Wednesday 12 November 2008

Quantum Of Solace: A Mini Review

I read a review of The Kingdom somewhere that said it was like watching a perfectly decent movie with a vibrator strapped to your face.

Well, QoS is like watching Casino Royale in much the same way.

I hope that it is the second part in a trilogy and the overdone Bourne-isms here are an attempt to show that this is the Wrath of Bond. And that, having worked out his anger, he'll continue moving toward a smoother, suaver Bond.

In hardly any of the set pieces is an attempt made to establish the space in which the protagonists are moving or their spatial relation to each other so all the action is pretty much meaningless. Even the Bourne movies made some concession to this and Casino Royale's brilliant Parkour sequence seems oddly old-fashioned by comparison.

QoS is not a bad movie in many ways, but in its attempt to make a "gritty" Bond it has gone a little too far in the gloss removal. As I said, if the subsequent movies justify excesses of this one as a part of the journey then I will feel a whole lot more warmly about it, but for the moment I'm not so sure.

For me the best scene was at the end, it had a stillness and it seemed to rhyme with the opening of Casino Royale. Craig can be genuinely scary in quiet moments.

2 comments:

Peter Verdi said...

So they got rid of all the establishing shots they handled so well in Casino Royale? Shame, really.

Anyway, despite not yet having seen the movie myself, I congratulate you on a very well written review - where did you go see it?

Paul said...

Sorry to be so slow in replying, but:

I saw QoS at the CityPlexxx. So some of my enjoyment may have been ruined by bad projectionists.

As to establishing shots, yeah, it was odd. Action just happened in a fairly arbitrary way. Again it might have felt more arbitrary because we were in the cheaper, closer seats. In the TV spots on Sky, of all places, the film looks less frenetic and more glossy so'll have to reassess when I get the DVD...