Film: B-
With a single leap and bound James Bond leaps from the Spanish-tiled roofs of old Italian building down to the second floor patio of another and then leaps onto a moving bus with no pause or slo-motion trick. With that type of impulse and physical agility, the new Bond doesn’t mess around. He’s exact, he’s brash, and if you look at him the wrong way, this 007 will come to kick your ass.

Daniel Craig steps into the tuxedo and behind the Aston Marton again to reprise the role of 007. For the first time in the franchise, there is carry-over from the previous film, Casino Royale. Still hurt from the death and betrayal of his lover, Vesper, Bond picks up probably a few hours after Royale’s ending and makes it a personal vendetta to find out what she was up to and is willing to risk his status with M and British Intelligence over it. After M is shot at by a double agent for the secret agency, Quantum, Bond goes into full throttle. Bond follows a lead to Panama where stumbles onto something when he rescues Camile (Olga Kurylenko) from Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric) a businessman and major player within the Quantum circle. Money is tied directly into control and in times when fossil fuels are at a commodity, power players jockey for whatever else can be controlled. Greene though is far more insidious than what he appears to be, determined to control what resources remain in third world Bolivia, if he could just get rid of that mangy 007. Bond takes his anger out on Quantum, fueled by revenge for a woman, but the woman is not who you expect.

The same old Bond conventions are here: several exotic location shoots, fancy car chases, fancy boat chases, oh and fancy plane chases? Yep. Bond girls, check, M, check, huge secret black spy operative (Quantum) who threatens all, yeah check. Q and the gadgets? Mmmmm, no, so that means it’s gotta be bad right? No. What’s being done to the franchise in this modern take on Ian Fleming’s secret agent is take the formulas out, and instead of each film feeling like it’s a random film with all the checks and balances, we get to see the consequence of his actions, an evolutionary arc within the Bond character. The downside of all this is that seeing Casino Royale is essential to see what bug has crawled up Bond’s ass, and if one doesn’t have this history, Quantum of Solace is a little thin on actual development.

The selection of the main crew was a strange assembly. Marc Forster who has been hit or miss with me (Hit-Stranger than Fiction, Miss- Monster’s Ball), has been known for more emotional, thought out dramas so they brought on board Dan Bradley for the second unit whose experience in the Bourne franchise is very apparent ten minutes into the movie. Paul Haggis who is as hot a screenwriter as you can get, co-wrote this with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade and all of the gaps seemed to be controlled with the right people, but there was just too much action. While Casino Royale had a slow build in between, Quantum of Solace finally felt like it was getting somewhere at the halfway point. We see a much more interesting relationship between M and Bond, and Camille’s story is fully realized and this is where Forster’s strengths come through but it’s all a little too much too late. There’s no doubt that the action is where it needs to be, but I was hoping for a much better blend.

As a companion to Casino Royale, I think Quantum of Solace works just fine, an emotional release, or comedown if you will for the Bond character dealing with Vesper’s betrayal. Rarely do we get to see a character exercise that in another film. But by itself, Quantum gives you so much action in your face, you almost forget that you want a full story to go along with it. By the film’s end we do feel like the character of 007 has experienced a journey that he will take to his next adventure. He battles mistrust and himself as much as evil crime syndicates and for some Bond fans, that might not be enough, but as a whole, the franchise is still in good hands.

Video: B+
The original 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio is maintained on the DVD, with anamorphic widescreen. All of that high-speed action is held together well, with no artifacts, or pixelation. Colors are strong and might I say that Craig over-tanned or has too much make-up because he’s got a bit of an orange thing going on in his face. Black levels hold up nicely, strong and deep throughout the film and despite some stylistic purpose of slight grain, the image is very clean. This transfer is great, it’s just not as good as a high definition encoded blu-ray but as good as you’re going to see on a SD-DVD.

Audio: A-
You get the choice between a 5.1 DTS and a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, both sound damn good with excellent sound movement in all directions, utilizing all of the channels wisely in the actions scenes. LFE sound is prominent throughout the same scenes as there’s some rattling that will go on in your room. All of this is fine but more importantly is balanced with the clean dialogue from the center channel. There are several accents spoken through the entire film and there was not a problem hearing any of it. If I were asked to prefer one soundtrack over the other, I’d have to go with the DTS track, because there’s just that added punch of the booming explosion and piercing of gunshots that travel around. Again, the knowledge of high definition audio makes me pull back on the rating, so I know it can be that much better, but really, a very satisfactory audio experience.

Extras: D+
One pass through the extras and it’s safe to say that a bigger, badder edition is sure to come for both formats. Whether you see it on DVD or Blu-Ray you get the same extras so no exclusives this time around, but given the two-disc blu-ray for Casino Royale that was released during Quantum’s theatrical release, the wait will be worth it. Getting back to this release, most of the material is EPK (Electronic Press Kit) fluffer-nutter of which will likely never get revisited. And what’s worse is that they’ve spread and divided the extras into smaller segments to give a cosmetic appearance that there is more than what’s really there, kind of like three pieces of candy in a pinata.

Disc One
A Music Video “Another Way to Die” (4:31) by Jack White and Alicia Keyes and 2 Theatrical Trailers.

Disc Two
Bond On Location (24:48) – Interviews with Marc Forster producers Barbara Brocoli, Michael G. Wilson, Daniel Craig on shoots at Panama, Bolivia, and Italy. Camera set up, making the locations work within the story, and doing stunts in the tight quarters of the Italian cities is also discussed. This is probably the only must see extra in the bunch, I’m afraid.

Featurettes – Shooting Starts (2:56) On Location (3:13) Olga Kurylenko and the Boat Chase (2:15) Director Marc Forster (2:45) The Music (2:37) - Don’t be fooled by the quantity, the following are a list of EPK vignettes that skim the surface of different elements of the film.

Crew Files (46:18) – is a collection of 34 webisodes profiling key crew members ranging from camera riggers to makeup artists and their contribution to the film. Each has a little, okay, very little to say in their own words over some behind the scenes footage. Each of these last a little over a minute and don’t give you quite enough of what you want to know. Surely the interviews have been edited down or it’s being saved for the inevitable collector’s edition double-dip.

Overall Shock Value: B-
What’s been done to the James Bond character in the last two films has been a superb rejuvenation. This darkness within Bond, the calculated recklessness has taken the character back to the roots of Ian Fleming’s novels while keeping in stride with modern thrillers like the Bourne franchise. Building off of Casino Royale and evolving the character from an agent and his orders was a good move, however there was just a little too much action and not enough building going on in Quantum of Solace for my liking. The DVD still offers a great audio experience and video transfer but the extras do suck. Quantum still a good Bond film, just not a great one.

Ernie Estrella