Daniel Craig is back in the 22nd installment of the James Bond series, Quantum of Solace. The story is an action packed tale of revenge, resolution and just plain kicking ass.
Quantum of Solace is not necessarily a sequel per say, but a continuation of Casino Royale. The 2 movies create one big movie that just happened to have a 2 year long intermission in between. The story starts a mere minutes after the end of Casino Royale, Bond being chased through the hills of Italy by an unknown army of bad guys. This car chase sets the tone for the entire movie. We find out from the very beginning that we’re in for one hell of a ride.
MI:6 finally catches wind that there’s an international ring, but have no idea of who these people are and what they do, but they do know that they were responsible for Vesper’s death. Bond is sent on the trail of this group and along the way meets up with Camille, a woman also bent on revenge for the death of her family at the hands of a South American dictator. Bond and Camille’s paths and destinies cross as the men they are both chasing are linked to the organization we found out is called Quantum. We can easily see this organisation playing a part of future installments of Bond movies, similar to SPECTRE in the classic Bond films
Its hard to think of this movie as better or worse than Casino Royale, since the two are so intriquintly linked together. As a Bond movie, QoS does not disappoint. We see the growth of the main character into the super spy we have grown to know in previous incarnations. As with Casino Royale, there are no gadgets, no Q and no Moneypenny. This is a more reality grounded Bond. I have to admit that though I do miss those aspect of Bond, I also believe that they will slowly be introduced in this reboot of the franchise in a more realistic way.
I thoroughly enjoyed Quantum of Solace for what it was. An action packed Bond flick with much character development. Casino Royale/Quantum of Solace are setting up the groundwork for the future of this long running franchise. I can’t wait to see what comes next.
I give Quantum of Solace an 8 out of 10.
