One Thanksgiving holiday tradition is that a whole group of the family goes to a movie and leaves the kids with other family members who don’t mind watching them. This year the tradition got changed a little: now all the kids go to a kids’ movie with their watchers, and the rest of us go to a non-kids movie. And this year that movie was Quantum of Solace.
Let me start by saying: this movie is a lot better than you think…however, you have to go in thinking it’s going to be bad.
It isn’t bad, exactly. The worst thing about the movie is that it thinks it’s smart, and wow is it ever not smart. There are movies that can get away with letting you fill in the details—Syriana, any of the Bourne movies—and you feel smarter because the movie didn’t lead you by the hand through every last bit. Then there’s Quantum of Solace, which lets you fill in the details to the point where you go, “That doesn’t make any fucking sense!”
Too much handwaving, and what you have is an action movie where you’d better not think about anything for more than a moment. It has to have a story, or you’re just watching nice explosions and amazing fight choreography. Mind you: it doesn’t have to be a good story. I’m not expecting Shakespeare. I am expecting something where A –> B –> C, instead of A –> 76 –> @ –> Y9.
For example: why does Bond go to Haiti? It’s the initial start of this adventure, and the explanation given by the MI-6 guy makes no goddamn sense, no matter how you look at it. It sounds very intelligent, but it’s complete gibberish. Bond has to go to Haiti because if he doesn’t, there’s no damn movie.
On the way home we decided our favorite moment of the movie was (spoilers!) the bit involving Miss Fields. Miss Fields is sent from the embassy to babysit Bond in a hotel room and make sure he doesn’t get into any sort of trouble (like killing everyone he comes across, or destroying entire hotels, or any of the things we’ve seen him do up until this point). Bond of course does what he usually does with a pretty girl in a hotel room, and then he leaves the hotel room to get into trouble…and when he finally gets back to the hotel, Miss Fields has been cruelly dispatched (as seems to happen to Bond girls so very frequently). M then chastises Bond, saying that Miss Fields was murdered because of her connection to Bond and it’s all his fault.
Uh, lady? Who in the hell decided that it was a good idea to send a pretty girl to babysit Bond in a hotel room the first place? Sorry, but that responsibility goes straight to the top, so get over yourself already.
There are some incredible action scenes, and I can see why Daniel Craig is clearly going to die filming one of these movies some time before he finishes his contract. But if they don’t work a wee bit harder on giving us a story, no one’s going to freaking care.
Bond is now just an average action movie with the bond name no longer valid. It’s mssing the old Bond character, his comedy, any plot, screenplay or interest.