Every review I have heard thus far hasn't been great. Said it's okay as an action flick but falls short of expectations for a Bond film and even less when compared to Casino Royale. I heard the plot line today on the radio and I was kind of disappointed in it.

I hope I am wrong. I loved Casino Royale.

Just checked rotten tomatoes.... 71%. That's not a bad score.

I did too ... the surprising thing was that my wife really liked it too. It had been a long time since she liked a bond movie.

Casino Royale is prolly my favorite Bond movie ever, and I am not one for blondies either . . .

No but you would have iced his nuts after that torture scene.

Oh, great...here we go again with the usual Tex nonsense.

Nothing has changed.

I agree. Without giving too much story line away, the revenge theme is so strong in this movie that Bond is almost a serial killer. Almost totally gone was a lot of the dry, smug humor of the first movie that softened him and made him likable. Still, I really liked it, I just found myself hoping that my observation was just a function of the story line rather than where there are headed with the franchise.

I don't want to see it return to the silliness that has characterized the last few before Daniel Craig, but James Bond shouldn't be Jason Bourne either.

Am I the only one who saw it as a cautionary tale of the dangers and ultimate futility of alternative energy?

The action more than made up for the failures of the script (which weren't huge but were noticable.)

I still haven't seen QoS, but I am still proud of the fact that I predicted/proposed/called for Daniel Craig to be the new James Bond the moment I heard Brosnan was done. Daniel Craig has been one of my favorite actors since Road to Perdition. There's something about his composure that made me think from that moment that he would be the perfect actor to restore James Bond back to the solid, controlled, refined, lonely character as he was originally imagined.

So we had some free passes to see QoS last night. At $9.50 a ticket I am glad the tickets were free. QoS is not Casino Royale. It's also not a Bond film. If you're a fan of the franchise then I think you'll be disappointed also. Bond has turned into Bourne, but a maniacal and ruthless Bourne. This is not the character Ian Flemming created. I don't like this incarnation of Bond though I am a big fan of Daniel Craig. Another criticism is that the plot leans heavily on Casino Royale. I don't think someone would understand most of QoS's plot without having seen Casino Royale.

That said, as an action flick the movie is very entertaining. The Bond girls are hot. And the Aston Martin looks as good as ever.

I actually really like the Bond that they have gone with in the past couple of films. I think they will be back to the smart ass nature of Bond after this movie, but this movie was purely about revenge. He has his revenge and I think he can go back to having fun next time around.

I liked the movie a lot but it did definitely depart from the Bond tradition, but based on the theme of the movie the departure was fine.

I think my biggest complaint is the way it was filmed in a lot of the action scenes. They went with the Bourne jump cup style and I am not a fan of that for a Bond movie.

It was a fun movie, but I wish to have seen more of the cool Bond gadgets that have made no appearances in the last two films if I recall correctly.

Faith and I went and caught a matinee while the boy was out at the LA car show with a class mate. Its nice to have an adults only day from time to time.

I agree with Gidget, Casino Royale is the best Bond move, and I think Craig is the best Bond.

So, after such a great introduction for the New Bond, I was disappointed with this one. I figure most everyone who was going to watch the film will have watched it by now, so I am going to go ahead and write about the movie.

**** SPOILERS BELOW ****


Ok, so the bad guys are buying up desert land in Bolivia where they are secretly damning up underground reservoirs so they can have a monopoly on the Bolivian Water Utilities market??? That has got to the be lamest MO for a Bond villain freaking EVER! It is a stupid way to make money. First you have all of the up-front capital expenditure required to SECRETLY dam up and divert underground reservoirs, just for the chance to strong-arm the Bolivian president into signing a water contract... as if the Bolivian president could not have been simply bribed to give away all of his country's resources. Isn't that more the way it works?

Also, this scheme is so bloody unrealistic that I fear that the Bond franchise will soon be moving into the weather control machine realm, a total shark jump. That means it will be time to reinvent and get a new Bond. I like Craig, so I hope they don't keep going down this path.

Next, regarding Bond -- what was interesting about Craig's Bond in Casino Royale is that he showed a lot more emotional range than previous incarnations. Craig spends the whole of Solace whistling steam out of his ears and kicking ass. So the action scenes are okay (though nothing comes close to the Parkour chase in Casino, which was mind-blowingly the best thing I have ever seen in a Bond film). So this film fails to either deliver on the promise of the emotional Bond from Casino, or to honor the best of earlier Bonds. There was a small touch of emotional grit at the end, when he kisses sexy Latina Bond girl for the first time, then lets her go (every woman he has been with in the films has met a bloody end. Is this dawning on him?)

The movie isn't a total wreck, and manages to be fairly entertaining throughout, but it comes nowhere close to the greatness that was Casino Royale.

That is the point of this movie is that he is overcome with rage and seeking revenge. There was no room for emotional range because he had only goal in mind during this movie. I think that emotional range will be back in the next Bond movie. As a standalone movie, I don't think that Quantum works great, but as a companion piece to Casino Royale it is very good. Craig is still not the best Bond out there, it still goes to Connery. However, one more good Bond movie and he will move past Connery.

I think the potential setup for the next couple of movies is very good. The Quantum organization is exactly what this franchise needed to bring it back. It needed a new SPECTRE to make things work.

As far as Bond movies go, Quantum is probably in the top third.