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            I’m going to warn you right now that this is not a professional James Bond movie review, just in case you were fooled by my previous postings.  I have seen a few Bond movies, but not enough to qualify me as being in the know about the series beyond the basics.  Among the ones I have missed, I must include “Casino Royale”. Why is that important? It’s because today’s topic is “Quantum of Solace”, which happens to be a direct sequel of “Casino Royale”. In fact, its opening scene is set immediately after the events of that other film and includes characters that were central to it. This gives me the perspective of seeing “Quantum of Solace” from the angle of an individual film rather than as a continuation. We’ll see if I was able to follow along.

            The Bond of this film, reprised by “Casino Royale” star Daniel Craig, is vengefully distraught over the suicide of his lover, Vesper Lynd.  He has just captured Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a member of the terrorist faction called Quantum, who has some accountability in Vesper’s death.  During Mr. White’s interrogation, it is revealed that Quantum agents have penetrated M16 and he is able to escape.  This begins the chain of events creating the basis of the film as Bond sets off after the traitor and is led deeper and deeper into the lair of Quantum and its associates.

            Bond’s allies this go round include the previously introduced characters of semi-retired double-agent René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini) and CIA operative Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), as well as new “Bond Girls” M16 agent Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton) and Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), who is also trying to infiltrate Quantum for purposes of personal retribution.  I might normally include Bond’s superior, M (Judi Dench), as an ally, but there is some ambiguity to that relationship here and she seems to hinder more than help him.

            There are, of course, also new villains for our boy Bond. Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) leads this procession. He is a member of Quantum and is plotting to take control of one of the main water sources in Bolivia through a shell corporation and by scheming to put odious deposed dictator General Medrano back into power in exchange for the land. Medrano and Greene also have some history with Camille that will be revealed.

            The film is full of the usual action. There are high-speed chases, screen-filling explosions, and fights to-the-death…almost everything you expect from a Bond film.  There is much less romancing in this than in previous ones. Maybe Bond is being slightly modernized in his personal habits or maybe it’s that grief thing holding him back a bit. Never fear. He’s bound to be over it by the next installment. They have also taken away a couple of his staple movie trademarks. I’ll let you play that guessing game on your own.

            I honestly can’t predict how well Bond enthusiasts will take to this movie.  I thought it was okay. It did a pretty good job of separating itself enough from “Casino Royale” to allow me to keep up with the story.  The underlying plot held my interest better than their MacGuffin (That’s the way it’s supposed to be…duh!). I didn’t care for the current Bond as well as some of his predecessors, but that may have been due to lack of familiarity on my part with the actor. I did enjoy the irony in the ending, but won’t spoil that one for you. All-in-all, speaking for myself, it was entertaining enough to watch once, but I’m not going to be waiting in line for the eventual DVD release.  I’m not ruling out a future cable viewing, though.