The mission: To attend the first screening in the world of Quantum of Solace, writes Sunita Patel.
The venue: cannot be revealed - classified information and all that . . . well, not really. The rendezvous was at the Odeon, Leicester Square, last night.
It was a tough assignment, but someone had to do it. The 22nd James Bond film picks up from where Casino Royale left off - so be prepared to be taken on one hell of a ride. Daniel Craig is back in his second 007 adventure.
But her Majesty’s secret service agent has turned from a loved-up puppy to a ruthless killing machine.
Nursing a broken heart, he is out to seek revenge for the death of his lover Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) with a licence to kill.
This is a fast and furious Bond - high on action and exotic location, but still mean and moody (he still does not care if his vodka martini is shaken or stirred).
For one thing he is too busy punching and kicking the living daylights out of everyone who crosses his path. One of the first scenes sees an angry Bond dripping with sweat in a car chase and sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
“You look like hell. When was the last time you slept?” asks M. There’s no response from Bond. Need I say more.
No-one can be trusted, and no-one and nothing is going to stop the new bullish and brutal Bond from exacting revenge.
There were rumours of a James Bond jinx on the set of Quantum of Solace. Craig was injured twice - first his face was cut and required eight stitches and then was rushed to hospital slicing off the tip of one of his fingers in an action sequence.
Plus two stunt men were hurt in separate car accidents while filming in northern Italy in April.
Hardly surprising given the number of dangerous stunts and explosions in the film, including car and boat chases, plane wrecks and five star hotels being burned to the ground. There is barely time to catch your breath in between some sequences, which leap from one location to the next - blink and you might miss a crucial piece of the jigsaw.
Under the direction of Marc Forster, the film opens with a thrilling Bourne Ultimatum-style roof top chase during the Palio horse race in Siena.
Bond and M (Dame Judi Dench) interrogate Mr White (Jesper Chisternsen), who reveals the organisation which blackmailed Vesper is bigger than he thinks.
Bond’s search for the truth leads him straight to Dominic Greene (French actor Mathieu Amalric), a billionaire environmentalist and the villain of the piece whose green credentials are a mask for his evil plan to control a vital natural resource of an entire continent. And thereafter, enter sexy new Bond girls Camille (Olga Kurylenko) and MI6 agent Fields (Gemma Arterton).
Despite the love scenes and murder, Bond has always been a family-friendly franchise. But not this one. Given the level of violence, it is not really the kind of film you would take the kids to see.
It is Bourne without the depth. And while it keeps you on the edge of your seats, at the end of the day, it is nothing more than a sequel - albeit compelling and gritty.
This latest offering is not as groundbreaking as the 2006 prequel. Living up to success of Casino Royale was always going to be a tall order.
4 Comments
If you are under the impression that Bourne had any depth, might I suggest another line of work other than writing film reviews.
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I have just seen a screening of this movie and I can assure you that The Bourne Movies have much much more depth than Quantum I’m afraid…
After C. Royale this is an extreme disappointment
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i went to see Quantum Of Solace this morning, first of all i felt that the lack of advertising and QOS documentaries during the build-up to this film was noticeable compared with Casino Royale’s eagerly anticipated arrival, this is mainly due to the fact that Casino Royale was a re-invention of the Bond franchise, with a new 21st century bond and a completely different take on the 46 year old saga, however Quantum of Solace was simply meant to be another addition to the bond film collection and lacked any new twists or ambitions to revitalise the franchise; so compared with casino royale, QOS was considered “boring” by many documentary makers.
Despite the lack of a decent build-up (which we had become acoustomed to with previous films) Quantum of Solace does not fail to deliver on the action/adventure front, it explodes onto our screens with an explosive car chase along the banks of Lake Garda, and the action does not end there with many high octane thrills from an explosive boat chase in Cuba to free-falling thousands of feet from a stricken aircraft; a scene which in particular takes me back to the classic Roger Moore bond movies of the 70’s.
During Casino Royale we see Bond become the confident, sophisticated, 00 that has survived nearly five decades of cinema, and in Quantum of Solace we see a different Bond to the one that graced our screens two years ago he is harder, tougher and certainly shure of himself.
But is this a proper Bond movie?… well it has the cars, the girls, the bad guys, the locations and the music (not to mention a fantastic title sequence) however it lacks the warmth of a true Bond film and i put this down to two things - 1) the classic Dr No Bond theme is not in the films soundtrack during any parts. 2) the gun barrel sequence is not till the very end. This may sound extremely geeky but it does have an affect on the viewer, when you go to see a Bond movie you expect Action and amazing locations aswell as the Bond villians and girls, but you also expect a classic rounded edge wich i feel this films does not entierley offer as much as previous films.
My verdict is that Quantum of Solace is up to the standard of any high budget action/adventure film however it is not to Bonds true standard. This film will not in anyway affect the franchises popularity but Craig as a two more bond films in his contract, and the Bond franchise are very good at learning from their mistakes so basically, Bond 23 can only get better.
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Pants.
Weak not of the standard i would now expect from a big budget film,
There was something missing..like a sexy muscled Bond..
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