Daniel Craig's impressive debut as James Bond in 2006's "Casino Royale" made the veteran spy thriller franchise relevant again.
The phenomenal success of the Jason Bourne series with its emphasis on down and dirty violence had left the suave tuxedo-clad British Secret Service agent looking like something of a dinosaur.
But Craig's retooling of 007 as a muscular man of an action with an animalistic ability to fight and kill demonstrated that there was still room for more than one renegade agent in town.
It also set a very high bar for the follow-up and it's one that Craig and the guardians of the Bond name have failed to clear. Where "Casino Royale" rose to meet the challenge of the Bourne franchise QUANTUM OF SOLACE appears content at times to simply imitate it. There's no disputing that QOS is a superficially exciting and action packed viewing experience but it feels like a case of "anything Bourne can do we can do better or - at least - just as well."
To give just one example, early on in the story there's a death defying chase across rooftops and through apartments in the centuries old Italian town of Siena which brings to mind a very similar pursuit in Tangier in "The Bourne Ultimatum."
At the heart of both films is a man expertly trained to suppress his emotions, channelling his grief over the murder of his girlfriend into an unstoppable lust for revenge. Both are willing and able to kill in violent, messy cold blood to get to the men responsible but it's Jason Bourne who leaves a stronger impression on the viewer. Even if the Bourne franchise had never existed it's unlikely that this twenty second cinematic outing for Ian Fleming's creation will be remembered as one of the great Bond films. It's more "Licence to Kill" than "Goldfinger."
The problem is the story's lack of heart. Bond's career necessarily precludes a large number of close relationships but even those with "M" (Judi Dench) and CIA agent Felix Leiter (Geoffrey Rush) are presented as shallow and perfunctory. The closest that Bond comes to expressing real emotion is the moment when he cradles a dying friend whom he has just used as a human shield. The scene is so unexpected and out of place that it's almost shocking.
Otherwise there is a sense of QOS simply going through the motions of being a Bond film. Car chases? - check; a beautiful Bond girl? - check; M strips Bond of his licence to kill for renegade behaviour? - check; a villain with designs on world domination? - check, and so it goes on. All the essential elements are present and correct but they don't coalesce into a memorable whole.
Mathieu Almaric as Dominic Greene, the head of the shadowy, all pervasive Quantum Organisation is the sleeziest villain in Bond history. But his authority as chief representative of all that is evil in the world is rather undermined by the constant presence of his right-hand man who sports a haircut designed by his mum using nail scissors and a mixing bowl. And Ukrainian supermodel-turned-actress Olga Kurylenko as chief Bond girl Camille Montes is equally uncharismatic.
This wouldn't have been a problem in previous decades when all they were required to do was look alluring and jump in the sack with Bond, but it becomes a problem when they are expected to make an important contribution to the plot's forward motion, and make us care about them as a character.
QOS is definitely not a failure but neither is it distinguished or even particularly memorable. And no, not even after watching it twice, do I understand exactly what the title is supposed to mean!
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