I watched Quantum of Solace in the theatre yesterday (it was released in India on 7-Nov-08, and at Prasad's Multiplex, they are showing this movie on the IMAX screen).  As I had read that the movie picks up immediately after the events of Casino Royale, I watched that movie again before seeing this one.

I was disappointed by Quantum of Solace.  Maybe I need to see it again — after all, I liked Casino Royale more on watching the second time than I did initially — but still, I thought the first movie was more engaging and entertaining overall.

This post contains SPOILERS so you may not want to read further unless you have seen these movies —

To recap the events of the first film — international criminal Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) is the "banker" for the world's terrorist organisations, and he invests their money in various stocks.  James Bond (Daniel Craig) intervenes and foils a plan of his — thereby causing Le Chiffre to lose more than a hundred million dollars, which he desperately wants to recover.  Hence, he sets up a high-stakes poker game at Casino Royale in Montenegro, and Bond is entered in by MI6 as one of the players.  The plan is to make Le Chiffre lose, and turn him over to the intelligence agency so that he can give away secrets about the terrorists.  Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) is brought in as the accountant/banker for Bond.  Bond falls in love with Vesper by the end of the movie, but in a twist, Vesper betrays him — which is revealed to be because a mysterious organisation was holding her boyfriend captive, and they wanted the winnings from the game.  In a cliffhanger ending, Bond apprehends Mr White, one of the people thought to be behind the kidnapping of Vesper's boyfriend.

Quantum of Solace picks up pretty much immediately from here, where the organisation is shown to have people everywhere — even within MI6.  Bond is led to an environmentalist, Dominic Greene (Mathieu Almaric), who seems to have ties with this organisation, called Quantum.  It is revealed that Greene is in deals with various military generals in South America, because he wants to control the water supply in Bolivia, in exchange for political power.  Camille (Olga Kurylenko) is working with Greene — but only so that he will lead her to a General who was responsible for her mother's death.  With the help of Camille, Mathis (played by Giancarlo Giannini, an ally from the previous film) and Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton), Bond seeks to find out and stop Greene's master plan, also hoping that it will lead him to the people who killed Vesper.

I thought Quantum of Solace was underwhelming.  Yes, there is a plot, but I didn't think it was gripping enough to sustain interest.  The villain here also, didn't make as much an impact as Le Chiffre from the previous film.  The action scenes are efficiently done, and the movie is worth watching for that, though.  Overall, I'd rate it a 6/10.

Nevertheless, I started doing a drawing with characters from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.  An in-progress version can be seen above, and clicking on the image takes you to a YouTube video that I recorded.  Left to right, pictured are Eva Green as Vesper Lynd, Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre and Olga Kurylenko as Camille.  I have to add Daniel Craig as Bond to the picture, and some other characters too.