James who?

The Bond franchise continues its identity
crisis with Quantum of Solace

BOURNE AGAIN: Daniel Craig

by MATTHEW HAYS

A few years ago, one could almost muster up sympathy for the people behind the Bond franchise. Things had gotten stale, critics charged, and attempts to get cerebral (the Timothy Dalton years) had proven failures. Then there was the Brosnan era, which was simply a cold rehashing of the Roger Moore years, rife with campy one-liners and gadget overload (the invisible car was the last straw).

People were arguing that Bond was finished, that action movies had upped the ante beyond the franchise’s reach, and some even suggested they hand the generically-directed series over to name auteurs like Tarantino. Again, sympathy was almost in order, but impossible to muster when considering the bucketloads of cash the producers were still making.

Enter Daniel Craig, who had everyone swooning with the last Bond hit Casino Royale. That film promised to completely reboot the entire affair, make the British spy with the license to kill more like Ian Fleming’s original vision, put the kibosh on the gadgetry and upgrade the comedy. Bond was sexier, younger (under 40 for the first time in quite a while) and Moneypenny-less. The only holdovers were the iconic score and Dame Judi Dench as M.

I wasn’t so thrilled with Royale. It is very, very difficult to make audiences take something seriously again after it’s been dragged into the domain of camp or parody, and that’s what the new Bond is hoping to do. Craig is a fine actor, and an excellent Bond (plus he looks great topless). But Royale and its follow-up, the ludicrously titled Quantum of Solace, still feel like flat retreads of a tired template. You can feel very consciously what the Bond team is trying to do: these are dark times, so let’s go coal black, pushing Bond into film-noir-hero turf. The British spy service, it seems, is rife with back-stabbing double agents.

Without a doubt, there are some fine chase sequences here, which pose an intriguing question: when do the real stunts end and the CGI begin? But each action sequence only serves as a reminder of Bond’s competition. Quantum opens with a shadowy car chase that made me think I’d stepped into The Dark Knight by mistake. And the rapid-fire editing during a foot chase looked an awful lot like a Bourne chase sequence.

Which is perhaps fitting, given that Bond appears to be going through something of a Bournesque identity crisis himself. Quantum of Solace feels less like a reliable Bond movie than a spy still desperately trying to figure out who he is.