Today I wanted to do some painting, so I set everything up nicely for a spot of watercolour studies. All the paints were set up, the brushes, the cloth, the props (to start with, a pretty little flower). I was eager to go, mostly because watercolours, if used correctly, can be quite quick and still give decent results. Other times, if you try to rush watercolours, it comes out as one big watery, muddy mess.
Foolishly I decided putting something in the background to watch would be a good idea, and following on from my Bond-ian mood at the moment, I chose Quantum of Solace. As not to get too distracted, I chose an average Bond film, yet soon enough the film grabbed my attention. Suffice to say, not much painting occurred…
So here’s my review – Quantum of Solace…isn’t actually that bad. In fact, it’s quite good. There was a lot of criticism upon the film’s release and I was one of those critics. I really didn’t like the film and to be fair, some of my judgements back then hold up today. Let’s get them out of the way first shall we?
A staple of the Bond franchise – the Bond theme song – was brutally butchered with Quantum of Solace. ‘Another way to Die’ by Jack White and Alicia Keys is just a chore to listen to, and it gets worse when the two sing together. Apart, they’re perhaps bearable but when the two voices combine to create some horrible hissing, screeching monster, that’s where I draw the line. I mean, did anyone actually listen to this before it was released? Paul McCartney, Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones it was not, more like Rita Coolidge and Madonna to me.
The film also lacked any decent editing. That opening car chase? Well yes, it was all very nice and pretty but I didn’t have clue what was going on. In order to create tension and excitement, there needs to be some form of context i.e. how far away Bond is from the enemies, where he is in location to his surrounding etc. (TimeSplitters demonstrates this perfectly.) That wasn’t clear, so what would have been a great opening just evaporated into questioning why things were exploding.
And that editing problem carried on throughout the whole film. Often I wondered why Bond was here or there, what was happening and why. The use of Shaky Cam can partially be blamed, but when key plot points are rushed in order for yet another action sequence, I get a bit frustrated. The first that springs to mind is the whole point about the marked money. That seemed to be cut together to last 30 seconds, and then bam, we’re in Haiti with Bond fighting another person.
There are other smaller problems (ahem…sci-fi desktop touch screen thing) , but any Bond film can include nit-picking material. What I was surprised at by Quantum of Solace was its overall story, including the themes started in Casino Royale – the most obvious being Bond’s relationship with Vesper and his ‘maturity’ being a double-o agent. I like the character’s progression and it’s all dealt with very smoothly, mostly by all his friends and innocents being killed. Poor ol’ Mathis. The scene with his death is very powerful, if a tad cheesy.
There is this idea that the Bond actor’s third outing usually seals the deal with his particular 007, but I’d argue Daniel Craig has performed so well in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, we’re already there. Many argue we need a sprinkle more humour and light-heartedness, probably in the form of Q or Moneypenny and whilst I wouldn’t disagree with this, Craig’s Bond seems perfectly fine without them.
In the two years or so since I last saw Quantum of Solace, the criticism must have grown so much that today I expected it to be a steaming pile of steam (many thanks to Matthew Seales for that vicious insult). Instead, I watched a perfectly acceptable Bond film, filled with a generous scoop of action, tension, emotion and story. It blows Die Another Day out of the water anyway.
Perhaps I should’ve listened to the radio instead. In the 2+ hours I sat there with a brush in my hand, this was all I achieved...
I think I'll try again tomorrow...
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