Quantum of Solace explodes onto the screen with an amazing car chase between Bond and an unknown pursuer, and from there launches into some of the most amazing action sequences Bond has experienced yet.  The new movie undeniably borrows it’s camera work and extreme action scenes from recent movies like the Bourne Ultimatum, and continues with the very physical and rough around the edges Bond that Daniel Craig introduced us to in Casino Royale.  Bond just keeps going and going and going in this one, adding an amazing boat chase and aerial cat fight to the usual high speed car chases.  The character also has a bit more depth than his usual character, playing on unfinished business from the last film.  Judy Dench also features quite prominently in this film as the buffer between MI-6 and the corridors of Parliament, a relationship made tense by the new bad guy Dominic Greene, who has far reaching power and “people everywhere.”  Green’s organization – the Quantum of Solace or perhaps a modern interpretation of Smersh/Shape – has infiltrated not only MI-6 itself but also many influencers in the major governments of the world.  Because of this Bond does not know who he can trust and who he can not.  And caught up Greene, the CIA becomes something of an adversary as well.  Much of the action centres on Bolivia, where Greene controls a very precious resource and is artificially causing a shortage.  The character also spends much time campaigning in favour of environmentalism, but at the same time is happy to be an agitator as far as environmental catastrophes go.  The character is strange and intense, paranoid and brutal, and makes a very devious villain for Bond, he also is not taken out in usual Bond style, but I will leave that for you to discover.  Maithas features once again to help Bond along his way, along with charmingly named Strawberry Fields (her parents must have been rock stars).  Bond is accompanied along his way by Camille Montes, a revenge drivine ex-Bolivian secret service agent.  As mentioned in other reviews, she is a little bit wooden and does not have the charm of other Bond girls.  It is also strange to have a Russian play a Bolivian character (there are more than enough Latina actresses that could have been cast in the part!)  The only other down point was the opening credits.  Usually this sequence is an opportunity for the directors to show off in spectacular cinematic style with surreal but tantalising sequences set to a popular track.  The film utterly fails on this front.  The track by Alicia Keys and Jack White (of the White Stripes) is poorly crafted and annoying, not setting the scene or even being pleasant to listen to.  The opening sequence is also all done in vector graphics with very little real camerawork or images.  I am completely over vector graphics, in fact if I could figure out how to use Gimp I’d do some for you now just to show how any mug can create them.  MK12 disappointed with this, however I did think that the user graphical interface that they designed for the sequences in MI-6 HQ was quite impressive – I want the system!

Disappointingly there were no tricky gadgets and no Q in this movie, however it would have spoiled the plot somewhat.  This James Bond is gritty and physical rather than techy and suave.  And unlike other Bond films there is very little time for womanising, and the martini becomes something of a crutch rather than a cue for the usual “shaken but not stirred” cliché.

All in all this was a wonderful film and well worth seeing!