Quantum of Solace
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: November 14, 2008 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
58
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
22
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
PremiereJames Jung
Quantum, thanks to a deft blend of exotic escapism and bare-bones modernism, is more than strong enough to be judged on its own. In fact, it's the perfect Bond film. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve Persall
Quantum of Solace bends whatever rules 2006's Casino Royale didn't break, presenting more action in less time, with a world domination scheme based on natural resources rather than unnatural gadgets. Read full review
80
EmpireKim Newman
As with "The Dark Knight," the only real caveat is that while it's exciting and imaginative, it's not exactly anyone's idea of fun. To keep in the game, perhaps the next movie could let the hero enjoy himself a bit more. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterRay Bennett
The new picture allows hardly any flourishes of style and character in the 007 tradition, but moviegoers seeking an adrenaline rush will be well pleased. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill Goodykoontz
Quantum is hugely entertaining. Read full review
80
Orlando SentinelRoger Moore
The direction, by Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland), is breathless, with lovely grace notes — he uses silences to end his action beats. And if this incarnation of Bond still doesn't inspire affection, he does command respect, awe, a sense that a real man is risking life and limb for queen and crown. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim Robey
Quantum of Solace offers next to no solace, if we mean respite, but in plunging its hero into a revenge-displacement grudge mission, it has the compensation of a rock-solid dramatic idea, and the intelligence to run and run with it. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's a grim, dark, and relentlessly violent film throughout; James Bond as Terminator rather than Templar – but it delivers the goods in bloody high style: explosively, sexily, and with 007 shaken (not stirred) to his icy core. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The point is, wherever he is, this James Bond is pissed. And that ceaseless anger begins to curdle every sequence that might otherwise bring a little happiness. I mean happiness for us, the viewers. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Never less than engaging. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
It's dark and exciting, but with little breathing room. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The movie is a relentlessly enjoyable star vehicle and a hard-charging action-o-rama full of the usual Bondian elements, for the most part well done. It's one of the year's better action films. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
The least erotic, exotic, luxurious and sarcastic Bond film ever made. Its hero is haunted, obsessed, merciless, cold. There are no gadgets or flippant one-liners and there's almost no sex. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
After the heights of "Casino Royale," the series falls back into routine with this above-average thriller, filled with over-the-top action, familiar Bond atmosphere and a story that's impossible to follow - and why bother anyway? Daniel Craig is still the coolest man in the universe. That definitely helps. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle Smith
Revenge is a dish best served with bullets, high explosives and giant rolling flameballs. In Quantum of Solace, James Bond orders the revenge buffet, deluxe. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Corliss
Kurylenko, a lovely Russian-Ukrainian hybrid who is oddly duskied up to look vaguely Latina, is a whiz at raising Quantum's temperature and gradually luring Bond out of his stolid shell. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Quantum of Solace is too savage for family entertainment, but, as a study in headlong desperation, it's easier to believe in than many more ponderous films. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Craig never overreaches, and yet he accomplishes the unthinkable. He's not the Bond we ever asked for or hoped for, yet he's reimagined the character in ways we never could have foreseen. He's Bond with soul. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
The purpose of the Bond girl, and of the Bond film, is still to stroke the male ego. Bond changes just enough to stay exactly the same. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It delivers the popcorn goods, but it ignores the poison eating at Bond's insides. Killer mistake. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
The stunts are as muscular and the film as handsome to look at as the hero who so ably pulls them off. But the story linking it all together is thin and weak. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
The way it's shot and cut, it plays like a parody of a car commercial shot in the style of a Bond film. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The film's biggest problem is its director. Marc Forster is an experienced art house filmmaker with impressive credits (most recently, "The Kite Runner)", but he is clueless when it comes to action sequences. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Thanks to Daniel Craig, the most Byronic of 007s, who, with scarcely any help from the filmmakers, manages the astonishing task of rooting an outlandish yet sober-sided movie in reality and bringing it an air of wicked amusement, too. Read full review
60
Film ThreatJay Slater
Quantum of Solace may be explosive with images of fiery infernos, but it's convoluted and confusing, the plot playing second fiddle to its set pieces. Read full review
60
VarietyDerek Elley
Stripped of "Royale's" humor, elegance and reinvented old-school stylishness, Quantum has little left except its plot, which is rudimentary and slightly barmy, in the line of the Roger Moore pics of the '70s and '80s. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe Neumaier
The result isn't bland, but it's not exactly Bond either. Read full review
60
Time OutBen Kenigsberg
To be fair, Craig is still the best Bond since Connery, and a Man Who Knew Too Much–style set piece at a Vienna opera house momentarily offers the fleetness and wit the rest of the film lacks. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter Bradshaw
Quantum of Solace isn't as good as Casino Royale: the smart elegance of Craig's Bond debut has been toned down in favour of conventional action. But the man himself powers this movie; he carries the film: it's an indefinably difficult task for an actor. Craig measures up. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonWally Hammond
So much dash, flash and thrill...there’s scant time left for character, let alone, story, fun, seduction, humour or wit. Read full review
60
Total FilmAndy Lowe
This is 007 in mid-story crisis; a festival of blaring action set-pieces propping up a scrappy script and undercooked characters. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
If the staging were as witty as the plotting, Quantum of Solace might have been a corker like "Casino Royale." But when the action starts, art-house-refugee director Marc Forster (Monster’s Ball) mashes together close-ups in the manner of "The Dark Knight," and every big set piece is borderline incoherent. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
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! Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
All dressed up with no particular place to go, this 22nd Bond film tries hard but ends up an underachiever. Read full review
50
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
The violence in his (Craig's) first outing, "Casino Royale," was notably intense, and while Quantum of Solace is not quite as brutal, the mood is if anything even more grim and downcast. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A model of mediocrity. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
A sequel that immediately picks up the plot of its predecessor, and then proceeds to drive the redeemed franchise right off the deep, dark end. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Thank heaven for Judi Dench, whose M provides Quantum of Solace its sole quantum of peppery brio. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
The film feels more like an extended epilogue than a stand-alone adventure, which may be because it is the shortest (105 minutes) entry in the series. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Quantum of Solace isn't frivolous or cheesy, but it isn't all that much fun either. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The trouble with Quantum of Solace is that the frills are a mess, too. Even the customary opening title sequence, with its writhing silhouettes and screechy theme song by Jack White and Alicia Keys, is a cheesy throwback to the Roger Moore era: Ladies and gentlemen, the Quantum of Solace dancers! Read full review
50
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike Scott
It's still darker, still grittier, still absent any shred of camp. Best of all, it's still got Daniel Craig.... So what's missing? How about a compelling story? Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
After all these years of surviving everything that has been thrown at him, James Bond is finally being undone by his own team. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineJeremy Wheeler
This rare direct follow-up hopefully will put to rest the leftover emotional baggage of the character and leave Bond open to a bit more familiar interpretation in the future. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineBill Weber
Updating this anachronistic cash cow with the scrappy and sexy Craig still looks like a wise move, but it requires a greater quantum of style than Solace provides. Read full review
40
SlateDana Stevens
Quantum of Solace, the first bona fide sequel in the Bond series, has the poky pace and expository padding of the middle chapter of a trilogy. Read full review
38
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Solace is especially frustrating when it moves down interesting paths, then stops. Read full review
10
Village VoiceRobert Wilonsky
A spastic, indecipherable, unholy, and altogether unwatchable mess. Read full review
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