Who is the greatest ever Bond? I Quantum of Solace microsite

It's James Bond, licence to bore. Quantum of Solace may be a sequel to Casino Royale but it lacks that movie’s panache and brio.

Casino Royale’s strength lay not just in Daniel Craig’s acting but that fact that it was based on a fine book with which it kept faith.

Quantum of Solace was a short story by Ian Fleming. The film-makers have simply taken the name, which itself means a tiny unit of compassion, and adapted it to suit their purpose for a follow-up to Casino Royale.

With Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball and The Kite Runner) as director and a script from Paul Haggis, rated these days as Hollywood’s most intelligent screenwriter, Quantum of Solace ought to have worked.

Instead Bond is a boorish oaf who simply rushes from country to country with the manic speed of Jason Bourne, including sequences shot in Panama, Chile, Italy, Mexico and Austria, in a plot about holding a country to ransom over its water supply.

Quantum of Solace lacks any wit, ironic or otherwise, which has been a strength of so many 007 films.

It has a tuneless opening song by Alicia Keys and Jack White. No sex either, except for a two-second flash of the naked back of Agent Fields, a colleague of Bond’s who is played by Gemma Arterton.

Neither is there much violence. At least parents will not have the problems they experienced with Casino Royale, particularly its eyewatering torture scene in which Bond was tied naked to a chair and his private parts thwacked with a knotted rope.

This is not to say that all was a bore. There is one terrific 15-minute sequence where Bond and his sidekick Camille (Olga Kurylenko) are escaping the agents of a dastardly tyrant.

They are in an ancient plane being chased through mountainous scenery by the villain’s super-duper jet. It is the only sequence that really remained in my head afterwards.

At around one hour 40 minutes, this Bond is shorter than most. Somehow it felt longer.

Explore Film

• Film Reviews

• Trailers

• DVD

• London Film Festival

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010