Quantum of Solace (2008)

Plot: Picking up directly where Casino Royale left off, Bond (Daniel Craig) kidnaps Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) to get information about the events that lead to Vesper's death. What he get is a shadowy organization tied up with ecopreneur Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), deposed Bolivian dictator General Medrano (Joaquín Cosio), and Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman on her own quest for revenge. A quest that M (Judi Dench) would prefer Bond put on hold.

Let me just tell you this right now: Jack White and Alicia Keys should never sing together ever again. Separately I like their voices, but together it's horribly, insufferably sharp. What a terrible fusion of styles. In trying to remember the song in order to describe it to you here, I wound up with Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" instead. It's better that way.

I forgot this movie. The very next day, I walked into the office and thought, "Wait, what did I do last night?" That's how little an impact it had on me. I was so excited for the reboot and liked it so much that maybe I set myself up for disappointment. But the buzz wasn't very good and a co-worker specifically detailed his problems with the movie for me, so maybe I wasn't it. All I know is that the movie is treading water.

At what point are we going to get to the real Bond? Sure, I celebrated the thug with icy menace in his glare last time around, and I still do. I still love that Craig makes him feel like not only someone who could kill you with his bare hands but also probably will. And just for funsies. It's his favourite approach to problem solving (Malcolm solves his problems with a chainsaw/And he never has the same problem twice). What I wonder is when we are going to get past this malcontent who doesn't care what he's drinking and barely pauses for seduction. It's supposed to be fun to be Bond.

It's a toss up whether screenwriter Paul Haggis (co-writing with Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and an uncredited Joshua Zetumer) or director Mark Foster is more responsible for the inert, in between feeling that this movie produces. Foster filmed the chases and fights in that shaky, handheld, Paul Greengrass-style that makes it difficult to tell what's going on (especially when most of the key players don't have heads. Is it hard to find convincing stunt doubles nowadays?). On the other hand, Haggis wrote in the foot, car, boat, and plane chases (what's next? Rocket ships?), and he's responsible for the ridiculous dialogue that poor Dench and Amalric are saddled with (No, florist do not say that. No florist would ever say that. Also, "a nice way of saying that everything he touches seems to . . . wither and die?" Withering implies protraction. These people just die, straight up, and it's a little rich, considering the source).

There are still things I do like. I quite like Kurylenko as well as Kurylenko and Craig together. She's smart, pushy, and accesses vulnerability in a childlike way that makes sense with her origins. Amalric is so rad. I love the way he turns on a dime (I love you! I kill you!). And Tom Ford, we owe you a great debt for those impeccably tailored suits.

I don't need gadgets. I like it when things blow up. I don't want to see Bond turned Bourne in a generic actioner. Where is the intrigue? Quantum has been moved into position as the shadowy conspiracy, and the survival of certain key players suggests that they'll be back in future installments. While that's great for Felix (Jeffrey Wright), what does that mean for the rest of the series? Why do I get the feeling that this is only part two of a trilogy? If so, what happens when it ends? B-