Of all the franchise reboots Hollywood has executed, Bond is so far the best one. Batman is a far second because Batman Begins didn’t have many expectations to exceed after Burton and Schumacher’s celluloid guano. In the long run, Heath Ledger’s Joker will probably hobble The Dark Knight as Jack Nicholson did. We also saw the trailer for Star Trek’s mulligan, I can’t help but be skeptical due to Abrams’ professed ignorance of the subject and reputation for making overrated TV shows.
Enough about “show business” being ruined by accountants.
Quantum makes the radical departure in the franchise with it opening minutes after the ending of Casino Royale so you know Vesper’s recent death is on Bond’s mind. M fears this too which is why she would prefer to remove him from the investigation of Le Chiffre’s mysterious allies. MI6 can’t gamble on an agent, especially one licensed to kill, if he’s motivated by vengeance and grief. Within the second action sequence, M realizes she doesn’t have much of a choice because the enemy is as resourceful as it’s elusive.
Thanks to Le Chiffre’s (traced) money-laundering activities, the trail takes Bond to Haiti, Austria and finally Bolivia. In the last nation, the secretive cabal plans to make its move which becomes a distraction from its ulterior motive. Leading this sinister project is Mr. Greene, publicly known as the CEO of Greene Planet, an ecologically-concerned multinational corporation (there’s a contradiction).
Even without the rapid-fire action sequences, I prefer the Craig movies thus far. The previous films have usually started with a new adventure-menace and Bond always having no remorse, feelings or thoughts over his past girlfriends. Outside of the early Connery films, you can watch them in any order without it really mattering. (Did the events before or after The Spy Who Loved Me have any affect on Octopussy or Goldeneye?) There are articles out saying the next Craig installment will be something else but it’s too early to say, Quantum has only be out for roughly a month. Regardless of when the story picks up in a couple years, his portrayal of Bond is not only closer to Fleming’s gritty, violent books but he makes the character’s flaws credible. An easy example is when Bond kills a minor operative of Greene-Le Chiffre’s conspiracy. M ordered him to capture the guy for interrogation. Instead a nasty, clumsy brawl results and concludes in the suspect’s accidental “termination” yielding no useful leads. Back when Moore or Brosnan played the role, the flunky squealed a vital clue, died in an amusing manner and Moore/Brosnan closed with a pun.
Another important tradition of Bond was the song: I didn’t like the opening theme by Jack White and Alicia Keys when I initially heard parts of it. Then listening to it in its entirety with the infamous title sequence gave me a more favorable opinion. “Another Way to Die” isn’t as impressive as Chris Cornell’s “You Know my Name,” Tom Jones’ “Thunderball” or Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only.” I do feel it’ll survive being on future compilations unlike a-ha’s “Living Daylights” and it certainly is an improvement over the original plan, Amy Winehouse doing the song.
Obviously, I highly recommend Quantum of Solace. It is Alamo worthy and the local legend heightened the experience by showing the original trailers for the Connery and Moore flicks, the Steve Martin-SNL parody Bullets Aren’t Cheap (Bond as a tightwad), the Duran Duran video for A View to a Kill, Madonna’s awful turn in Die Another Die and several trivia questions covering the series. If you haven’t seen Casino Royale either, watch it first, otherwise, this won’t make any sense in the beginning.
On the ride home, Somara and I had a debate over Craig’s five predecessors. Now we have to hunt them down, have a mini-Bondfest and re-evaluate our scorecards. Right now mine reads this way: Connery 6-0, Craig 2-0, Moore 5-2, Dalton 1-1, Brosnan 2-2 and Lazenby 0-1. Worst movie of them all remains A View to a Kill because Moore at least made some effort in Moonraker.
I gladly welcome your comments. Everyone has an opinion about James Bond.