Quantum of Soul Searching is Good (Unless You Have to Pay to Watch It)

Husband. Dad. Dude. Learning Nerd. Misanthrope.

Quantum of Soul Searching is Good (Unless You Have to Pay to Watch It)

17 November 2008 30 views 2 Comments

I don’t know that anything more needs to be said here. I walked in with high expectations after Casino Royale delivered on what could’ve been a pretty boring affair. The opening sequence(s) were pretty awesome, too. And then what followed was the introduction of what COULD HAVE BEEN an awesome huge evil conspiracy — but we never know in this film. Instead, we get a bad guy who would’ve been dispatched by Jaws or Oddjob as a low-level lackey in any other Bond film — I mean, whoever the bad guy was in The Living Daylights had to be a better bad guy than this bad guy. The super-secret organization that he belongs to that is such a big deal when Bond discovers it is freely mentioned publicly in another circle by the same bad guy in another scene later on.

Sure the one-time Bond girl (Fields, which for the record heralds what I hope will be the return of women with metaphoric names for their womanhood in Bond films) covered in oil as an homage to the girl painted in gold in Goldfinger is pretty hot… but in a film where Bond is so obviously just whining within himself as he kills just about everything (but for little purpose) I have no idea why she was there. I’m surprised honestly given how much soul searching Bond was doing in this movie that he just didn’t want to be held and cry it out the whole time.

Anyway, there was great action scenes in the movie (especially the first 20 minutes). I’m pretty frustrated by this movie, though. It’s very uneven. The amount of focus we have (and M has) on how full of rage and angst Bond is over the death of Vesper in Casino Royale really gets me angry. If this Bond is so cool, he should be able to solve his emotional turmoil in-between the last movie and this one. I mean, if it was just revenge, I’d be totally fine watching him wreak irreconcilable justice for two hours. But we’re supposed to care about his inner struggle for forgiveness — and frankly, I didn’t pay to see some arthouse Bond meets Garden State deal. I watch Bond to think about being him — not identifying with him.

So, anyway, the movie wasn’t terrible, but it angered me enough to snap me back into my pre-election snarkiness.

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

2 Comments »

Graham said:

They just couldn’t commit to the movie they wanted to make.

They started making a movie about the great secret conspiracy organization (*cough*SPECTRE*cough*), then realized that they actually needed a plot to conquor the world for Bond to undo, since they wanted to make Spectre last longer than one episode.
But the plot was weak and lazy at best, and then they didn’t leave us with enough about the evil organization to make us hungry for the next movie.
What the hell is Quantum!!!

# 17 November 2008 at 10:51 am

Aaron (author) said:

Exactly, brother! I thought the “quantum” of solace referred to Bond’s insane mass of guilt/hate/love/vengeance. Then they have the audacity to refer to this group as (finger quotes) “Quantum?” And then do NOTHING with it?

I, too, immediately thought this was SPECTRE, which would not only resonate and make sense, but would be awesome — even if it’s just a piece of it. SPECTRE is the most underused asset in the Bond villain arsenal. No cold war? SPECTRE. Terrorism out of vogue (for Bond movies)? SPECTRE. What this film needed was more vast conspiracy reveal, and then frame what actually happens as just one project that Bond caught wind of. Instead, we get this desert in Bolivia (of all places) and a whole completely disconnected trip to Russia to catch up with the ex-boyfriend of your dead girlfriend who gives out the same necklace to all the women he’s with; who may or may not be part of this Quantum thing because it never gets brought up.

I loved the action. I was completely lost on the plot points. I thought the deal in the dessert was way too weak to be the big climax. I hated the emotional resonance stuff.

I fear now that this is the same pattern that Brosnan followed, where Goldeneye kicked ass and everything that followed degraded.

# 17 November 2008 at 11:02 am