View from 'the gods'

This film is advertised as picking up exactly where Casino Royale left off, so I wasn’t surprised when the film starts with a car chase – but then again it is not an uncommon way to start a movie these days. Bond (Daniel Craig) is back in an Aston Martin being chased by two black Alfa Romeos – bullets fly, the police get involved, cars crash, Bond gets away.

The surprise is that there is someone in the boot; the bad guys were after Bond’s captive. But before MI6 can interrogate the captive, a mole within MI6 takes out the interrogation team and security team, and almost kills M (Judi Dench).

And so this recreation of James Bond shows us – the audience – a glimpse of the recreated Smersh. Much of the film is used to develop the concept that there is a global conspiracy – MI6’s has a ‘new’ nemesis – Quantum.

Revenge is the theme of this film. Bond encounters Camille (Oleg Kurylenko) a young women scarred physically and mentally, out to avenge the brutal murder of her family. Bond is out to revenge the deaths of: Vesper, killed in Casino Royale; Fields (Gemma Arterton), killed to frame Bond; and Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), killed to frame Bond. Inevitably Bond and Camille pair up – the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Fields’ death is quite unpleasant, drowned in crude oil, and appears to be Forster’s tip-of-the-hat to Goldfinger. Fields is found naked, covered in oil, on a bed; very remanisant of Jill Masterton (Shirley Eaton) painted in gold.

The film is has a very fast pace, and feels like one long chase. The end has the inevitable showdown in the desert, with bullets and bodies flying. The very end shows that Bond has not been consumed by his need for revenge, or perhaps that there are other ways to get revenge, than just killing someone.

Daniel Craig certainly brings a hard edge to Bond.

I thought the ‘bodies in the sand’ lead in, at the beginning of the film, very innovative and very relevant – Quantum are out to corner all of the water in Bolivia.

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