2006's Casino Royale was the best Bond film ever made.  A franchise was re-invented (the Broccoli family has made a once-a-decade tradition of this since the '60s...) - and for the first time, Bond was more than a smooth-talking, gadget carrying Brit with snappy one-liners.  For the first time, he was a man of the real world - one who bleeds, shoots whiskey to deal with the pain, scraps his way for recognition within a realistic political organization. 

And yes, he loved.  Finally - a Bond with some psychological depth.

When Marc Forster - whom I revere as one of the most talented directors working today (see Stay, Stranger Than Fiction, Monster's Ball or The Kite Runner) - was brought on to direct Quantum of Solace, I was ecstatic.  Paul Haggis working on the script again was another vote of confidence that the sequel would be as great as its predecessor.  But alas - Quantum of Solace is a disappointment. 

There are several glaring errors - most prominent of which is a weak script.  I don't think a single person in the group I assembled for opening night gave a shit about the cardboard cut-out of a character that was Camille, or her paper-thin B-story about avenging her father.  Her presence was a transparent attempt to honor the tradition of including a requisite hot Bond girl.  Disappointed the writers fell into this trap. 

Next was Forster's choice to direct the action sequences in the frenetic, hand-held, over-edited style of a Bourne movie.  Bond audiences want to see Bond landing the punch, not just a blur of chaotic imagery that ends with Bond standing over his enemy.

Still, there was a grander reason for the failure.  It took me a week to get over my disappointment before I could see it clearly, but I think I've put my finger on the ultimate, larger-scale "why" of its shortcoming.  What made Casino Royale so refreshing was that we saw the birthplace of Bond's stand-offishness toward women.  We saw why he never trusts enough to let himself truly fall for these objects of desire, and it was a valuable bit of history after twenty films of the same emotionally-stunted playboy. 

Vesper Lynd's death ultimately doomed the writers of Quantum of Solace to fail, as it left Bond no one to bounce off of.  Sure, he's got the Dame Judy Dench - whose screen force can't be denied.  She lights up the screen, and has great love/hate chemistry with Daniel Craig.  But their relationship is too confined by the tradition of the franchise to stretch into a feature film. 

Who else was left?  “Ah - Mathis - there’s a recognizable face!  Let’s resurrect him from the first film and plug him in.  He was so charming...”  So he’s dropped in with a brief and confusing explanation of why he wasn’t the traitor they’d painted him to be in the first film.

“Well, that’s everybody, and we need some sex in the film.  So let’s write in a new girl, and a secondary story to go with it.”  This second story (Camille), of course, has nothing to do with the story that’s actually being told (Bond hunting for those responsible for the death of Vesper).  Sure, Camille looks nice, but even this new relationship was doomed to one dimension - because Bond's still in love with Vesper - and his revenge is the center of the story.  So having him casually hook up in his old style - or worse yet, get involved emotionally with this new woman - is not an option for the story.  So she becomes reduced to a prop, and we return to the emotional depth of the first twenty movies.

But don't let all this deter you too too much.  Quantum of Solace is still an action-packed thrill ride with excellent production values, beautiful locations, costumes, excellent fight choreography and the usual endless chase scenes.  Just don't go in expecting Casino Royale...