Review of Quantum of Solace (2008) by Nemanja ? — 15 Aug 2013

I'm not sure that the previous film, Casino Royale, is really complete without the closure brought around in this sequel, and if you haven't seen that one you can't truly understand this one. I truly enjoyed the development of the character of Bond in this movie. To be sure, I do still enjoy a little more swaggering, ironic humor with my Bond, but this movie goes a long way toward creating a new kind of Bond - one who doesn't just sleep with all the ladies and shoot up the bad guys, but one who has some humanity, some background, some motivation other than loyalty to the Crown and addiction to adrenaline.

The traditionally never-changing M goes through an emotional story arc in these two movies also, going from suspicious of Bond's every move to trusting him completely. We get to see a bit of M's personal side, too, with several scenes in the two movies occurring in her home, even while she is drawing water for her bath. She even narrowly escapes being killed in the field once. M is becoming more of a player in the drama than the character has always been; traditionally that role has mostly been there to tell Bond what his mission was and to wish him good luck, and to sometimes shake his hand at the end. It's good to see Bond as more of a player on the team than the lone agent who gets sent out on assignment and never needs anyone except whatever floozy he runs into during his mission.

Despite those enhancements to the formula, this movie feels much more Bond-like than its predecessor, even down to the Bond-in-the-gun-sight visuals at the end. Even the music is more Bond-like. The only thing that is missing is some kind of crazy gadget for Bond to use (but not until the climax of the movie, when all is lost and the only possible solution is the _______ that Q gave Bond an hour and a half ago). After watching Casino Royale, which seemed like an action movie with a character who happened to be named James, this one kind of felt like coming home.