When you have a franchise as long-running as that of James Bond, there tend to be a few bad movies along the way. Of course, fans of 007 have been ranking the movies from best to worst since there were more than three to pick from. As it stands, there have been 27 movies since 1962, includes this years' highly-anticipated No Time To Die. Aside from overall quality, fans have been ranking these movies by the strength of their villain as well as the Bond girls they choose for each story. But when it comes to 2008's Quantum Of Solace, most fans think the filmmakers got nothing right. Sure, the film made a lot of money, but it was a downright disappointment for Daniel Craig's second outing as Britain's finest secret agent.
Even though there was a ton of controversy surrounding the casting of Daniel in the role that was traditionally played by tall, dark, and averagely handsome men, 2006's Casino Royale absolutely blew away audiences. For many, Casino Royale is not just a great Bond film... it's one of the best... by far. But Quantum, on the other hand, is one of the worst. And there are some very legitimate reasons why fans think it is... Heck, even Daniel Craig agreed with them in the 2021 documentary Being James Bond. Here's why fans and 007 himself are totally right...
How A Lack Of A Writer Destroyed Daniel's Second Outing As 007
There was a tremendous expectation as to what Daniel Craig would do with his second outing as James Bond. After all the needless and, frankly, the ridiculous controversy surrounding his casting, fans expected big things from Daniel after Casino Royale. Therefore, MGM (which is owned by Sony) and Eon Productions (Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson) had to hurry up and make a sequel. Sony had a release date available for them and the filmmakers had to rush to get a project ready for that time. Only, there was a writer's strike brewing and therefore getting a project made ASAP became even more important. After all, without writers, how could they make a good film?
You can't. And they didn't.
The absence of a strong writer (or writers) is what destroyed Quantum Of Solace.
Prior to the release of Casino Royale, screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade were working on a script for a sequel. While components of the story were kept for Quantum of Solace, most were scrapped after producer Michael G. Wilson thought of a new idea. But a new script was not commissioned and this resulted in Roger Michell dropping out as director. But due to Sony's demands, the movie had to rush to production. So legendary screenwriter Paul Haggis was brought on.
As Paul Haggis began to sketch out Michael's idea, director Marc Forster (who wasn't a Bond fan) was brought on to direct and help shape the story.
"Because Bond plays it real, I thought the political circumstances should be real too, even though Bond shouldn't be a political film. I thought the more political I make it, the more real it feels, not just with Bolivia and what's happening in Haiti, but with all these corporations like Shell and Chevron saying they're green because it's so fashionable to be green," Marc said in an interview.
But with the Writer's Guild Of America strike about to break, Paul had no time to flush out the story. In fact, he finished his first draft two hours before the strike launched. According to Barbara Broccoli, he even walked out the door and began to strike after turning in his draft.
Paul handed the producers and director all the necessary story beats but none of the heart and soul that comes from massaging a script over a period of time. In fact, he didn't even have the dialogue. Which resulted in Daniel and Marc figuring out the script as they shot it.
"We had the bare bones of a script and then there was a writers' strike and there was nothing we could do," Daniel said in a 2011 interview. "We couldn't employ a writer to finish it. I say to myself, 'Never again', but who knows? There was me trying to rewrite scenes—and a writer I am not".
The Result Of Having No Writer
The consequences of not having a proper writer on the movie resulted in the movie moving from set-piece to set-piece without much rhyme or reason. There were basically a series of obstacles for Bond to (easily) overcome and therefore it didn't exactly make for an engaging story. On top of this, as detailed in Filmento's excellent video essay, the film is entirely made up of two types of scenes... Actions sequences and expository scenes. Throughout the film, we flip back and forth between these two types of scenes. And unlikely most of the other James Bond movies, Quantum's scenes that delve into important pieces of context and exposition to explain the overly complicated story, are nothing more than information dumping. There's no conflict. There's no drama. There's just information that leads into brutally violent scenes.
At the end of the day, Quantum of Solace became more of a Fast and the Furious or Transformers movie than it does a James Bond flick.