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Created Nov 23, 2008 11:54AM PST • Edited May 02, 2014 01:07AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Good 3.0

   Like a bad hangover from Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace plows forward as grim adventure. Bond himself starts out looking like hell, as M tartly opines. A prototypical cinematic alpha-male, he recovers quickly, medicated by a large tumbler of what appears to be Scotch. This sends the message that even when feeling bad, its good to be Bond. Thus are cultural archetypes perpetuated.

   Though a plenty respectable Bond movie, QoS lacks charm, fluidity and an acceptable opening song, getting by on the considerable chops of Daniel Craig’s peerless 007, Dame Judi Dench’s magisterial M, two suitable albeit pissy evil kingpins, and a pair of nifty Bond girls. Rock on, though let’s hope that Craig’s third Bond outing returns to the rare air reached in Casino Royale.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   A great man reminds you of no other. Daniel Craig’s great 007 doesn’t recall Brosnan, Dalton, Moore, or even the alpha-alpha-male Connery. By that measure, Craig is a peerless Bond, James Bond.

   Dame Dench plays her largest role yet in a Bond movie. Always a good thing to have a performer of her caliber in so many scenes. This Dame would be interesting reading the phone book.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    OK 2.5

    Opening with perhaps the worst song in Bond history, the movie assumes a nice pace once it finally – mercifully – starts, only to bog down by the end of the first reel, slogging from there on through a series of mostly grim set pieces. Not that it’s all a forced march: the shootout at the opera is a true highlight.

11. Direction Good 3.0

    Known for sensitive fare such as The Kite Runner, Marc Forster amply makes his bones in the action genre with QoS. Let’s hope his future movies have more balance now that he’s proved himself a tough guy.

12. Play Good 3.0

    I liked the difficult title right from the start, though that’s me, a sucker for nerd words like Quantum, and Solace for that matter. Supposedly Quantum is the name of the SPECTRE-like organization out to take over the world, or Bolivia, whichever comes first. However this appellation doesn’t seem to appear in the movie. Oops.

13. Music Bad 1.0

    Jack White deserves the ball-whacking that Bond got in Casino Royale for coming up with a whacked out dud like the well-titled opening song. Then he got Alicia Keys to sing it with him, messing up a truly great singer in his bit of unfortunate business. Woof. The guy has created great songs before and no doubt will again, but Another Way To Die opens QoS on an odd and off-putting note. Way to die indeed, Jack.

    The only reason I didn’t yank the Music slider all the way down to Awful is because snatches of the still stirring Bond theme pepper the movie, though most people will find themselves itching to get out the door by the time the full theme comes on over the ending credits. What a waste.

14. Visuals Very Good 3.5

    Fabulous locations, natch, though they tend to get stepped on by the tumbling and often dark cinematography.

    The Palio di Siena is a particular highlight, though it gets tarted up quite a bit in typical Bond style. The video in the WikChip to the upper-right shows the real thing.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.2

    Too titillating for anything less than a full two on the Sex scale, Bond’s dalliance with a winsome and intrepid embassy functionary satisfies the old itch, though it passes in a flash and gives up not even that much.

    The brutal violence – as with Craig’s first outing – reminds us that this isn’t your father’s James Bond.

17. Sex Titillating 2.0

18. Violence Brutal 3.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Glib 1.8

    Less outré than Casino Royale, but also done with less panache so the entertainment value is diminished.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.1

23. Biological Surreal 2.5

24. Physical Surreal 2.4