Jim Devine wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Juan Cole <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 2:04 AM
The reviews of director Mark Forster's "Quantum of Solace" have
complained about the film's hectic pace ..., about the humorlessness
of Daniel Craig's Bond, and even about the squalid surroundings, so
unlike Monaco and Prague, in which the film is set (with many scenes
in Haiti and Bolivia). They have missed the most remarkable departure
of all. Forster presents us with a new phenomenon in the James Bond
films, a Bond at odds with the United States, who risks his career to
save Evo Morales's leftist regime in Bolivia from being overthrown by
a General Medrano, who is helped by a private mercenary organization
called Quantum.
As much as I would like to see a leftish Bond movie, this one sounds
like a complete mess. Apparently, the movie borrows heavily from the
quite good Bourne movies with Matt Damon, but overplays the car chase
type mayhem that the Bourne movies grew increasingly to rely on. David
Edelstein had a very shrewd critique of the later Bourne movies and
"Quantum of Solace" on CBS Sunday Morning show and complained especially
about the jerky hand-held camera action scenes that have dominated
recent action movies.
My favorite critic Mr. Cranky has spoken out on this:
http://www.mrcranky.com/movies/bournesupremacy.html
The Bourne Supremacy
Bomb Rating: 3 bombs [Will require therapy after viewing]
What business does director Paul Greengrass -- whose resumé includes a
few lame movies, a lot of bad television and virtually no experience
with action -- have trying to demonstrate his flair for jump-cutting and
camera-jostling?
With so many directors ruining entire movies because they think a good
action sequence involves shaking the camera until the audience blows
chunks all over the theater, I no longer know how to protest. Should I
organize a "March on Hollywood" and toss buckets of vomit on
unsuspecting directors? Should I write letters to studio heads
threatening dark repercussions if my demands for clear action sequences
aren't met? Should I streak across the stage at the Directors Guild's
next awards show with a sign tattooed on my ass that reads: "I'm nuts
for good action"?
What business does director Paul Greengrass -- whose resumé includes a
few lame movies, a lot of bad television and virtually no experience
with action -- have trying to demonstrate his flair for jump-cutting and
camera-jostling? Here's a unique vision, Paul: Why don't you try a
simple static camera shot that gives the audience a chance to actually
see what's going on? Why don't you successfully complete the single most
basic shot in the cinematic repertoire before you go tying your handheld
camera to the end of a rubber band or the back of an epileptic puppy or
whatever it is that you're doing to make me ill?
I think several examples are necessary here. Early in the film, Jason
Bourne (Matt Damon) realizes somebody is coming for him, so he and Marie
(Franka Potente) drive off. In the process, somebody gets shot.
Unfortunately, due to Greengrass's incompetent direction, it's
impossible to tell where the stationary gunman is relative to the car or
how he pulls off the shot. There's simply no way to tell because
Greengrass is more concerned with so-called clever, fast-paced editing
than with clarity.
In a later scene, Bourne is trying to simultaneously elude CIA field
operatives and convince CIA mission head Pamela Landy (Joan Allen) that
he didn't murder two of her agents. In the process, he makes several
quick escapes through foreign markets. Unfortunately, we have neither a
sense of where he's been, who's following him, nor where he's trying to
go, because once again, it's more important to Greengrass to cut away
from all these things to appease the style gods. Finally, in a car chase
pitting Bourne against a Russian counterpart, a sequence with the
potential to be one of the best car chases ever, Greengrass forgoes a
sensible visual approach in favor of making the audience feel like he's
set his camera to vibrate then placed it on the seat of a Yugo with no
shocks.
Ah, if only there were such a thing as a recall on directors.
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