<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/quantum-of-solace.jpg\" "\\"Quantum")
<\/div>\nQuantum of Solace<\/a><\/em> (2008)<\/strong> <\/p>\n Story<\/strong>: If you have Casino Royale on DVD, watch it before going. If you don’t (or if you don’t) you will be lost fairly quickly in unexplained motivations, unrecalled characters, and misunderstood motivations.<\/p>\n The movie takes place immediately following CR, and focuses on Bond’s unraveling of the organization stemming from that (a nicely updated Bondian world-wide conspiracy), only to discover that he’s not the only one seeking revenge.<\/p>\n The movie has elements of The Spy Who Loved Me <\/em>(a strong female “spy” role alongside Bond, fighting an ecoterrorist threat) as well as License to Kill<\/em> (Bond goes rogue to avenge a death, dealing with an evil businessman in Latin America). It’s a sign that, despite the franchise’s reboot, there aren’t a lot of new <\/em>new stories to tell in the Bond world, though this one is decent enough. It suffers mostly from being far too dependent on the previous film without actually spelling out in flashback or exposition or something more clever those dependencies.<\/p>\n There are also overly-long fights, and some gratuitous action sequences (why take the DC-3, for example, except to make the ensuing action more exciting). Dead bodies follow Bond like kindling (with some quick homages to Goldfinger <\/em>and some others), and we even get a fight amidst explosions in a futuristic big-set villain’s lair (even if the reason for the setting and the fight remains muddy).<\/p>\n CR’s new Bond was grim and gritty. That continues in QoS, but it doesn’t feel as fresh, and Bond being driven by monomaniacal (yet denying) vengeance gets very single-note after a short while.<\/p>\n When all is said and done, the initial deep dark conspiracy, which begins so promisingly, turns out to be rather shallow and cliche, complete with arrogant Ugly American CIA agents and rather improbable schemes.<\/p>\n Acting<\/strong>: Daniel Craig does well with what he has, but he’s not given much to work with beyond “How I Spent My Summer Vacations Fleeing the Good Guys and Bad Guys Trying to Avenge My Betraying Dead Girlfriend.”<\/p>\n The other actors are decent enough — Judi Dench’s M nearly steals the show, but with that exception there’s not much depth called for, or given. <\/p>\n Production<\/strong>: The action is fast and furious — sometimes too much, as the action scene cuts come so quickly and chaotically that it becomes difficult to follow an action narrative. There are nice touches — some events that take place silently with music in the foreground — but it ends up feeling jagged and unsatisfying.<\/p>\n I wasn’t thrilled with the music in the main titles, but the overall score did some nice Barry-like thematic progressions, as well as pulling from the classic Bond canon.<\/p>\n It’s nice that Daniel Craig’s Bond keeps getting beat up, even if he cleans up a bit too nicely when all is said and done. (Evidently Daniel Craig himself suffered several injuries during shooting.)<\/p>\n There is no Q, and minimal high tech — some spiffy (and distracting) computer interface whizzies and some nice photo-computer composition. And I fear the cause of Hydrogen fuel cells has been pushed back for at least a decade. But most of the movie involves blood and bullets and sweat — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.<\/p>\n Overall<\/strong>: The movie is not one of the better Bond flicks, I fear — the freshness of the reboot has gone a bit stale, the action too choppy, and the story both too opaque and too shallow to really sink the teeth into. I don’t regret going, by any means, but I don’t feel compelled to see it again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On our “enchanted evening” out, Margie and I went over to see Quantum of Solace. I don’t regret the investment of time, but I’m glad it wasn’t the centerpiece of our expedition. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13519,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/23\/some_enchanted_evening_6.html","url_meta":{"origin":13521,"position":0},"title":"Some enchanted evening","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 23-Nov-08 8:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Jim and Ginger,\u00a0Margie's folks,\u00a0were kind enough to suggest that maybe Margie and I might want to go off for an evening while they're here. So Margie drew up some plans...","rel":"","context":"In "Restaurants"","block_context":{"text":"Restaurants","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/food-drink\/food-drink-restaurants"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13168,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/05\/movie_trailers.html","url_meta":{"origin":13521,"position":1},"title":"Movie trailers","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Jul-08 4:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Stuff I saw before Wanted and Hancock, initial impressions, and the likelihood I'll be going to see it. The Mummy: Rise of the Dragon Emperor - More good, rollicking Mummy...","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32524,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/14\/some-enchanted-valentine-evening.html","url_meta":{"origin":13521,"position":2},"title":"Some Enchanted Valentine Evening","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 14-Feb-13 9:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Some very nice champagne.Margie cooking a\u00a0delectable\u00a0meal\u00a0whilst I read love poems to her.A viewing of Ladyhawke during dinner.Dessert, complete with cheesecake, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and petite syrah port.Seems pretty romantic in my book. View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32292,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/23\/i-use-a-quantum-ratchet-now-quantum-ratchets-are-cool.html","url_meta":{"origin":13521,"position":3},"title":"I use a quantum ratchet now. Quantum ratchets are cool","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Jan-13 9:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"I just love the phrase \"quantum ratchet.\" \u00a0Plus, cool weird science.Reshared post from +Ars Technica Embedded Link A magnetic quantum ratchet made of graphene turns AC to DC Graphene's orbitals shift to allow current to flow in only one direction. Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5622,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/10\/some_enchanted-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":13521,"position":4},"title":"Some Enchanted Evening","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-Feb-04 8:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"A yummy Margie-cooked dinner (seasoned ground sirloin with sauteed mushrooms and onions). An episode of Firefly (\"Jaynestown\"). A new Dork Towers collection. A bit of late evening snuggling with my...","rel":"","context":"In "Firefly \/ Serenity"","block_context":{"text":"Firefly \/ Serenity","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-fireflyserenity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45121,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/11\/rt-badastronomer-a-quantum-w.html","url_meta":{"origin":13521,"position":5},"title":"RT @BadAstronomer: A quantum w…","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Sep-14 11:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"RT @BadAstronomer: A quantum wavefront walks into a bar. It says to the bartender, \"Man, I've been *everywhere* today!\" and collapses.","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13521\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n Overall<\/strong><\/td>\n ![](\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg\" "\\"Fair")
<\/td>\n Story<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n Production<\/td>\n <\/td>\n Acting<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n