Review of Quantum of Solace (2008) by Victor T — 15 Nov 2015

After the insane success that "Casino Royale" was, expectations were high to see what would be the follow-up to the series reboot, and the answer is the hated and rushed "Quantum of Solace".

After the events of "Casino Royale", 007 is looking for answers and vengeance.

To be honest "Quantum of Solace" was the first time that I genially felt disappointed in a movie theater, and sadly revisiting years latter didn't changed my mind about it. "Quantum of Solace" counts with beautiful locations, some interesting action ideas that are brutal on paper, Craig's performance is again tragic and down to Earth, a solid Bond girl, and the story is interesting enough to keep you somewhat interested. As you can see, there is few greatness in this film and that's because this film is desperate. In the first 5 minutes you can see the problems of this film: The story is predictable and desperate to continue the story of "Casino" (which is peculiar for a Bond film to be a direct sequel), Marc Foster´s directing shows his inexperience with action as he decided to make a Bourne rip-off, the amount of action sequences is unnecessarily high (Bond is a secret agent, not an indestructible 80s action star), the editing is nausea inducing, most of the action sequences are extremely poorly shot to the point you don't even understand what is going on, the Bond theme is solid song but it isn't a Bond theme (in fact it is a little awkward when you compared it to the entire film), it tries to pay homage to some of the previous instalments but they feel forced, the cinematography is extremely overdone to the point of distracting you from what's happening on the screen, the supporting characters come and go, the villain is forgettable and not a worthy antagonist to 007, and they tried to retell "License to Kill" but it is quickly thrown out the window for more over the top action sequences (I haven't seen action so over the top, forced and ridiculously shot since "Mission Impossible 2") .

"Quantum of Solace" is a serious downfall for the franchise. It has its moments but it is frustrating, forgettable, and unnecessarily violent. While it isn't the worst of the franchise, it is undeniably the worst of the Craig era.