The second Daniel Craig outing as 007 is vastly inferior to the first, writes Michael Dwyer
Directed by Marc Forster. Starring Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright, David Harbour. Jesper Christensen 12A cert, gen release, 106 min ***
A SENSE of let-down kicks in even before Jack White and Alicia Keys duet on the theme song performed while, as ever, stylised silhouettes of women coil and recoil under the opening credits.
For decades, we have become accustomed to a comfortably familiar James Bond movie menu in which the starter is a spectacular pre-credits sequence driven by the shock and awe of vertiginous stunts and eye-popping special effects.
There's no denying the vigour of the dizzying Alpine mountain car chase that kicks off Quantum of Solace, but dizzying is just about all it is, frantically over-edited in the manner of a trippy music video. This is the shortest of all 22 movies in the Bond franchise, and the first to function as a sequel, picking up within hours of where the far superior Casino Royaleended.
Bond (Daniel Craig) is in foul humour throughout, glowering with his penetrating gaze, and distraught after the death of his lover, Vesper, in the previous instalment.
This film is as short on humour as it is on sex. Do not expect any of the droll quips that tripped off Roger Moore's tongue, or the urbane nonchalance that fitted Pierce Brosnan as snugly as his tuxedo.
And apart from showing off a snazzy hi-tech data scanning system, the movie jettisons gimmicky gadgets - ejector seats in cars, watches that trigger explosions - along with their inventor, Q.
As is de rigueur, Bond tangles with a new nemesis, the archly named Dominic Greene, whose ecological business is a front for shady dealings with deposed dictators. He is played with bug-eyed menace by versatile French actor Mathieu Amalric, unforgettable from The Divine Bell and the Butterfly, for much of which he could only bat an eyelid.
Amalric hasn't got much more to do in his underwritten role as Greene, and the same scripting deficiency undermines the new women in Bond's life, the pouting, feisty Camille (Olga Kurylenko) and the ostensibly demure agent Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton).
For vital compensation, M is a more substantial character, played once again with imperious flair by Judi Dench. Like Bond, she's colder and tougher now, even turning quite sinister as she threatens a captive with torture, and actually uttering a four-letter word.
Just as Casino Royalefeatured Craig in a scene that echoed the emergence of Ursula Andress from the sea in Dr No, this time there's an explicit - but quite tasteless - nod to the fate of the Shirley Eaton character in Goldfinger, the third and arguably best of all the Bond pictures.
Quantum of Solace,which takes just its title from an Ian Fleming story, takes the Jason Bourne series as its template to the point where it could be re-titled The Bond Ultimatum. On his first 007 movie, director Marc Forster, best known for respectful literary adaptations ( The Kite Runner, Finding Neverland), engages with the action sequences like a child with a new box of toys.
There are, as there ought to be, a number of arresting action sequences. Siena during the Palio horse race is the setting for a breathlessly paced chase through tunnels, across crowded streets and over rooftops, while David Arnold's multi-layered score pumps up the energy. Puccini contributes dramatically to the soundtrack during a night at the opera in Austria, where the balletic backstage combat overshadows the tragedy of Tosca.
The crucial problem lies with the clumsy, cluttered storyline strung together as a link between the set-pieces. This production suggests a lack of nerve and confidence, reducing Bond to a cipher despite Craig's steely performance, and leaving the impression that whole chunks of footage ended up on the cutting-room floor. Expect extras aplenty on the DVD.
