Quantum of Solace : James Bond 007

By Sean Lynch
Review : Quantum Of Solace

Quantum of Solace : James Bond : 007

There have already been some enormous movies in 2008: Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Narnia, Sex And The City - hell, even Kung Fu Panda raked in the cash.

But when it comes to big movies... there is only one name which causes the sort of anticipation in audiences to make the boys to cheer and girls to quiver. And I'm not talking about The Dark Knight.

It's Bond. James Bond.

The countdown has begun to one of the most anticipated sequels in the Bond series ever. Quantum of Solace is the 22nd James Bond film, due for worldwide release in November.

The follow up to the phenomenally successful franchise reboot, Casino Royale (which took over $590M worldwide - the most of any Bond film), is directed by Marc Forster (who took over from Roger Michell mid-way through production) and features Daniel Craig's second ever performance as the infamous James Bond.

Also returning this time around are Casino Royale writers Robert Wade, Neal Purvis and Paul Haggis, with newcomer Joshua Zetumer also throwing in his two cents. Meaning we can expect everything that made Casino so damn fresh (well, fresh if you completely ignore the existence of the Bourne trilogy).

Quantum of Solace follows Bond as he battles the evil Dominic Greene (played by the odd looking Mathieu Amalric), a member of the Quantum organisation posing as an environmentalist, who intends to stage a coup d'état in Bolivia to take control of its water supply.

Bond is, of course, seeking revenge for the death of Vesper Lynd and is assisted by the latest Bond gal Camille (Olga Kurylenko), who also wants to kill Greene.

The beauty of this movie is not simply that the title was chosen from an unrelated short story in Ian Fleming's "For Your Eyes Only", but moreso the fact that the writers have eluded to the fact that Solace kicks off exactly one hour after the conclusion of Casino Royale.

While the name is the same, this is a completely new era of Bond. And much like the first film, there is bound to be discussions over whether the new direction is good or bad. 

Sure, now the franchise is a lean, mean, realistic and broad genre action piece - but it defies every aspect of why we loved 007 in the first place.

Everything is new and nothing will ever be "as they were" - especially after production designer Dennis Gassner took over from Peter Lamont (who retired after working on eighteen Bond films).

That said, it's a new world out there. A world which won't stand for cheesy double entendres, nor ridiculously over the top stunts (did anyone else notice the poor response both Die Hard 4 and the new Indiana Jones films got because of that exact reason?). 

So perhaps it is time that we all embrace the fact that the new Bond looks like a villain from an old Bond movie and just simply... move on.

Whether traditionalists like it or not - Quantum Of Solace is most certainly here to shake, not stir, things up.

QUANTUM OF SOLACE explodes into cinemas November 27, 2008.