The story is there, let’s get on with the action!
Quantum of Solace starts where Casino Royale left off with the injured Mr. White. Bond brings him in for questioning with the assistance of M and MI6. What MI6 finds out is alarming, as Mr. White is part of a larger, lesser-known group of world-wide criminals. From this point on, Bond tries to uncover what this group is doing, who they comprise of and what can be done to stop them (if anything). Along the way, he discovers distrubing things such as the CIA is in cahoots with the mysterious group and they’re helping to allow a change of government in Bolivia. With all this going on, Bond has to take care of this business and finally (hopefully) resolve his feelings for Vespir.
I can understand why so many critics were mixed about this movie. Truly it was for the people who had watched the first one, and not a stand alone. For so many years, Bond movies have always been individualized, though the group SPECTRE always seemed to finds its way into the early and semi-early films. So, with that said, it doesn’t do well as a movie if you’ve not experienced the first. Of course having said that, you then have to ask yourself why you haven’t seen Casino Royale (which is still my favorite Bond film of all-time — and yes I’ve seen them all). Anyway, if you have seen the first then you’ll certainly find yourself completely immersed in the second one. It’s pure action and it’s quite non-stop.
Paul Haggis’ screenplay demands revenge and is unforgiving in its methods. He designs Bond in this film as the last hoorah of Bond’s true emotional being. He makes the character into a ‘cold hearted bastard’ and resolves it at the end. It’s an amazing capping of the same character in the first film. Now, what most critics won’t admit to, because they are forced to individualize the films, is that Haggis did what he thought was appropriate to develop the character. He simply separated one gigantic story into two, so nothing was rushed. People wanted some sort of character resolution in the first film, but cleverly Haggis didn’t want to simply wrap it up at the end of Casino Royale, he wanted to take his time. I don’t fault him for this at all because it was the right way to go. I wanted to see the conclusion of Bond’s character from the first film. I wanted to see this entire backstory of Vespir and the unveiling of this mysterious group. These things could not have been successfully unfolded in the first film. There isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Haggis could have, or should have, included this information in Casino Royale. It would have seemed way too rushed. I’m happy with what Haggis has written and what direction Marc Foster took to show it. This movie was by all intent and purposes was pure emotion driven action that doesn’t let up until the end and finally concludes the other half of the story.
Going solo on quality
It’s like this movie was shot for Blu-ray. It was quite amazing to watch such beautiful locales that were colorful and vivid. For instance, the desert at the end didn’t miss a beat when it came to detail. HD makes it all that much better. I can’t possibly understand why people would want to go any other way (other than they can’t afford, which is a damn good reason). Anyway, you get all the wonderful HD look out of the scenery and the locations. The audio is also just as good as the video. I’ve got the luxury of 7.1 in the household, so it sounds out-of-this-world nice. You’ll get every bit of action that the movie delivers and, just like the HD video, you’ll be happy you have Blu-ray because of it.
As for features, here’s what you get:
· Bond on Location” 24-minute special feature
· Start of Shooting
· On Location
· Olga Kurylenko and the Boat Chase
· Director Marc Forster
· The Music
· Crew Files
You get all the features of the Single and Two-disc DVD (no need to reinvent the wheel here), but the bonus is that they’re all in HD (Which do include the theatrical trailer and music video for the theme song). Can’t really beat that, not even with Daniel Craig’s two beautiful fists.