WHO could resist the temptation of watching the latest James Bond movie? I could. I have been doing it for years. I am not one of those diehard Bond fans.
Since Sean Connery "left M's Office", I am quite oblivious to the fact that there have been a series of Bonds gracing the screen over the decades. But recently, I yielded to temptation by walking into the cinema and watched Quantum of Solace.
I recalled reading in the newspaper that an overseas movie critic has said that unlike the previous Bond movies, Quantum of Solace was found wanting in the electronic gadgets category and a trifle shy in the sexy girls department.
After nearly two hours (106 minutes to be exact) of coming face to face with Daniel Craig, I found that comment to be true. While Craig as the latest Bond is a very physical guy, there was a notable absence of Nasa-type electronic devices to impress the non-science guys like me. That's not like James Bond at all!
To compound the thorny and stereotyped issue, the Bond girls were very much less than sexy.
Whoever heard of a James Bond movie that scores a low rating on girls? That wouldn't be a British spy flick of Bond calibre. Olga Kurylenko who starred as Camille in Quantum of Solace is probably one of the least sexy Bond girls in recent decades.
Ogla came across as an Eurasian damsel, not exactly in distress. In fact, she gave Bond a run for the money as far as fights are concerned. She could even turn dangerous turns in a street car chase.
I caught that Hollywood One On One on Astro that showed Olga commenting how she trained for months on fighting techniques. Well, there was little of all that training on screen.
I guess when you have grown up on a steady diet of martial arts type actresses a la Hong Kong, anybody would come to expect much more from fighting women.
On that matter, just look at Michelle Yeoh. When she acted in those Hong Kong movie, she was more than a match for a lot of guys on the screen who were attacking her. And she could really fight. In Hong Kong, either you stay really fighting fit or you take out a big insurance policy on physical injuries.
Most Bond girls would come across as "drop-dead gorgeous" or "beautiful but lethal". Olga was neither. In fact, in one scene, the director deliberately exposed her back and reveal the burnt scars on her back. I guess the cinema colour wasn't that great because I thought she had a bad case of ringworm.
It was only when the movie progressed that I realised that those "spots" on her back were the result of a childhood tragedy that involved her family.
The plot in Quantum of Solace is a bit weak. We are made to understand that it is the continuation of Craig's first Bond outing in Casino Royale.
Bond's arch-nemesis Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) came across more as a psychopath than a ruthless villain. They really don't make Bond villains like they used to. These days, Bond villains looked like my benign next-door neighbour.
On the plus side, Quantum of Solace tried to make up for its shortfalls with lots of action. From start to finish, there is an endless stream of action scenes that involved Craig jumping from one window ledge to the next. That jumping scene reminded me of Jason Bourne in Bourne Supremacy.
Then there was that scene where one of Bond's paramour was killed and coated with black oil from head to toe. She was naked of course. It was reminiscent of Goldfinger when Sean Connery starred in it.
Director Marc Forster tried his best to make it a watchable Bond but I believed he tried a bit too hard and forgot the essence of Bond. All successful Bond movies must have that edge that defies explanation.
It must have that sense of suspence and sexual tension that force all men to ogle at the girls with undesirable intentions.
Of course, there must be those special tools that make James Bond stand head and shoulders above the rest of the super spies.
So without further ado, I give Quantum of Solace a four out of 10 rating. But if you are Bond fanatic, you would probably find this film satisfactory without bursting a capilliary.
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