Brief thoughts on Quantum of Solace
We saw QoS on the opening Saturday. I have a few thoughts about it...
The first half was pretty good, but the second was not at all. It had problems with pacing, disjointed edits, and a disappointing ending. In fact, it wasn't even clear that it was the final battle, and then it was over. I understand that battling the main villain is the finale, but the fight lacked credibility, especially when much work has been done to establish more realistic fight scenes with this version of Bond (more on that later). And to have the villain all of a sudden turn into a rabid axe-weilding howler monkey was silly.
The major problem with this movie is that it lacked several key Bond movie elements. The biggest omission is no Q or gadgets. No trademark henchman for Bond to deal with. No opening scene where Bond accomplishes something tricky, kicking off into the main theme song. I do understand that as a sequel to Casino Royale, they put Bond in revenge mode and thus there was less of a place for cheeky innuendo. While they did exercise restraint and kept his relationship with Camille platonic, he did sleep with Strawberry Fields, so that dashes the whole lets keep Bond dark thing. Have to say I liked how they showed the darker side in that little bit where Bond gives Camille advice about killing someone.
While many of these things often add to the cheesiness factor, that's okay, because that's part of what makes a Bond movie a Bond movie. Without them, it may as well be another old spy movie.
Back to the thing about missing gadgets, what I did like about QoS is that without the gadgetry, the action and film style were more realistic, which I think went a long way in further establishing the sort of Bond that Craig will be. Looking back to something like Die Another Day, where some of the effects with the Sun laser were too over the top and cheesed out, it was nice to not have to think about whether that last thing Bond did was realistic enough. For the record, I thought all the stuff with Bond's car in Die Another Day was well done.
Finally, I was glad to see the major Bourne influence in the new Bond's fighting style. (I do have a personal bias wrt the Bourne movies, as Matt Damon was trained in Kali-a Filipino martial art style. :) I think we'll see more of this influence in other movies, certainly not at the bandwagon level of Matrix/wirework, but you'll see it.
Oh, one more thing, I thought it was good that they made it about water instead of oil, giving exposure to what could be one of the big problems in the near future. Did have a small Dune moment when they discovered the hidden cache underground. :) Was disappointed that they didn't reveal more information about the secret network/society, but I'm sure that's a setup for an arc that could span the next few movies.
I don't know what rating I'd give this movie, maybe 8.5 for the first half and 5.5 for the second?
eta: Oh yeah, no Moneypenny either. wtf?!
The first half was pretty good, but the second was not at all. It had problems with pacing, disjointed edits, and a disappointing ending. In fact, it wasn't even clear that it was the final battle, and then it was over. I understand that battling the main villain is the finale, but the fight lacked credibility, especially when much work has been done to establish more realistic fight scenes with this version of Bond (more on that later). And to have the villain all of a sudden turn into a rabid axe-weilding howler monkey was silly.
The major problem with this movie is that it lacked several key Bond movie elements. The biggest omission is no Q or gadgets. No trademark henchman for Bond to deal with. No opening scene where Bond accomplishes something tricky, kicking off into the main theme song. I do understand that as a sequel to Casino Royale, they put Bond in revenge mode and thus there was less of a place for cheeky innuendo. While they did exercise restraint and kept his relationship with Camille platonic, he did sleep with Strawberry Fields, so that dashes the whole lets keep Bond dark thing. Have to say I liked how they showed the darker side in that little bit where Bond gives Camille advice about killing someone.
While many of these things often add to the cheesiness factor, that's okay, because that's part of what makes a Bond movie a Bond movie. Without them, it may as well be another old spy movie.
Back to the thing about missing gadgets, what I did like about QoS is that without the gadgetry, the action and film style were more realistic, which I think went a long way in further establishing the sort of Bond that Craig will be. Looking back to something like Die Another Day, where some of the effects with the Sun laser were too over the top and cheesed out, it was nice to not have to think about whether that last thing Bond did was realistic enough. For the record, I thought all the stuff with Bond's car in Die Another Day was well done.
Finally, I was glad to see the major Bourne influence in the new Bond's fighting style. (I do have a personal bias wrt the Bourne movies, as Matt Damon was trained in Kali-a Filipino martial art style. :) I think we'll see more of this influence in other movies, certainly not at the bandwagon level of Matrix/wirework, but you'll see it.
Oh, one more thing, I thought it was good that they made it about water instead of oil, giving exposure to what could be one of the big problems in the near future. Did have a small Dune moment when they discovered the hidden cache underground. :) Was disappointed that they didn't reveal more information about the secret network/society, but I'm sure that's a setup for an arc that could span the next few movies.
I don't know what rating I'd give this movie, maybe 8.5 for the first half and 5.5 for the second?
eta: Oh yeah, no Moneypenny either. wtf?!