Okay. So I went to watch James Bond: Quantum of Solace. I quite enjoyed it, really.
I like the direction of the opening sequence. The audience wasn’t given any inkling that the show has started and ‘vroom’ an Aston Martin zooms into view, a heart stopping car chase ensues. As the story unfolds, we see more fighting, more dirt, more blood, some sex (only one sex scene really) and quite a bit of humour.
Personally, I like Daniel Craig’s Bond. I think there’s a kind of rawness in him, as compared to Pierce Brosnan’s Bond, which is way too sophisticated for me anyway. Yes. Craig’s Bond leaves a trail of wreckage behind wherever he goes, but I believe it’s a part of his growth into James Bond. In my opinion, the molding of Bond is probably as such Craig > Connery > Brosnan. The others were.. Urm.. Identity crises. Craig’s Bond doesn’t think twice before he does anything, doesn’t consider the consequences, doesn’t think of other possibilities. He follows his gut and his instincts, which is quite often propelled by women in seeming distress. He is intelligent and sharp, but still an animal. He hasn’t yet learned that there are ways to accomplish things without having to kill. He even fails at trying to protect himself. Almost every woman in his life sees right through him and his walls. Think about it this way. How much of a real 007 is he, when he can’t even build a proper wall around his heart? Don’t forget, the very first James Bond movie “Dr. No” portrayed Bond as a seasoned spy, not a young rookie. Who is to know if his past isn’t as it is portrayed in Craig’s Bond? We are simply too comfortable with watching the veteran Bond and might find it a little odd to accept the rookie Bond.
It is entirely possible that I like the current rendition of James Bond because I got to a point where Brosnan’s Bond was so congested by machines and gadgets and sex that if all these were stripped away, there’d be absolutely nothing left in James Bond, the person. I stopped watching Bond after just 2 movies. By the time The World Is Not Enough was showing, I was so disgusted by the overly computerised effects in the Bond series that I had absolutely no inclination to head to the movie theatres to catch it. I found Brosnan’s Bond with no soul at all, just another living walking machine. I’d rather watch Austin Powers. However, I had the chance to catch a snippet of Sean Connery’s Bond in Thailand in 2006, but I didn’t find him much to my liking. Maybe it was because I was watching You Only Live Twice and it was the last movie that starred Connery as Bond, the time he got really sick of playing Bond. I thought it was above average, but not as exciting as the hype had made it to be.
Daniel Craig really delivers a solid performance as James Bond, the arrogant demeanour, yet with vulnerability in the eyes; mean yet gentle; polished yet raw. A lot of contradicting factors in one character. Awesome. Here’s a really good review of it.
Anyway, I digressed. I’m supposed to be writing about Quantum of Solace.. It’s such a funny show! Granted, it isn’t tear-jerking funny like Borat but it’s has many of those subtle one-liners that really cracked me up. Spoiler ahead. Stop reading if you have yet to watch it and don’t want the jokes to be revealed. It’s all over the place though, cos it’s based on what comes to my mind.
* Bond killed Edmund Slate, an informant for Mitchell, and when M called Bond and asked for the status of the lead with Slate.
Bond: Tell her he’s a dead end.
M: He’s killed him!
* Part I (When they first meet):
Camille: Get In!
Bond: What!?
Camille: Get In!
Bond: Allright.
Part II (After Bond was stopped from continuing the mission and escapes the hotel):
Camille: Get In!
Bond: Are you going to shoot me!
Camille: I said Get In!
* Camille (forgot exactly which scene): Is the person (Greene attacked) a woman?
Bond: Yes. But it’s not what you think.
Camille: Your mother?
Bond: She thinks so.
* At the hotel, Fields was killed by Greene and found covered in oil, with oil in her system as well. At the end of the show, after Bond captures Greene, he drives him to the middle of the desert, and sets him free.
Greene: Please… I told you everything..
Bond: Oh no I’m not going to kill you. I’m sure your friends will be very interested in finding you. And you’re in the desert. (Throws him a can of motor oil) I bet it’ll be 20 miles before you consider drinking this.
* At this dilapidated airway Bond got hold of a plane to manoveur.
Camille: How much did you pay him?
Bond: He wanted you but I gave him the car. He’ll make more money giving us up anyway.
Bond flies off and scene cuts to the man making a phone call.
* Strawberry Fields, tasked to bring Bond back to London, brings them to a dilapidated ‘hotel’ which was supposed to fit their covers as teachers on sabbatical. Instead Bond refuses and brings them to a posh hotel and heads to the concierge.
Bond: We’re teachers on sabbatical, who’ve just won a lottery.
* After locating where Dominic Greene was going and M authorised a private plane for Bond to go chase him.
M: Could you avoid killing every possible lead?
Bond: I’ll try my best. (throws the phone on the passenger seat)
M: I’ve heard that before.
* Bond calls Felix in Haiti and asks to meet him at the local bar. Bond discovers Felix didn’t come alone and asks
Bond: How much time?
Felix: 30 seconds
Bond: We don’t have much time then do we?
Felix: (Gives the information Bond wanted) You better start running Bond.
A hoard of SWAT agents begin dashing about trying to catch Bond, while Felix continues to drink his beer nonchalantly. “You will never be able to catch him” written all over his face.
* After Camille found out that she was supposed to get killed, she tried to shoot Bond but he jumped out of the car in time. A man who was following them in a bike all along asked
Man in Bike: You were supposed to shoot her!
Bond: I missed.
And promptly kicks his bike away from under the man and rides away on it.
* Bond (At M’s remark on how the Americans wanted him alive for questioning): If the American’s wanted Le Chiffre’s soul, they should have made a deal with the priest.
* At the Greene Enterprise? fundraising party, when Greene tried to push Camille off the building and Bond arrives just in time to stop it
Greene : You can’t imagine how amazing she is, when she’s on her back.
Camille : I wish I could say the same about you.
* Final scene, after Bond exits Vesper’s bf’s place…
M : Is he alive?
Bond : Yeah.
M : I’m suprised.
* Bond calling the CIA undercover office in Haiti and Felix answered.
Bond: You should just anwser ‘CIA’, Felix. A taxi driver told me where the office was.
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