Casino Royale did so much to refurbish and rehabilitate James Bond, but A Quantum of Solace does not advance the effort nearly as much. Daniel Craig‘s portrayal of Bond was a major element in the restoration, but it was really the character of Vesper Lynd, played by the wonderful Eva Green) that made the greatest difference. In Lynd, the film makers gave us a beautiful and intelligent woman whose growing attachment to Bond endowed his character with more depth and interest than he ever previously enjoyed. Unfortunately, there is no similar person in the new film, so what we get is Craig and Judi Dench and the splendid villian Mathieu Amalric and a lot of up-to-the-minute Hollywood mayhem. (Maybe too up-to-the-minute: I loved Marc Forster‘s The Kite Runner, but he overcuts his action sequences to the degree that you can’t follow the conflict, something that never happens with Paul Greenglass, the maestro of the last two Bourne movies and United 93.) Giving Bond some genuine emotional jeopardy in Casino Royale was significant, but right now, Bond is very much like Bourne, too much so; the challenge in the next Bond film will be to find a way to restore and reinterpret his typical wit and verve.
