Nov 15 2008
Quantum of Solace
Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Saturday, November 15th, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!
Today’s Movie:
Since I’ve been on a movie kick recently, and since last night premiered the best movie I’ve seen in quite some time, I figured I’d go ahead and do a review of Quantum of Solace – the new Bond movie. This one stars Daniel Craig (Archangel, Golden Compass) and was directed by Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland).
Premise:
This movie is an immediate sequel to Casino Royale. It takes place just moments after Casino Royale ended and includes the return of many of the same characters. In Quantum of Solace, Bond is going after the big bad organization that was responsible for the death of the woman he loved.
Awesome Parts:
Where do I start? And how do I talk intelligibly without using generalities and without giving away any spoilers? The movie was an incredibly great action movie. It had awesome action scenes. Daniel Craig makes an awesome Bond. He feels like a real person. They’ve done a great job of modernizing the story so that it feels relevant to today’s world. There were twists that I didn’t see coming – which is really saying something for an action movie, which are normally very similarly structured. I really liked the fact that there was the immediate villain and the larger organization of villains. And that there was the ‘protecting the world’ motivation for stopping the villains, but also a personal stake for Bond. Overall, it comes down to the fact that this was just an enjoyable movie.
Un-Awesome Parts:
I know this paragraph looks long, but it’s not because I didn’t enjoy the movie. It’s because I’m feeling nit-picky today. Look closely at the first fight scene. If you’re familiar with CG, you’ll probably be able to tell that all of the shots that didn’t actually have a person in them were complete CG shots. While the CG was good, I would have rather seen an actual construction rig. A part of me appreciates the sequel aspect of this movie – continuing into a broader tale – but it felt to me that you would have HAD to have seen Casino Royale for parts of Quantum of Solace to make sense. Any returning characters received absolutely no introductions, and it was assumed we already knew who the bad guys were. I know this is a bit of stretch to even mention this – but it bothered me so I’m going to say it. There was a parachute scene, and the chute was released almost an entire second before hitting the ground. Almost. There is NO WAY that it would have allowed the person in the chute to land safely. I wasn’t able to suspend disbelief for that moment. And this is a general note about most spy movies – but there were aspects of it in Quantum of Solace: why can’t spies ever play nice together? Even spies working for the same government never seem to tell each other what they’re planning. Which means they can’t help each other and thusly get into far more difficult shenanigans than necessary. Finally, I’m not a fan of the quick cut action scenes. I was glad they didn’t use this for the whole movie – but the first car chase scene cut so often that it felt far less awesome than I think it could have been.
My Recommendation:
Oh yes – absolutely worth seeing. In fact, I recommend ignoring all of my nit-picking and enjoying the Hell out of yourself during this movie. First of all, it’s a thrill ride. If you like action films, you’ll like Quantum of Solace. Just make sure you watch Casino Royale first. I’m even going to go so far as to recommend that you see this film in theaters because of two brand new very awesome previews for the upcoming Watchmen and Star Trek movies.
Alright - that’s all my rambling for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow for Final Crisis - Submit. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold
