Quantum* of Solace, et al.

*a quantum (plural: quanta)

I saw Quantum of Solace the night it came out and I have to admit that I was disappointed. It was the first overt sequel in the Bond series and it let me down. I didn't feel invested in the plot or characters and it seemed that the writing was not nearly as creative as it had been in Casino Royale (and there is no reason for this, since both films have the same writers). In CR Bond was just getting used to his 007 life (as CR was meant to take place before any of the previously released films) and there was something really endearing, interesting, engaging about seeing him feel his way through the whole secret agent gig (i.e. he doesn't know how he likes his martini's yet). He also fell in love and was betrayed - this is definitely a first for Bond films and its the most vulnerable we've seen him. He also gets tortured, naked..and I won't go further but this is the most helpless we've seen him in his encounters with crooks. All these things added together equal the audience being emotionally involved. Audience members winced when he got tortured, they wanted to see him get out of there! They felt sorry for him when his heart was broken after being betrayed by his lover. These key ingredients for an incredibly engaging film were totally lacking in QOS. I didn't really care what happened to Bond...and when I started to feel sorry for him it didn't last long. So the action was still great, Judi Dench was still perfect, the main antagonist was seriously creeptacular but the film as a whole was lackluster.

In the same weekend, I watched part of Disney's new Tinker Bell movie. The writing was possibly better than QOS. Tinker Bell defies gender stereotypes, has some sweet cast members, and the music is pretty great (thanks to Loreena McKennitt...actually the previous link doesn't fully exemplify the brilliant Celtic music throughout the film). It won a Heartland Truly Moving Picture award. And Jesse McCartney does one of the voices (haha!).

Lastly, this weekend I watched the entire third Season of The Office on DVD. That's right. It was highly enjoyable. I feel as though I can watch this season with historical knowledge behind each character's...character. Now Meredith's sex escapades don't seem quite so egregious. And what is with that bearded Amish man that always runs very fast? Do I need more history to understand him?

p.s. I've just decided that blogs where people review films are kind of lame because everyone and their mom does it...but I'm still going to post it. How can I make it not lame?

p.p.s I don't think I like these new colors either.

p.p.p.s I'm having great difficulty formatting this blog because of all the pictures. Anger and toil.