Quantum of Solace

Whilst there is certainly loads of action in this rather procedural outing for "James Bond" (a rather uncharismatic Daniel Craig) there is a real dearth of a substantial story. Picking up from "Casino Royale" (2006), this film sees our super-spy capture elusive "Mr White" (Jesper Christiansen) only to have him escape in the most treacherous of fashions - putting all in MI6 at risk. Pretty quickly, "007" is on the trail of the ostensibly benign millionaire "Greene" (Mathieu Amalric) and as the escapades gather pace we realise that the industrialist has a cunning plan to manipulate a crime consortium of global proportions; to take over the government of Bolivia and to control the ebb and flow of one of that nation's most crucial resources. Thing is, though, that this is all just too weak. The story is just lacklustre and undercooked. The efforts of the baddies - Amalric, Anatole Taubman as henchman "Elvis" and a straight-from-central-casting Joaquín Cosio as the scheming "Gen. Medrano" just to don't create any sense of menace or peril. Far too much time is spent swinging from scaffolding, or trashing a rather impressive set for a performance of "Tosca" rather than creating a solid story with twists and turns. Again, the character of "M" (Dame Judi Dench) has much more of a role, and sacrilegious as it may be, she just isn't very good at it. She seemed to be wearing the same clothes for most of her scenes, too! The dialogue is rather dry, no fun innuendo or double-entendre and though quite spunky, Olga Kurylenko is no natural as "Camille", a girl with an axe to grind (ideally into the general's skull). It ends a bit like "Licence to Kill" (1989) and, indeed, is all just a bit too much of an hybrid of the other films to offer much by way of distinction. Good to see an Aston Martin back on screen, but otherwise this rather curiously titled film offers very little to write home about.