Quantum of Solace [Blu-ray] | DVD Review

While worldwide audiences ate up Daniel Craig’s second stint as Bond, film critics weren’t as high on a product that, until film 23 comes out, will be known as the “middle film” or filler. A Blu-ray viewing makes one appreciate the stunt work, sound and special effect departments, but even cranking up the volume can’t hide the numerous turn-offs.

We’ve heard of eco-tourism before, but Bond 22 proposes that the next wave of branded fear will come via eco-terrorism, where the world’s bad apples are plotting to control the planet’s water supply one South American riverbed at a time. Since there are hints of this factually occurring in a non-fictional world it is hard to dismiss the oddly titled Quantum of Solace as an exaggeration of the facts, but exaggeration seems to be commonplace in so many other areas in the franchise’s unique sequel. Coming across as a pointless, middle, filler film of a trilogy that on appearance has yet to be determined, Marc Forster works with this long cookie crumb trail premise that fails as a revenge film and as a qualified successor to Casino Royale/ Fans might feel more scorned than the long trail of victims in this substandard take on 007.

Occurring moments after Vesper Lynd’s tragic end, Craig’s Bond which was for the first time presented as a layered, complex, and more appealing character in the previous film, is presented as a fistful of cold with no emotion and a take no prisoners vendetta. It feels like after giving Bond an “identity” that they set the figure up as a “Bourne” caricature. Rife with very little backbone, Neil Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis’ underwhelming screenplay is heavy in action elements but it lacks a narrative refinement with a dumb environmentalist terror plot, a secret agent infiltration that would hardly seem feasible in the secret agent world being the reasons why Bond receives a paycheck. Along with the main denouement which about as interesting as an episode of television’s Amazing Race, Bond’s personal rogue mission he undertakes are less interesting because of the extra baggage in an exotic-looking bond girl of a new archetype in Olga Kurylenko’s Camille. Her character could have been what Judi Dench’s M character was in her yesteryear, but this ultimately becomes a throwaway character where audiences will care very little about her plights much like the film never makes Mathieu Amalric’s antagonist character into a real threat.

After stripping the franchise from the elements that anchored it down as in gadget-overload, tacky one-liners, facile bed-partners and over-zealous villains, the film feels further depleted to the point where Forster doesn’t even allow viewers to enjoy the film’s biggest selling point: the action sequences. Here the brawls by hand, land, wheels and sea are chopped into a rapid succession of quick edits – you’ll need to have guzzled a couple of Red Bulls to keep up, or even care. If the fist fights were scaled down and the plotline wasn’t concerned in bringing the viewer into more locales, then the turmoil, whether interior or more demonstrative would have better expressed how the hero is haunted by the choices he made in his past. With Royale, we can think back fondly to five or six standout scenes from previous effort, apart from a night at the opera sequence that visually pans out, with Solace we find that the pathway of a man wanting revenge is tedious, not so calculated and not dark enough. This one goes off the cliff in more than one sense.

“Another Way to Die” Music Video
Disc 1 attaches a music video featuring Jack White and Alicia Keys in a forgetful Bond theme song.

Bond on Location” 24-minute special feature
When making a big budget film you want to keep the cameras rolling to document the process. The Blu-ray extras in this disc account for a lousy half dozen features where both quality and quantity acount for very little…basically it could have easily been presented as one document. By far, this piece is the more interesting of the batch – only because of its utility, length and fact that it takes you to the behind the scenes shoots in Panama, Bolivia, and Italy. The producers found it okay to include a pat themselves on he back piece about making changes for the impoverished communities….paint jobs and potties installed. Give me a break.

Start of Shooting
(2:56) Useless intro.

On Location
(3:13) Useless tidbit.

Olga Kurylenko and the Boat Chase
(2:15) P.R, feel good piece about the Russian actress provides little insight on regiment needed for her work.

Director Marc Forster
(2:45). Zero insight in the difficulties of coming on board the Bond franchise.

The Music
(2:37) The process of adding a score to a film is given exactly 157 seconds of thought.

Crew Files
An exhaustive (34 person) set of first person interviews with all the crew people from the person financing the film to the nurse of the set who comes equipped with band-aids. It a great primer for a teacher looking to make a film and assign crew positions to a class. Unfortunately, for the most part, the crew doesn’t really take you into the tools needed for the trade.

Those who want to add to their Bourne Blu-Ray collection should go out and grab this Bond title. Those who expect a great follow up to Casino Royale will have to not suffer in silence, but instead, suffer with loud thuds, screeches, breaking glass and explosions.

Movie rating – 1.5

Disc Rating – 2