Ok, so, I've finally seen the film a couple days ago. And, well...
I think it's
the film of the year. At least, the "film you would go at the theater for" of the year.
First of all, I can't sincerely see why A LOT of people seemed so disappointed with the plot. Before going to see the film I had read some spoiler-free reviews of it and the great majority of them stated that the story was really not well developed and that at times it felt almost incomprehensible.
About this, I've got to say I personally entered the theater knowing absolutely anything about the plot (I mean that I hadn't followed the making-of videos, I hadn't watched any featurettes, I hadn't read anything about it and so on... thus I didn't have any clues) and to me the movie
simply ended up being crystal clear. I can't help but think the story has been masterfully handled in this one.
Daniel Craig was fantastic, even better than he was on the first installment. Vengeance made his James Bond rude, mercyless and even colder than he ever was on "Casino Royale".
Other acting performances were good to me, but as always I'm referring to the italian dubbed version of the film, so it is possible that some of the actors earned charisma and/or credibility in the voice dubbing process... I don't know...
Praise to Giancarlo Giannini, our italian representative in the cast.
I think his scenes are some of the most touching of the entire film and really help to develop the character of James Bond, in his humanity.
In any case I thought Judi Dench was the real shining star of this film, besides Daniel. As the plot evolved, you could clearly feel the inner conflict her character was forced to face. To trust Bond?? Or not to?? He is the number 1 of the MI6, yes... but he is also enraged and almost blinded by his anger, after all...
Marc Forster's work as the director was fantastic, in my opinion. Some of the shots were incredibly suggestive and also managed to perfectly capture the classic old-style feeling of the locations. The action sequences, if confused, were also extremely,
extremely effective.
And in the end, special mention to the writers, who were capable of condensing a
perfect character development and some really great dialogues in the shortest Bond movie in history.
NOTE: yes, I know... I wrote that "Quantum" is the film of the year even if this year I actually missed one of the big-screen hits 'cause I didn't go to see "The Dark Knight". But... I can assume that, being it a mere superhero film, and being it about Batman, it just doesn't have
any minimal chance of being better than "Quantum of Solace". I still think "Spider Man 2" is
the best superhero movie ever, especially since our dear Peter Parker is the emotionally deepest superhero character of all time, and, with his second film, director Sam Raimi neatly surpassed himself. So, I guess, no matter how well Nolan could have handled Batman, I sincerely can't believe "The Dark Knight" could ever beat "Spider Man 2" to me, even if it turns out being actually great. And, well, since I consider "Spider Man 2" being inferior to "Casino Royale" while contemporary having found "Quantum" even better than it, I can easily predict that "The Dark Knight" won't be better than this new 007 movie. At least to me, guys.