Cutting right into an epic car chase in the Italian mountainside with cars erupting into flames and barreling down cliffs, Quantum of Solace"" hits the ground running and never stops to breathe.
Picking up where ""Casino Royale"" left off, the story follows James Bond (Daniel Craig) who is seeking revenge for the death of his former-fling, Vesper. After tracking down and then losing the leader of a mysterious organization responsible for Vesper's death, Bond's desire for vengeance puts him at odds with MI6 and just about every other police organization he runs into.
During this mission, Bond crosses paths with philanthropic environmentalist, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who is planning to hoard Bolivia's most valuable resource, water, in order to hold a monopoly of the region. With the help of the brutal General Medrano (Joaquà -n Cosio), Greene begins to sow the seeds of a military coup that will destabilize the government and put the general in charge.
Bond is joined by the lovely Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a former agent who shares 007's desire for vengeance because Medrano killed her family. Together the duo crisscross the globe, hunting down Greene and his companions while simultaneously running from some type of gun-wielding posse.
With car chases, high-altitude plane encounters and close-quarters combat, ""Quantum of Solace"" is an early Christmas present for those who like their explosions big and their action fast. Every scene is heart-poundingly intense and usually leads to the death of several unnamed people with guns.
Unfortunately, after gaining so much momentum with the action, it seems the filmmakers forgot to throw in a plot. Like an episode of ""Lost,"" the story leaves many unanswered questions or rushes through the explanations as it sprints toward the next action sequence.
Screenwriters Paul Haggis and Neal Purvis miss an exciting opportunity to tell the back-story on Vesper and her death, instead taking the film in a direction that fell flat. In the end, many viewers may find themselves wishing this wasn't a sequel, but a brand new movie in itself - having closed the chapter on Vesper with Bond standing over her blackmailer with an assault rifle.
Whereas ""Casino Royale"" offered us a rugged and more realistic Bond, ""Quantum of Solace"" contains the same pitfalls the series had been trying to escape. Once again, Bond has the ability to shoot 50 soldiers without suffering a scratch, survive an exploding a gas tank that destroys a concrete wall behind him and sneak into an enemy compound by hiding behind a rock.
Even the acting suffers. Craig gives an
unemotional performance as Bond even though Vesper's death is supposedly driving his killing spree, and the villains fail to be compelling enough to remain interesting. Worst of all, the ""Bond girls"" fail to impress on multiple levels.
Failing to provide the usual Bond excitement, audiences would be better off putting their $7.50 in the stock market than investing their time in this film.
Grade: BC
