Swank-mo-tron: Hello everyone, Swank-mo-tron here.  I just wanted to kick off our first roundtable in a while, this time for the new 007 picture, Quantum of Solace.

Let me be the first to say that this movie was pretty good despite obvious mistakes and missteps.  The action sequences, though too choppy, were pretty engaging and cool and Daniel Craig is a certifiable bad-ass.  Having said that, this isn’t my favorite Bond film and there are a few reasons for that.  First, the fact that Forster decided to NOT open with the gun barrel sequence that every other James Bond picture opens with started off this outing with a bit of annoyance for me.  (I was already pissed because there wasn’t a Watchmen trailer on my print but two (count ’em two!) fucking Seven Pounds trailers).  The lack of the gun barrel combined with the utterly patronizing and pointless title screens every time the locale changes served to grate on me through what should have been an otherwise perfect film.  I mean, how many Bond movies have we as a collective audience sat through and didn’t need updates about where the action was heading and all of a sudden we’re too fucking stupid?  I mean honestly, when Bond says, “They’re going to Bolivia,” and they get on a plane and the next shot is him getting off, can’t we just assume that we’re in Bolivia instead of taking me for a moron?  My other big problem was the lack of 007’s theme song in the body of the film.  In Casino Royale, I understood the reason they held off, but for this outing there was no excuse.

Also, where the fuck are Q and Moneypenny?  There is a reason that for 20 straight Bond films there was a Q department and a great scene with Bond and his relationship with Moneypenny.  Why are we not capable of handling that awesomeness anymore?  The next film might as well be Moonraker bad if it can’t include Moneypenny, Q, the James Bond theme and the gun barrel sequence at the fucking beginning.  Otherwise this is just another Bourne movie, and I’ve had enough of those….

Any thoughts?

Humanjunk: The movie was good though. I won’t say it’s as good as Casino Royale, as I seemed to miss the character arc if there was any for Bond. He spent the whole of the movie scowling and being emotionally constipated, don’t get me wrong, Daniel Craig is a fine Bond, by far my favorite, but it seemed to me that he spent the entire time pissed over Vesper. This movie and the last one are more human and real than any of the other ones in the franchise, and Craig, though brooding, brings an element of melancholy to the film; a man who fights against his emotions, fearing that they’ll make him seem weak. He’s well aware that everything he touches turns to shit.