If you were expecting a series of James Bond masterpieces, you will be disappointed by "Quantum of Solace." After the heights of "Casino Royale," the series falls back into routine with this above-average thriller, filled with over-the-top action, familiar Bond atmosphere, and a story that's impossible to follow - and why bother anyway? Daniel Craig is still the coolest man in the universe. That definitely helps. Oh, but what a rotten life this James Bond has. Remember Sean Connery, and how he made being a secret agent seem like a great job? Remember Roger Moore, almost bursting out of his tuxedo with self-satisfaction, waiting to tell somebody, anybody, that his name was Bond, James Bond? These guys loved their work, and they made you think, gee, I'd like to do that, too.
But no one would want to endure the trials that poor Daniel Craig has to go through in "Quantum of Solace:" A car chase, a car wreck, drive by shootings, crashing through roofs, not to mention an upside-down duel-to-the-death while hanging from a rope . . . And I'm only talking about the first 15 minutes. Ask audiences who see "Quantum of Solace" if they'd rather dig ditches for a living or be James Bond, and you know what they'd say: They'd ask if the ditch-digging job came with benefits. 
Perhaps this is the right Bond for our time: Sullen, pessimistic, and putting in extra hours, besides. Of course, this Bond is not merely somber out of his disposition or philosophical inclination. No, Vesper is dead. Remember Vesper (Eva Green), from the last movie? Within the constraints of the action genre, this revitalized series actually cares about the psychological truthfulness of the Bond character. And so, in a wise move, we meet Bond in the aftermath of the last movie. Bond has lost the love of his life. He is sad and, even worse, disillusioned, because he believes that she betrayed him.
He is also still in Italy. We meet him as he drives south from Venice in his inimitable style (firing an automatic weapon out the window). Still looking crisp in his suit, he arrives in Siena, just in time for the annual Palio, the horse race that takes place in the town square every summer. He doesn't get to watch the spectacle. He spends the race interrogating a prisoner and then chasing a defector through a Medieval underground labyrinth. The setting is appropriate. James Bond's lot is to be a modern man in collision with the Medieval sensibility - the deceit, the cloak and dagger stuff, and the dark back alleys, both of cities and of the mind.
"Quantum of Solace" almost never slows down. It should slow down more than it does. It provides no moments to savor, no memorable interludes, no scenes between characters to speak of, and no lines of pithy dialogue to look back on fondly. In overall feeling, it's not unlike the middle film in a trilogy. We're thrown right into the action. There's lots of commotion throughout. And it ends, not prematurely, and yet without a feeling of absolute completion.
The new Bond girl (Olga Kurylenko) is lackluster. Actually, she doesn't have much of a showcase. Bond is too busted up over Vesper to pay her much attention. Mathieu Amalric, as the latest villain, has a snide panache, but he would have been more effective had the script made it clear why he's so evil. Something to do with oil? Something to do with the water supply? He's a little too vague to be terrifying. 
Still, three major elements tip this movie's balance into the plus column. There is, first of all, the ineffable Bondness of a Bond movie. This can't be discounted. When Bond walks through the desert, wearing a tuxedo and a bloody shirt, accompanied by a beautiful young woman, the tableau lights up the mind with memories of other movies. This might be the least glamorous Bond movie ever made, but in its style, its visuals and its production, it feels like one of the series. That's important.
On a more tangible level, "Quantum of Solace" benefits from imaginatively conceived action sequences and from a director, Marc Forster, who knows how to film them. Instead of lazily relying on a shaky camera to impart excitement, Forster uses montage. His shots are quick and artfully assembled. Take a look at the opening car chase, which gains all its energy through vigorous cutting. This is a director willing to do the actual work of building a sequence.
Finally, there's Craig, who is at least the franchise's second-best Bond, a real actor who imparts a depth of meaning to seemingly throwaway lines. The filmmakers take care of the trappings. They make Craig look like Bond. They place Craig in the Bond clothes, next to the Bond women, in the Bond locations. And then Craig does his part, by playing Bond as a man, not as an idol.
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