and a group of villains walked into the same room. Bond on the left and the villains on the right. It was just a glimpse but it was perfect.
  • Daniel Craig.
The best way to sum up my opinion is that I really like the new direction of the Bond franchise with Daniel Craig. I feel like it is Bond for adults as opposed to Bond for teenage boys. I like the grittiness and I like the tragedy.

So if you are a "Bond Traditionalist" you probably won't enjoy Quantum of Solace like I did. If you prefer the more mature version of Bond as established with Casino Royale, than you will probably enjoy Quantum of Solace. Choose accordingly.

1 comment:

lybberty said...

I like the new Bond style--following in the footsteps of other films which have also opted for "gritty" re-boots.

I also really liked the action sequences. They were fantastic.

I did not like the story. I thought it was too complex and at times, completely nonsensical. Try reading, for example, the QofS wikipedia entry and following all the different threads of the story.

The overall arc of the film--two characters dealing with issues of revenge and redemption--that was awesome. But the way it played out? It could & IMHO, should have been simpler and shorter.

Then there were quotes like this from the villain:

"After all, we can't let governments just keep giving resources to the people, yes?"

As Ace (of Spades) points out, it was left-wing in the extreme--and needlessly so, too.

I agree with you more than I disagree--in sum--on these points:
- incredible action: one of the best collection of action sequences in a single film
- great overall story arc (that got wasted when they fleshed it out)
- Daniel Craig is a fantastic Bond.
- prefer new Bond over old Bond, and this is coming from a long-time fan.
- cinematography was incredible.

Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.