Peter Bradshaw at The Guardian apparently likes the new James Bond outing Quantum of Solace one star less than he liked Casino Royale, which he gave 4/5 stars back in November of 2006.
Bradshaw appears to have what is the first review of Quantum of Solace and he weighs in with a 3/5 stars saying it “didn’t excite” him as much as Casino Royale and “the villain is especially underpowered. This is a crash-bang Bond, high on action, low on quips, long on location glamour, short on product placement.”
His disappointments center around too much action and a lack of “dialogue, flirtation and characterisation” and “was baffled that relatively little was made of the deliciously villainous [Mathieu] Amalric: especially the final.”encounter.
The action he refers to is pretty much summed up in one paragraph:
There are plenty of references to other Bond moments. A horribly dangerous skydive recalls The Spy Who Loved Me. A pile-up in Haiti which spills a macabre lorryload of coffins recalls the voodoo creepiness of Live And Let Die. And, most outrageously of all, the grotesque daubing of a female corpse brings back Goldfinger – though Sean Connery got an awful lot more mileage out of that sort of thing.
He ends the review saying “Quantum of Solace isn’t as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig’s Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action. But the man himself powers this movie; he carries the film: it’s an indefinably difficult task for an actor. Craig measures up.”
Sounds to me like Bradshaw’s 3/5 translates to something like a B- or so. You can read the full review here. Quantum of Solace hits the States on November 14 but will be released in the UK, France and Sweden on October 31.
You can check out a new clip from the film below courtesy of IGN and three more right here.
