The follow up to Casino Royale follows Daniel Craig’s craggy, ice-cold Bond across oceans as he tracks down Vesper Lynd’s murderer. Royale is easily the best movie about Bond ever made, although not the best “Bond movie.” It takes place primarily over a poker table, and takes a few breaks for brutal fight scenes, and some of the best on-screen romantic dialogue I’ve ever seen.
Quantum of Solace wisely avoids any attempt to recreate the simple beauty and brutality of Royale, and instead choses to focus on the struggle between 007’s desire for revenge and duty to the Queen. It changes in the simple setting for vast deserts, mountain vistas and third world shanty towns. The movie also reveals the reboot’s series’ take of SPECTRE, a top secret evil organization called Quantum.
Quantum‘s strength is avoiding the preachiness and sentimentality, and instead focusing the cunning and perseverence that makes Bond Her Majesty’s finest. My favorite screen was when he dismantled a super-high-tech “conference call” in the midst of a performance of Puccini’s Tosca.
As Christ followers, we should explore with 007 the difference between justice and revenge. “‘Vengence is mine,’ says the Lord. Any that we attempt on our own terms will only provide a quantum of solace.
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