Quantum of Solace: Bond’s Revenge

Really enjoyed this.
Much more character focused than the original.
Liked that overlong action sequences were trimmed.
Never bought the Vesper backstory, not in this nor in the original.
Bond is a sexual predator, he would never get emotional about anyone.
Maybe M.
So when Vesper's ghost appeared, I crinkled a bit.
That said, the video insets were nicely done. Slick.
To me, QS remains the weakest of the Craig 007s, but
I enjoyed this far, far more than the original.

This has saved this movie for me.
Just wanted to say, thank you for the hard work!

Review by Aztek463 — May 26, 2011 @ 11:09 pm

I’ve been iffy on Quantum of Solace. I didn’t really care for it that much when it was released to theaters, although my opinion changed a bit on subsequent viewings. I actually did my own edit of this a few years ago, but I never released it. I was interested to see Last Survivor’s edit of this because, well, it sorta reminded me of mine. So without further ado, let’s see how it was, shall we?

VIDEO:
This is a nice looking edit. No combing, no pixelation, no digital artifacts. There was a slight quality drop from the commercial DVD, but that’s to be expected, and it wasn’t distracting save for when there were subtitles present (hard coded as part of the original picture. Yellow is an awful color). These were few and far in between, and not the editor’s fault in the slightest.
8/10

AUDIO:
No complaints here.
10/10

EDITING:
Last Survivor did a great job on the editing. The opening was great…while the Licence to Kill gun barrel theme didn’t quite feel right at first, as the opening shots of the film played out, it was a better fit than I thought it would be. The “previously on James Bond…” opening was very well edited, and with the music he used, it was suspenseful as well.

The new title song was great as well, it definitely fit, and I liked the inclusion of the credit for it. Good job!

The opera shootout and the fight at the end were done very well as…well, I guess. There was more emotion in both of them, especially the final confrontation between Camille and Medrano/Bond and Greene. The pace was great, and it didn’t seem “out of place” when the scene slowed down, in both cases.

I did feel that the opening flashback to Casino Royale went on a bit too long, and it probably could have been trimmed down a bit. Also, some of the scenes that were slowed down (the blood on the gun barrel, the car chase) were slowed down *too* much, to the point the video was a bit jerky. Not the worst thing in the world, but just for future reference, be careful slowing stuff down.
9/10

DVD:
Simple, but effective. It was quite pleased to see a scene selection menu (with different music on each page!) Extras include a trailer and info on the edit. No complaints.
10/10

I do have on major complaint for this edit, and it’s a doozy. In some scenes, particularly the flashbacks to Casino Royale, a good chunk of the Haiti sequence, and a little bit at the end, the video seems like it’s going a bit fast. The audio is not out of sync, but it appears as if perhaps the original source for this edit was PAL and not properly converted to NTSC. It also reminded me of how some HDTVs are configured improperly on the showroom floor of electronics stores, and the demos being shown appear to move too fast. What the cause of this was, I’m not sure, but it was distracting at times. I tested the edit on a few different players, the same result each time.

Don’t get me wrong…I really enjoyed this edit. It’s pretty damn close to my preferred version of the film. However, the aforementioned video issues are a distraction and take away from the experience, and prevents me from giving it a higher score. Maybe Last Survivor could look into fixing this or figuring the issue out and release a corrected version?

TOTAL: 7/10

Overall I enjoyed this edit and I think it helped the movie. There's not a lot to work with, so only so much can be done.

First, the good. Adding in the gun barrel Bond trope fits--it is kind of odd to not have it. Replacing the theme song was a decided improvement; I'm not 100% convinced of the P!nk song but it fits overall and is a massive improvement over the awful original.

Trimming the action sequences works. This is a Bond film, not a Bourne film, so the chases and fights shouldn't be the focus. In particular the opera sequence is fantastic IMHO. Going slow motion with just the music track get across the brutality of the fight without getting in the viewer's face about it. The Vesper flashbacks generally works. Same goes for the final hotel fight, though it isn't quite as effective. The technique helps to highlight Bond's state of mind.

Having a callback montage at the beginning is a good idea since this is a rare actual sequel film. Which segues me into the criticism. The initial sequence felt overlong. Probably picking up a couple of short clips then right to the sinking elevator and aftermath would be enough--not a summary of the entire Casino Royale.

Moving the Sienna chase to before the opening credit sequence also didn't work for me. It moved the credit sequence too far into the film--15 minutes or so in? It felt wrong.

As mentioned, some of the flashbacks to Vesper were a bit abrupt, even if appropriate.

With the cutting, the thin story and weak villain became almost secondary. It started to become more of Bond ignoring M's orders and avoiding getting caught by her and the other agents. Again, not much to work with here.

In the end I did enjoy the edit and it works, it's just not my favorite work by Last Survivor.

Quantum of Solace is a bit of a thorny issue when it comes to Bond. It was rushed, there was a writers strike and therefore the plot was extremely thin. The action scenes were done with shaky cam and very fast editing that left the viewer a little confused at times. Still, for a Bond fan it had many great moments, but it needed more of plot to hold the film together.

I didn't know how one could improve on this film without access to the original footage and deleted scenes to make something more cohesive. But then, if there wasn't much in the script in the first place...

This edit opens with the gun-barrell inserted into the beginning rather than the end which is a good thing as it really jars at the end, coming as it does after an emotional pay-off scene. Bizarrely the gun-barrell opens into a flash forward of Bond and Camille in the desert before cutting to the aerial shot over the water that leads to the car chase opening, which didn't really work for me. The car chase is intercut with flash backs from Casino Royale, which is a good idea to re-establish Bond's motivation and anger, but doesn't quite come off. The slowed down shots of the action is most welcome as in the original it's nigh on impossible to follow what's happening. We then have the interrogation scene followed by the roof-top chase BEFORE the opening titles which works so much better - good move!

Not sure about the Pink tune as the title music, I would have gone with Shirley Bassey's theme that was rejected when they heard they could get Jack White (bad move) - hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCX4SxhpPwE

I like that the place name titles have been replaced with a sensible font, but I did miss Bond's final scene with Greene, and the slowed down fight scene felt like a bit of an anti-climax.

Good job though - I still enjoyed myself, but I'd probably still reach for the original.