When I first watched Casino Royale I didn't really like it. But after a while it grew on me and whilst it isn't my favourite James Bond film I do now like it. Quantum Of Solace is kind of the opposite. Initially I came out of the cinema and thought, "Wow. That was cool." But after I actually started thinking about it I couldn't really figure out what the story was past James Bond killing lots of people for revenge.
The action sequences were amazing and some of them were mind blowing. The story however, I felt was too complicated and I think I would need to watch it again (after first watching Casino Royale because it does follow on from it) in order to understand what was going on properly. In all honesty though, I had to watch Casino Royale a few times as well to fully understand it.
If you are able to understand the story though then sure, this is a great film. But is it a great Bond film? No.
Casino Royale was a restart to the Bond franchise, but it still had all the Bond elements. Quantum Of Solace seems to be trying to restart the franchise again, but this time they are trying to make it something else, and it seems to have stripped all the Bond elements from it. Many people have said that the film tries to be more like the Jason Bourne films. But sadly the more like Bourne it tries to get the less like Bond it actually is.
Now I agree that some of the Bond films go way over the top in terms of the gadgets they have, but even Casino Royale managed to include a couple of gadgets. There wasn't a single one that I'm aware of in this film.
The thing that most annoyed me though was the music. David Arnold has done a great job with the music. But this is a James Bond film. Where is the James Bond music? Sure he's included the odd trumpet blast and soaring strings here and there. But what about the James Bond themes. I see why they didn't use the themes in Casino Royale because that film was about how James Bond came to be who we know him to be and therefore he hadn't earned his theme until the end of the film. But it seemed as though the same thing happened with the music in this film. Only when the end credits started did we hear the James Bond theme and by this point it was too little too late.
I've heard rumours already that the next James Bond film will follow on from this one as this one did from Casino Royale. I only hope that it will actually be loyal to the James Bond franchise and not just another reinvention of Bond. We weren't all fans of the first 20 or so films for nothing.
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