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Released by: MGM/Fox
Released on: 3/24/2009
Director: Marc Forster
Cast: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Judy Dench, Mathieu Amalric, Giancarlo Giannini, Jeffrey Wright
Year: 2008
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The Movie:
There's only one love scene. Q is nowhere to be seen and there's nary a gadget in sight. The dialogue is almost entirely 'wise crack' free and a lot of people wind up dead. Bond is back, and he's pissed! Quantum Of Solace takes the leaner, meaner James Bond that we met in Casino Royale and picks up his story pretty much immediately where that last chapter left off.
Bond (Daniel Craig) has just caught Mr. White (Jesper Christianson) and is in the midst of a nasty car chase. He makes it to the MI6 safehouse and let's White out so that M (Judy Dench) can interrogate him about his secret organization but there's a mole in their midst and some of M's trusted agents turn out to be crooked. A fight ensues and soon enough Bond is on the trail of some tagged dollar bills that have wound up in Haiti and that might tell Bond and M how MI6 got infiltrated. M is unsure of Bond's stability, thinking he's out on a mission of revenge to get back at those who killed his girlfriend, Vesper, but he insists he's doing his duty.
Once in Haiti, he starts to put a few clues together and winds up on the trail of Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) with some initially reluctant help from a Bolivian secret service agent named Camille (Olga Kurylenko) who wants revenge against General Medrano (JoaquíŒn Cosio), the man who killed her parents. As Bond's mission leaves more and more dead bodies in its wake, M has no choice but to call him back in and put a stop to his violent ways, but Bond knows he's on the right track and is bound and determined to finish this mission, even if it means going rogue and pissing off both the C.I.A. and the British Secret Service along the way…
The action set pieces - shoot outs, car chases, boat chases, and an exciting airplane chase - ensure that the action moves at a very brisk pace indeed (this is the shortest Bond film to come along in a long time) and director Marc Forster doesn't waste any time getting right to the point. While you could argue that the movie is short on character development and that by removing the more fantastic aspect that the series is known for form the picture you've neutered the character, in reality, it just makes for a more exciting film. Bond isn't all that interested in romance this time around, though he can't say no to a quickie with a fellow Secret Service named 'Fields' (Gemma Arterton of RockNrolla) - he's out to get the job done, and enjoying himself comes second.
Quantum Of Solace works really well as a self contained story but at the same time does a great job of following up the events shown in Casino Royale and setting up the next chapter by dropping some interesting vague hints and establishing a 'bigger picture.' The story is definitely more action-centric than previous Bond movies have been, allowing Craig to strut his stuff and use his slick and intimidating screen presence very effectively. His back and forth with Dench's M, unsure just who she can trust at this point in the game, definitely feels in keeping with the Bond we've seen before but this time around, whether he'll admit it or not, revenge definitely does play a big part in his motivations. Bond's initially tenuous relationship with Camille provides most of the film's requisite sexual tension with the more experienced older man playing mentor to the younger woman - they're both after the same thing in this film, even if they've got different reasons for wanting it and different people to answer to. It adds an interesting dynamic to the two central protagonists, one which the smolderingly sexy Kurylenko (who played similar femme fatale types in both Hitman and Max Payne) and the tough looking Craig handle very well.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Quantum Of Solace is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.40.1 in a strong 1080p AVC encoded transfer. Contrast levels look perfect, color reproduction is gorgeous and the black levels are deep and strong throughout. Skin tones look lifelike and natural and there are no problems at all with print damage worth noting. Detail levels are great and the color scheme used in the film, which tends to run on the 'hot' side of the spectrum, is replicated very nicely. Close up shots show more detail than medium and long distance shots do and some of the more effects heavy and CGI intensive sequences are a bit soft sometimes (the airplane chase sequence being the best example) but aside from that, the movie really looks great here. While this isn't as mind-blowingly detailed as some HD transfers can be, it does a nice job of 'feeling like film' and the gritty look and feel of the movie is very nicely replicated here.
The 48 kHz 24-bit DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track on this disc is excellent. The surround channels are used very effectively during the many action sequences but never feel like they're going over board. The score is spread out nicely and bass response is strong throughout the film - you'll really notice it during the car chases, the airplane chase and during the shoot outs as well as during the literally explosive finale that takes place at the hotel in the desert. Levels are all properly balanced and dialogue remains crystal clear from start to finish. The sound mix created for this movie is pretty aggressive, there are a lot of fight scenes and shoot outs, more so than in most Bond movies, and plenty of moments where surround usage plays a key part in bringing the action to life - thankfully this mix is more than up to the task. The mix is clean, clear, well balanced and very detailed. Standard definition DTS mixes are provided in French, Spanish and Portuguese and subtitles are available in English SDH, Spanish, Cantonese, Portuguese, Korean and Mandarin.
The lengthiest extra appears in the form of a collection of four Crew Files - Behind The Scenes clips, totaling roughly forty-five minutes in length. This is really just an assemblage of random behind the scenes footage and while there's some nice material in here, it doesn't really provide as much context as it needs and while the running time is high it feels a bit like filler. More worthwhile is the twenty-five minute Bond On Location documentary which features input from Craig and Forster as well as with producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson. This is a fairly standard behind the scenes documentary, allowing the cast and crew to discuss their various roles on the production - it's worth a watch.
From there, there is a selection of shorter bits on the film. Start Of Shooting is a brief two and a half minute segment that explores the first day of the movie's shoot, while Olga Kurylenko And The Boat Chase is a two minute piece that looks at how that impressive chase sequence was put together. On Location is a three minute section on the location shooting that was used in the film while Director Marc Forster is a three minute piece on the director. The Music is two minutes on how the score was created for the film. These are all too short to be of too much value but they're worth watching once.
Rounding out the extras are theatrical and teaser trailers for the feature as well as for a few other MGM/Fox releases, a music video for Jack Black and Alicia Keys' Another Way To Die duet, animated menus, and chapter selection. All of the extra features are presented in high definition. Unfortunately, there's no commentary track provided - it would probably have been pretty interesting to hear Forster and the writing team talk about putting this very different Bond movie together by way of a scene specific talk, but that didn't happen.
The Final Word:
Quantum Of Solace may divide Bonds fans and even disappoint those looking for a film that doesn't deviate from the series' norm but as an action movie first and foremost it is relentlessly exciting and mercilessly lean. The extras aren't too impressive but the audio and video quality are both great and the movie itself definitely delivers.