Daniel Craig’s time asJames Bondwas one for the ages. Despite being in only five films, due to various delays across the entries, Craig was Bond for 15 years, making him the longest-serving tenure as 007. The Craig era’s odd number of Bond films all tend to be regarded as the best, with 2006’sCasino Royalebeing the successful relaunch of the franchise, 2012’sSkyfalla glorious 50th-anniversary celebration, and 2021’sNo Time to Diea fitting end for his era of the character. Sandwiched in between them are 2008’sQuantum of Solaceand 2015’sSpectre. These two films are seen as not only the worst films in Craig’s era but even among the entire James Bond franchise.
Of the two,Quantum of Solaceis often regarded as the worst for a number of factors. Part of it was that due to the film being filmed during the 2007-2008 WGA strike, the film’s clear script issues are apparent. Meanwhile, it is the unfortunate nature of being considered a major letdown followingCasino Royale’s incredible relaunch and seemingly being the movie that put the Bond franchise on ice until 2012’sSkyfallrelaunched. By the timeSpectrecame out and was disappointed,Quantum of Solacehad been associated as the worst in the Craig era for seven years. However, as the years have gone by,Spectrehas shown itself as easily the weakest entry in Daniel Craig’s Bond films. Here is why Quantum of Solace is a better movie thanSpectre.
Spectre Attempts to Build a Bond Universe
While Bond films all take place in the same continuity, the majority of the time, one doesn’t need to watch a previous film to enjoy another. EvenSkyfallis a rather standalone Bond sequel, and an audience member could theoretically go straight fromCasino Royaleinto it without losing anything. In contrast,Quantum of Solacepicks up mere minutes afterCasino Royale, andSpectre’s main plot is kicked into motion by the climax ofSkyfall. However,Spectreis more contingent on previous Bond movies as it tries to retroactively tie the previous three Daniel Craig Bond movies together through a Marvel-esque attempt at worldbuilding.
This results inSpectreimpacting, rewriting, and, in some ways, weakening the prior entries.The revelation that Spectre, specifically Bond’s adopted brother Franz Oberhauser/Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), was behind all the actions inCasino Royale,Quantum of Solace, andSkyfallundermines many movie plot developments. The revelation that Quantum itself is a subsidiary of Spectre feels like the filmmaker’s attempt to “fix” the fact that Spectre was meant to be the evil organization behindCasino Royale, but the filmmakers didn’t have the rights, therefore ADRing the name “Quantum” intoQuantum of Solace.
Meanwhile, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) fromSkyfall, who was acting independently from anyone and was on his mission, is revealed to have been backed by Spectre. This robs that film of the verypersonal conflict of the villain targeting M(Judi Dench) and Bond being drawn into the middle.It takes an interesting villain and makes him the puppet of a greater villain, one whose actions as “the author of all of Bond’s pain” is a retcon of the worst kind.
Quantum of Solace Is a Better Continuation of Casino Royale
Meanwhile,Quantum of Solace, for all its faults, continues from whereCasino Royaleleft off in order to build up Craig’s Bond origin story.Casino Royaleis only part of the origin story, andQuantum of Solacefills in the rest by showing what happens when Bond becomes compromised by his feelings following Vesper’s betrayal. Audiences see Bond continue to grow from theblunt force instrument introduced inCasino Royale.
Here, he is motivated by revenge under the guise of “duty,” However, he soon realizes that revenge will not bring him peace, and he needs to distance himself from his work to become the agent with a license to kill. The movie’s ending, a recreation of the iconic gun barrel shot that typically opens a Bond movie, helps tieCasino RoyaleandQuantum of Solaceas one giant “origin” for Bond.By this end, he is finally the James Bond audiences have known for years.
In theory,this is what madeSkyfallso great; it was just another Bond adventure after the two previous movies were extended origins, but thenSpectreundermines it all by saying it is all connected. It misses the point of James Bond. He doesn’t need a personal connection to the villains in the movie, it is job to go to these different locations and encounter these colorful foes.
Quantum of Solaceshows how Bond’s personal life can affect him from doing his job.Spectrereveals that Bond’s personal life and job are the same, and that is both less compelling from a character standpoint and also makes the universe feel smaller and puts more importance on Bond. Instead of being just another agent, he is a chosen figure tied to all these significant events instead of just being there for work.
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Quantum of Solace Feels Like an Update of Bond…
Another elementQuantum of Solacedoes not get enough praise for is how it built uponCasino Royale’sattempt to update Bond conventions for the 21st-century audience.Spectre, on the other hand, features many of the elements from the franchise that other Craig films did not and ends up feeling like cheap fan service.
As mentioned previously,Quantum of Solacedecides to move the gun barrel sequence to the end of the film as opposed to the beginning,to create a character bookendwith the story inCasino Royale. It also is the first Bond movie not to feature him introducing himself with his classic line “Bond, James Bond.“Quantum of Solace’s Camille Montes(Olga Kurleynko) is also the first Bond girl to not sleep with 007. The movie is not that progressive as Bond still seduces a female agent, Fields (Gemma Arterton),but it was still a big hallmark of the franchise for Bond to break.
Meanwhile, the film’s villain,Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), is a genuinely 21st-century update of a classic Bond villain. For one, he breaks away from the franchise conventions as he does not feature a physical deformity, a troubling trend thateven the well-regarded Craig movieslikeCasino Royale,Skyfall,andNo Time to Diefall back on. Then there is his plan, one that involves damning Bolivia’s fresh water supply to create a monopoly and then blackmailing the new dictator that Quantum appointed into signing a contract forcing them to pay for water at a higher price.
Throughout the movie, the character and the audience assume that all the pipelines being purchased and interest in desert land have to be for oil, with lines like “the most precious resources” playing off people’s expectations of how much oil costs.Yet the revelation that it is water is both a clever subversionand highlights that the truly valuable resource is one vital to human life, and the villains are the ones that control these resources and charge high prices, knowing people will have to pay for it.
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…While Spectre Falls Back on Fan-Service
Spectre, sadly, is not as clever.Its plot to have the organization Spectre gain control of a global surveillance program called Nine Eyes felt uninspiredas just one year afterCaptain America: The Winter SoldiersawHYDRA attempt a similar move. Meanwhile,all the hallmarks of Bond are back. WhileSkyfallintroduced previous long-established Bond characters like Moneypenny, Q, and Ralph Fiennes as a male M in the classic office,Spectrelooks to do a big-budget modern take on the more wonderful flight of fancy Roger Moore Bond films while trying to keep its serious, grounded tone.This makes additions like a supped-up gadget car, which the previous three Craig movies avoided, feel out of place with this take on James Bond.
Finally,Spectrehad the ability to use the evil organization of the same name — which previously the series had been restricted from using for nearly four decades due to copyright reasons. They go all in by not only making the organization an evil cabal but also bringing in the most famous Bond villain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.Instead of creating a new villain, they recycled a famous onebut also decided to make him worse with a convoluted backstory.
Then there is the worst retcon in the film, the reveal that the film’s main villain, Franz Oberhauser, is, in fact, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. This was something the movie’s marketing department hid even though anyone with a passing knowledge of Bond knows the head of Spectre is Blofeld, so the secrecy is unnecessary and only done so the movie can have a twist.When he “reveals” his name dramatically, it means nothing to Bond as a character and is only there to elicit a response from the audience, who know that he is Bond’s most famous foe.
Yet worst of all,the film reveals that Blofeld and Bond were raised as brothers. It’s even more ridiculous considering it is the same plot point inAustin Powers and Goldmember, where it was revealed that Austin Powers and Dr. Evil are, in fact long, long-lost brothers. Dr. Evil’s visuals are even based on the original Ernest Blofeld, so the decision to seemingly adapt this plot point from a spoof of classic Bond in the new modern-day Bond franchise is baffling. NowJames Bond no longer informs Austin Power, Austin Powers informs James Bond.
The Same Team Made Skyfall and Spectre… What Went Wrong?
Spectreis made more frustrating, considering that most of the creative team who made the critically acclaimedSkyfallreturned for the movie.Quantum of SolaceandCasino Royaledid bring on the same writing team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade alongside Paul Haggis, but Marc Forester was brought on board to direct after Martin Campbell directed Casino Royale. Meanwhile, they were working at a disadvantage, consideringthe script had to be rusheddue to the 2007-2008 WGA Strike and filming had to accommodate that.The fact that the movie works is a miracle.Quantum of Solaceholds up better than other movies rushed into production during that strike, such asTransformers: Revenge of the FallenandX-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Spectre, though, did not face any of these setbacks. They had a three-year window between the release ofSkyfallandSpectre. After earning critical acclaim for directingSkyfall, Sam Mendes returned to the director’s chair. Purvis and Wade wrote onSkyfallandSpectre, andso did three-time Academy Award nominee John Logan. In addition,Spectrealso brought on critically acclaimed playwright Jez Butterworth. The producers pulled out all the stops forSpectre, giving it a budgetranging between $250 to $300 millionand a runtime of nearly two and a half hours. Yetdespite all that,Spectredropped the ball in every way thatSkyfallsucceeded. Maybe it was too much of a good thing; perhaps the filmmaking team tried to do “Skyfallbut more,” and the result was a movie that disappointed many.Quantum of Solacehas flaws, but it is a better Bond movie thanSpectre.
