Got a confession to make, my mate dragged me to see it last night & well... all my fears were confirmed.
Mark Kermode pretty much sums up all that's wrong with the film. Of course I would say that as I'm an Exorcist fan & as a result Kermode is my Yoda, but that asides he's bang on.
1. From the start I was worried. The opening car & roof top chases
felt like Bourne, honestly if you walked in on the movie without knowing it was a Bond film you'd probably think you were watching a Bourne flick. Also, regarding the action. It's edited too quickly, Bourne got it just right but QOS goes to far with it & it's hard to know who's hitting who & generally what's going on. This adds to the action feeling like Bourne, cause you can't even see Bond it's edited so quickly.
2. The song sucks, it's got no chorus. I'm not being anti American here but Bond is a British character so it would be nice if the producers stopped sucking up the US audience & let a British act do a song. A stoned out of her tits Amy Winehouse or Duffy would of done a better job.
3. The story is deeply flawed. They go on about it being a revenge movie yet Bond doesn't go after the guy who betrayed his girlfriend, instead he goes after somebody else entirely. This I feel is what undermines the whole movie. What they should of done was have the guy who betrayed Vesper Lynd as the main villian. This would of made a platform for some excellent drama as you could of watched a film where Bond is struggling to do his duty for his country agaisn't his personal desire for revenge. Instead you just get Bond going around killing people, which is boring.
4. The build up to the sex scenes is so riduculas it's actually unbelievable even for a Bond film & it undermines the idea that Bond doesn't sleep around in this film cause he's grieving for Lynd.
5. The action & story do not complement each other. In the best action movies the action & plot are interlinked so they help drive the story on. That way the action has an emotional impact as well as creating cheap thrills. In this film it's like the director was sitting there with a watch clock saying
"Right nothing has happened for 10mins, better blow something up". That is not good enough. :x
What this film reminds me of is a brand new expensive goodlooking TV that you can't get a signal on. Yes, it's expensive, Yes, it looks good but, it doesn't quite work. That sums up everything about this movie, nothing quite works. The title, song, action, story even the change with the iconic Gun Barrel scene, none of it quite works.
What adds insult to injury is The Dark Knight. Both Batman Begins & Casino Royale achieved the same thing. The broke from the past, rejuvenated a franchise & created an amazing film in the process. The problem is everyone expected the sequals to build on these films. The fact that The Dark Knight was able to do this
(spectacularly) makes the failure of the Quantum of Solace that much more disappointing.
This film commited the biggest crime in art for me, it wasted genuine talent. :x
It's not just a bad film, it's an opportunity missed. :-(