My Premature Defense of Quantum of Solace

I have yet to see Quantum of Solace (I hope to this weekend), but I have to say, I think Roger Ebert's 2-star review of the film seems to have missed the point entirely.

Don't get me wrong; I love Roger Ebert. He's one of my writing heroes. And I'm not qualified yet to agree or disagree with what he says about the actual plot or quality of the film itself. But he still missed the point. He's done this before (this review of Spider-Man manages to completely miss the point of the character).

The great thing about Casino Royale was that it took 40 years of bullshit and toys and quips and expectations of smug silliness and threw them down the drain. It reimagined the concept of Bond in a post-Bourne Identity cinematic world, making it real and making the Bond character so much more than just a quip factory who had his way with women and drove invisible cars. It was an action movie, a smart one, a suspenseful one, the way Ian Fleming wrote James Bond: elegant, but savage. I remember being wonderfully shocked to see openings for quips, only to have the quips never come. Finally!

So it's disappointing to see Roger Ebert write this:

Don't ever let this happen again to James Bond. "Quantum of Solace" is his 22nd film and he will survive it, but for the 23rd it is necessary to go back to the drawing board and redesign from the ground up. Please understand: James Bond is not an action hero! He is too good for that. He is an attitude. Violence for him is an annoyance. He exists for the foreplay and the cigarette. He rarely encounters a truly evil villain. More often a comic opera buffoon with hired goons in matching jump suits.

He then goes on to bemoan the fact that the girl doesn't have a silly name, lament that the villain doesn't want to launch nuclear missiles from the moon, and even goes out of his way to insult Judi Dench.

Dude, don't you get it? There's a big part of the audience that doesn't want to see that shit anymore. That's in the past. You have those movies already. Let's stop making those movies over and over and over again and try something different. James Bond can be an action hero. I don't want to see the Roger Moore version anymore; a senior citizen jogging around after women young enough to be his granddaughters while writing off pithy quips and jumping out of planes. It's done, get over it.

And by the way, I don't consider "Quantum of Solace isn't exactly like a bunch of shitty Roger Moore" movies to be a valid criticism. Come on, Rog, you're better than this.