horacethegrey
First Post
Whew. It seems only yesterday when I geeked out over a little film called Casino Royale, when in fact it's been actually 2 years. 
Yet here we are again, with Daniel Craig's second outing as her majesty's secret service man. So the real question is, does it live up to the hype?
After watching it today, I'd have to say... yes, more or less. It may not be good as Royale, but it's still a damn good Bond film.
Let's start off with the negative stuff first. My main beef with this flick is just how frantic the pace is. Director Marc Foster has shamelessly plagiarized the playbook written by Paul Greengrass. We've got handheld cams filming fights, car chases, roof chases, boat chases... hell, one might wonder if they stumbled into a Bourne film by mistake. All these action scenes are held together by a plot that's paper thin. It's not stupid mind, but hardly original or engaging. The quickened pace doesn't leave much room for those quiet moments that made Casino Royale such a delight to watch. They are there though, like Bond's tense reunion with Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), a scene that's also quite funny BTW. Light moments like these are rare, and consequently much of the charm Craig displayed in the previous is largely absent here.
Despite that, Craig is still in top form as 007. Though for the most part his fists do most of the talking, which he does quite beautifully.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Alongside Craig is the stunning Olga Kurylenko, who's a more than a match for him in the action department (much better than Halle Berry, thank God 
), but can hold her own in the dramatic scenes as well. She's no Eva Green (then again hardly any actress is), but she's a worthy succesor and hopefully has a bright future after this. Judi Dench of course is still here, and does a fabulous job once more as M, as is Jeffrey Wright as Felix Lighter. Special kudos however must go to Giancarlo Giannini for returning as Mathis.
The renewed Bond franchise is merrily chugging right along, and Quantum of Solace only helps it build up steam, rather than derailing it. It's a worthy entry to the saga of 007, and only makes you hungry for more.
Yet here we are again, with Daniel Craig's second outing as her majesty's secret service man. So the real question is, does it live up to the hype?After watching it today, I'd have to say... yes, more or less. It may not be good as Royale, but it's still a damn good Bond film.
Let's start off with the negative stuff first. My main beef with this flick is just how frantic the pace is. Director Marc Foster has shamelessly plagiarized the playbook written by Paul Greengrass. We've got handheld cams filming fights, car chases, roof chases, boat chases... hell, one might wonder if they stumbled into a Bourne film by mistake. All these action scenes are held together by a plot that's paper thin. It's not stupid mind, but hardly original or engaging. The quickened pace doesn't leave much room for those quiet moments that made Casino Royale such a delight to watch. They are there though, like Bond's tense reunion with Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), a scene that's also quite funny BTW. Light moments like these are rare, and consequently much of the charm Craig displayed in the previous is largely absent here.
Despite that, Craig is still in top form as 007. Though for the most part his fists do most of the talking, which he does quite beautifully.
Alongside Craig is the stunning Olga Kurylenko, who's a more than a match for him in the action department (much better than Halle Berry, thank God ), but can hold her own in the dramatic scenes as well. She's no Eva Green (then again hardly any actress is), but she's a worthy succesor and hopefully has a bright future after this. Judi Dench of course is still here, and does a fabulous job once more as M, as is Jeffrey Wright as Felix Lighter. Special kudos however must go to Giancarlo Giannini for returning as Mathis.The renewed Bond franchise is merrily chugging right along, and Quantum of Solace only helps it build up steam, rather than derailing it. It's a worthy entry to the saga of 007, and only makes you hungry for more.
