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“Bland…James Bland” should be the catch cry in the 22^nd film in the Bond franchise. Like a salad without dressing there is nothing too tempting about Bond’s latest adventures…

With a lot of hype and out-of-this-world expectation Quantum of Solace arrived in cinemas with a bang but delivers with a limp. The latest Bond installment falls as flat as Olga Kurylenko’s acting skills and not even the valiant efforts of devilishly handsome Daniel Craig can save this flick from ‘bad sequel syndrome’. Because it is a sequel; it picks up within an hour of where Casino Royale finished and unless you have seen Royale recently, you really aren’t going to follow.

At the helm of the latest Bond flick is German director Marc Forster. His resume includes films such as the gentle Finding Neverland, the kooky and wonderful Stranger than Fiction and the melancholy Kite Runner. Forster’s first attempt directing a big budget action film is nervous and wobbly with too many choppy scene changes. The ‘kill-em-all’ and ‘trust no-one’ angles along with confusing action shots leave a bad taste in the mouth. The audience is dragged through a muddy ‘plot’ which follows Bond’s revenge mission for the death of his love Vesper Lynd (played by Eva Green in Casino Royale – please revive her back somehow! Cloning, perhaps?). Tacking on Camille’s (Kurylenko’s character) story of revenge for the death of her family at the hands of a vicious dictator is designed to bully and bamboozle us into thinking there actually is a noteworthy plot.

There are some great things about this film. As expected, the stunts are seamless and highly impressive with Bond happily trashing an Aston Martin, speed boat and DC aeroplane. The scope of locations (from Sienna to Haiti to the Bolivian desert) is glorious and mandatory Bond fodder. The excellent cinematography ensures the exotic settings are vivid with colour and life and the audience is swept along for the ride. But the paring down of the humour, gadgets and any chemistry 007 has with the two women in the film leaves us with only the husk of a Bond movie. Mathieu Amalric’s portrayal of the villain, Dominic Greene, feels like he’s still channeling the quadriplegic character he played in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. He sometimes seems sinister but mainly looks bored. As usual, Judi Dench is fabulous as M.

In a nutshell, this is a lacklustre film that is getting people into cinemas by riding on the coat tails of its far superior predecessor, Casino Royale. Daniel Craig has apparently signed on for two more films and one can only hope they bounce back with the renowned Bond bang.

Photo by Dan Zen