BY ELLEN ZENG
As far as action movies go, Quantum of Solace was adequate. Most of the good parts from past Bond movies turned up: lavish opening credits (including silhouettes of giant nude women in sand – I’m not kidding), M, beautiful Bond babes (yes, he does sleep with one of them), exotic locales, and an ending scene with explosions galore. The Villian, played by Mathieu Amalric, was not very memorable, but sufficiently creepy. The plot (does plot even matter in a Bond movie?) was interesting, but not terribly intriguing.
Quantum, at its heart an action movie, does not disappoint visually. From beginning to end, Daniel Craig’s Bond goes from one scrape to another. Car chases, boat chases, helicopter chases, and just ordinary man chases all make an appearance. The camera work in some chase scenes was a bit too shaky, and gave me tinges of a headache. That said, I particularly enjoyed the movie’s little touches, such as a cop in the opening car scene noting the brand of the cars (two Alfa Romeros and an Aston Martin). This knowledge makes their destructions all the more poignant.
As you can probably tell, I’m not a huge Bond fan, but I do enjoy watching old Bond movies. Unlike its predecessors, Quantum stresses both continuity in plot and character. Building on the plot development from Casino Royale, this newest installment follows right where the first movie leaves off. In this movie, we find out more about the shadowy organization that is supposed to be really ruling the world. Bond also works out his angst over the death of his love in the first movie. Unfortunately, Quantum does not adequately fill the audience in on what happened in Casino Royale, which at times left me puzzled as to what exactly was going on (who was Rene Mathis?). I definitely recommend reading a summary of Casino Royale before watching Quantum (or at least watching the preview).
All and all, Quantum was an enjoyable one and a half hours of escapism. Don’t expect too much (meaning) and you’ll have a great time.