The villain in this latest installment is very effective. He’s one of the few, in fact if I’m not mistaken the only, Bond villain to not have some sort of gimmick to his persona. There’s no bleeding eye, no scar, no limp, no white cat; this is just a guy who’s very intelligent, exacting, and who knows what he wants. In that way he’s not the most intimidating of the repertoire of Bond villains, and subsequently not the most memorable, but I liked the way they handled the required “bad guy”. He’s played by Mathieu Amalric, who you may recognise from the absolutely wonderful The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I wouldn’t have mentioned his name before he was chosen but once it was thrown into the mix it just seemed to “click”.
Also in the mix, as it should be, is the Bond girl, this time around played by Ukranian stunner Olga Korylenko. She is, like the villain, perhaps not the most memorable of Bond girls but she fits the role well enough. There’s not a dreadful amount called for with the recurring role and Kurylenko certainly provides the eye-candy necessary to play the character. Along with her there’s a painfully forced side female character played by British relative newcomer Gemma Arterton. She’s in the movie for a very short amount of time; importance is placed on her for some odd reason when she first appears on-screen but she is discarded with as far as story goes far too quickly resulting in the viewer thinking, “What was the point of her?” Fortunately she’s about the only blatantly unnecessary element of Quantum of Solace; at least everything is kept tight throughout with little hindering the fast pace.
However without a doubt the single worst element of Quantum of Solace is the theme song and accompanying opening title sequence. The theme, performed by Jack White of The White Stripes and Alicia Keyes, is loud, annoying, and completely out of place. The title sequence animation, although certainly better than I could ever do myself, is bad compared to the last film and just for what it generally could have been. A solid Bond theme is essential in my eyes and Quantum of Solace has one of the worst of the franchise.
Article comments
1 - Devon Healy
I completely disagree. i thought Quantum of Solace surpassed casino royal in every way. It was much more exciting and the action scenes were incredibly artful. It was awesome!
2 - Patrick
Quantum of Solace was entertaining for sure, but sometimes i got the feeling that the movie was making fun of itself... everywhere pane of glass Bond crosses was broken, he can't get a gallon of milk from the store without it turning into a chase scene, and every time he punches someone in the face, they die
3 - SA
Then you have no sense of good movies what so ever, Devon. Dont get me wrong here, Quantum of Solace is obviously way better than many of the worse bond movies and the high octane car chase and the actions scenes were actually great. But you have to agree, it lacked the classiness of Casino Royale, so yes I have to say, it is a kind of a disappointment.