Quantum of Solace: Bond’s Revenge

Review from 17 June 2011

Watched this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’ll start off with the negatives:
1. The gun barrel sequence doesn’t work, I’m afraid. It looks strange, the “barrel” needs anti-aliasing, and the shot it opens into is near the end of the movie – and then it suddenly cuts to the intro sequence. If you *must* have the barrel, open directly into the opening shot of the film.
2. A natural place for the credits is “Bond, James Bond”. Where you’ve put it feels off, and it breaks the action.
3. The Opera sequence doesn’t quite work. I see what you’re trying to do, and I REALLY like the Vesper callbacks the whole way through, but the abrupt segue into Vesper was jarring. Perhaps if you put the shot of her in the mirror when he looks up in the bathroom after putting the Quantum earpiece in? I think the callback needs to start in a non-action part – and then maybe carry on into the action. Maybe also put back more of the opera – the opera dealing with death leads nicely into thoughts about Vesper – and revenge, which makes him brutal (which is what I think you were going for, which I really liked).
4. The explanation of the fuel cells (which I also thought was unnecessary at first) is actually required – otherwise the hotel just starts ridiculously blowing up for no reason whatsoever, and becomes an 80′s throwback!
5. The sudden cut to Camille in a Vesper-type dream sequence felt really off. It didn’t work at all, in my opinion. I liked the way you cut the action, but I think putting the Vesper chased/trapped sequence in juxtaposed with Camille’s fight would actually work much better.
6. You need the interaction with Greene saying “I told you all I know” – because that leads to Russia. Otherwise Bond just magically appears in Russia!

If you could address some of the issues above this film would replace the original. It is far stronger than the original!

And now the positives:
1. The opening sequence was FANTASTIC. It was jaw-droppingly good. The concept and execution – brilliant! (And then I read how much work it took! Kudos to you. And it was worth it!)
2. The movie as a whole is really well paced, hangs together nicely. What you’ve removed is hardly noticeable.
3. Technically very, very strong. I could detect once or twice where you’d edited the music, but nothing jarring. Picture was superb.
4. Fonts replacement – yes!!
5. Title song. Hm, original didn’t bother me, but replacement was flawless. Nicely done.
6. I liked the Bourne-type action – but liked yours equally well. The whole idea of revenge flashbacks in the action was great.

Well done, Last Survivor. If the issues mentioned are dealt with, this edit would be a solid 9, 9.5. As it stands I think the edit is a well-earned 7.
Thanks for a great hour and a half!

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
(none of my comments are meant as a personal attack on the faneditor, these are simply my opinions and feedback)

So I finally watched LastSurvivor’s fanedit: Quantum of Solace: Bond’s Revenge. Let me start off by saying some things about Daniel Craig as Bond and my impressions of the original Quantum of Solace. I first saw Daniel Craig in Layer Cake. When I heard he was casted as the new Bond I was frankly a little disappointed as I felt a perfect candidate for the new Bond was Clive Owen. However, I saw Casino Royale in theaters and really enjoyed. There was the great opening. Lots of good action, and a grittier less refined Bond which was refreshing. Casino Royale was not without its flaws (Faneditor Kerr’s Casino Royale: Straight Flush Edition addressed many of these flaws IMO).

So then I watched Quantum of Solace. Hmmm no gun barrel Bond opening. A parallel action sequence of a horse race in Italy with an interrogation of Mr. White and a chase scene (which i found kind of unneeded, I would have rather that parts with the horse race been taken out all together). The horrible opening credits song. The Bourne style action sequences which were often to fast to follow and left you quite dizzy. This was clearly not a great follow-up to Casino Royale. So i finished the movie feeling that it was ok. Not great, not awful.

Enter Quantum of Solace: Bond’s Revenge. As usual, I did not read the cutlist before watching. But I did read the intention for the edit so had some idea of what i was in for. First off Gun Barrel opening! Yes! If nothing else, this fanedit is worth watching to see the revamped opening scene and the new opening credits song. LastSurvivor picked a great choice of song, the tempo and mood really fits the mold of previous Bond songs. The new opening sequence was good. The flashbacks give a good recap. Although in my opinion, it was a bit long. Other than that I liked the sequence. I think LastSurvivor picked the perfect place to insert the opening credits and song. As I was watching the original i thought to myself as Bond was hanging on the rope and looked up and fired the gun “this would be a great spot to end the intro and start the song and opening credits” LastSurvivor must have read my mind. The climax with the fight scenes with Bond versus Green and Camille versus the General were. Well done. 1) it was nice to see the slo-mo so you could see what was going on 2) the inserts of flashbacks reminded the viewer of the emotional motivations for both Bond and Camille (which was part of LS’s intention with this edit).

There were some interesting choices made with slow motion such as the parachute scene which if IIRC was not slo-mo in the original. The insertion of the brief Vesper flashback, in the scene where Bond is leaving the opera after interrupting the meeting of the Quantum group, was a little out of place. I guess Bond briefly staring down Green and knowing Green had some part in Vesper’s death warranted a flashback but my personal opinion was that it didn’t quite fit. The choice to not directly show Bond dropping the bodyguard off the rough and instead do it in split screen wth M talking to Bond on the phone, that worked quite well. Finally, the cutting out of Bond driving Green out into the dessert and leaving him the cannister and driving away. I definitely didn’t miss this scene, and the little cut necessary to take out M’s allusion to it in her conversation with Bond at the end of the movie was expertly done.

Overall I found this an enjoyable fanedit, in my opinion better than the original, but still I find something lacking in Quantum of Solace even after being fanedited.

Video and Audio quality were great, no jarring cuts, no audio drops outs.


LastSurivor, good work on this edit! You had a plan and clear idea of what you wanted to accomplish and in my opinion you definitely achieved your goal. Congrats!