The second of the newest incarnation of Bond films, this is a direct continuation of Casino Royale. I would strongly suggest you rewatch it before going and seeing this, otherwise there is danger of the plot not hanging together too well.
This review will contain some Casino Royale spoilers. There's not much I can do about that given its a sequel. The only sequel where that wouldn't be the case would be something like Transporter 3 which we also saw today. Anyway. If you haven't seen Casino Royale yet, well you should before seeing Quantum of Solace. And you should anyway. Its good.
Anyway, the film review.
James Bond (Daniel Craig) has recently lost Vesper Lynd in a complex sereis of events called the last film. Basically she was forced into betraying his confidence when her boyfriend was being held hostage. She fell in love with James and killed herself when the betrayal became clear. She had recently been given instructions by someone called Mr. White (Jesper Christensen).
At the end of the last film we saw James ambush Mr. White. This film starts with an extensive car chase which really takes its toll on the cars involved. Once this is concluded James decants Mr. White from the boot into a chair for interrogation by himself and M (Judi Dench). he doesn't tell them much, just implies some organisation which they were not yet familiar with.
I would normally outline enough to give you an idea of the rough starting direction of the plot. The problem here is that this film, while being a linked series of events, hasn't got the feel of a constant progression. If I were to try and outline enough to point the way I'd be saying too much.
Anyway, action ensues. The lead female character, Camille (Olga Kurylenko) is introduced, as is a nefarious individual, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), and a Bolivian exile General Medrano (Joaquín Cosio). Felix Leitre (Jeffrey Wright) also reurns.
The film is overall well done, although I thought the cutting in the car chase at the start was slightly too fast – while the energy of the scene was kept up it was at times difficult to keep track of what was happening. Its nowhere near as bad as Bourne Ultimatum though.
Otherwise the film suffers slightly from the lack of constant progression. There is a storyline which neatly brackets the film, and once the main thread is going its fine, but it hops around quite a bit. The reason for this is, I think, that its setting up the new Bond franchise. You could view this as the second half of Casino Royalewithout much difficulty (although it might have been a bit long)
Craig does a good job again, with a fair amount of brooding intermingled with violence and trademark Bond quipping, although to be honest its rare for him to be in between action scenes for long enough to build more character. Olga Kurylenko does well as the Bond girl, being capable but rounded, and I quite liked Mathieu Amalric as Greene – he had the slightest glint of derangement in is eye, even though he acted quite rationally (well, for him).
Overall, I liked it. Not as much as the first one, but its a promising start. I'll be interested to see what the third one is like.