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\n Well, Bond is back and what can I say?\u00a0 Craig delivers the goods as everybody’s favorite super agent, 007.\u00a0 The film is quite watchable, but maybe not the best of the bunch.<\/p>\n DIRECTION<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n For much of the film, the direction is great.\u00a0 Marc Forster really knows how to make a great-looking piece of cinema, giving everything a sheen that you could mistake for a car commercial… in fact, with some of the product placement it almost becomes<\/em> a car commercial.\u00a0 What Forster really excels at is allowing the actors brief moments between action scenes to actually emote and develop the story.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Forster’s action direction leaves much to be desired… or perhaps something was just lost in the editing room.\u00a0 By bringing in the editor from The Bourne Supremacy<\/strong>, Richard Pearson, it was inevitable that action scenes would become jumbled, shaken, and ultimately almost unwatchable.\u00a0 Almost any sense of scene geography, momentum, and purpose is driven from any action scene.\u00a0 Let’s talk about that…<\/p>\n ACTION<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The opening scene, a frantic car-chase, quickly tells the audience how the rest of the film’s action will be staged.\u00a0 With what seemed like no wide angles or establishing shots, we are left to piece together what exactly is going on.\u00a0 This would be much easier if each shot didn’t last less than a second.\u00a0 There is literally one or two cuts every second.\u00a0 Instead of allowing the audience to sit back and enjoy the film, we are then left to wait until these scenes end and hope that there will be some evidence as to what exactly we just saw.<\/p>\n A chase scene through a tunnel and then through a crowd, and finally on ropes leaves us wondering whether or not Quantum<\/strong> is going to continue in the “griity” and “realistic” tradition of Casino Royale<\/strong>, let alone ever allow us to enjoy the action in an action<\/em> film.\u00a0 And speaking of the Bourne<\/strong> films, be prepared for a hand-to-hand fight scene that, while possibly being better done than what we’ve seen in those films, might just be utter cinematic plagierism.\u00a0 Which brings me to the…<\/p>\n STORY<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I enjoyed much of the story in QOS<\/strong>, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a plot cannibalising much of what’s been done before in the series.\u00a0 Bond seems intent on seeking revenge south of the border to such an extent that it blatently mirrors much of Licence To Kill<\/strong>, including a scene where 007 must evade fellow British agents, led by M (here, played again by Judi Dench).\u00a0 Bond hooks up with new Bondgirl, Olga Kurylenko, a character seemingly a clone of the Melina Havelock character from For Yours Only<\/strong>.\u00a0 She, like Bond, is also seeking revenge.\u00a0 But like the Melina Havelock character, Olga’s Camille is seeking revenge on a Bond villain who murdered her parents.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.allouttabubblegum.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/11\/quantum_final_poster.jpg\" "\\"quantum_final_poster\\"")
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