My Review of "Quantum of Solace"

Quantum of Solace came out back in 2008 that's a full 2 years after the first movie (Casino Royale) came out. I remember not liking this movie as much as Casino Royale but now I have a bit of a change of heart. There are a few things that I thought they did better in this movie than the last and a few things the other way around.

This movie actually starts off right after the events of Casino Royale. I remember when I first saw this movie I was a bit lost. That's because Casino Royale is kind of a forgettable film. It's fun while you're watching it but the details will get lost on you after 2 years for sure.

Watching this movie right after Casino Royale opened my eyes to the story of this movie. There are a lot of nuanced nods to the previous movie that make it a bit of a must watch before watching this one. You may get lost quite easily.

All you need to know is the last act of Casino Royale. Le Chiffre (the main bad guy in that movie) was a patsy and belonged to a much bigger organization that they're trying to figure out. We learn more of the spy (Vesper) that wooed James in that movie. She wasn't all bad she actually bargained to save his life but in the end she died. James seems to be still reeling over her death and can't get over it. There was also so many double crossing in the first movie that James is an incredibly jaded person now.

In this movie the main bad guy is a guy named Dominic. He's trying to buy some land for mysterious reasons from a South American country. Dominic's company appears to be some environmentally friendly corporation doing good for the world but it's really not.

Meanwhile Dominic has a spy love interest named Camille. She's got her own agenda that's separate from everyone's story in this movie. Her family was murdered by a horrible South American dictator who Dominic is courting to purchase the land from. Obviously she's got revenge on her mind.

James is simply trying to get to the bottom of the secret organization Le Chiffre was working for. No one has any idea who they are not even the special intelligence of MI6 that James works for. He's also got a bit of revenge in the back of his head because of the events of Casino Royale.

The movie is obviously shot on a much better camera than the previous movie. Visuals are a lot more clean and there are still many big action sequences. The problem with the action sequences is that horrible shaky camera thing they do for fight scenes. You can't really see exactly what's going on.

I think the videography of this one takes a bit of a step back from the previous movie as they rely on a lot of beautiful landscapes to frame scenes rather than add drama in close quarters.

Just as Casino Royale this movie is fun but it isn't memorable. It's a good thing I'm watching these back to back because I wouldn't remember events that happened in the previous movies so easily. This still gets some marks knocked off because they really relied on the previous movie for this movie to make sense. As a stand alone movie it can be somewhat incomprehensible at the very beginning of the movie if you just start here.

Overall, as long as I had fun it's not too bad. Still this movie feels somewhat like a video game where they have a little plot twist that gets them to each and every action sequence. Though they did have a lot less obvious advertisements. They still had them but it wasn't nearly as bad as Casino Royale. I have to give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. I'm really hoping Skyfall turns out better. I remember liking that one a lot back in the day.