Merrick here...

Mastidon wrote in with thoughts & pictures after attending the QUANTUM OF SOLACE premiere in London.

I saw this film myself, and enjoyed it quite a bit. "I'm not sure it made any sense..." I told a friend afterwards, "But it's bad ass."

You should know that this is very much an action film. It's around 40 minutes shorter than CASINO ROYALE & is radically different stylistically. Very fast editing (not quite Michael Bay fast, but getting there) & a great deal of cross cutting/intercutting zoom matters along briskly. The fight sequences are often wrenching, savage, and uncompromising. QUANTUM pauses for brief moments of characterization and (only the most essential) exposition, but it is purely, simply, and unapologetically about propulsion & visceral "oomph".

Think: a BOURNE movie in the BONDverse, without shakeycam.


Anyways, here's Mastidon with his report - which we very much appreciate.

Hey guys,

Mastidon here. Greetings from London. I just got back to my hotel room from the world premier of the new James Bond film, QUANTUM OF SOLACE. It seems surreal that I was even able to attend such an event compared to what I was doing yesterday of debugging customer IT problems. As always, major thanks go out to Harry for taking my boring world and turning it up on its head.

All photos below were taken by Merritcat as she is a far better photographer than I ever could be. Now on to the report....

Anybody who really knows me knows I am beyond a massive Bond geek. I own every DVD and have seen every film dozens of times. I have even watched all of the extras and listened to the commentaries so that should give you an idea as to how much of a fan I am. Roger Moore is the Bond I grew up with but lost faith in with the films of the '80s. As I grew up and started to really watch all of Bond, I quickly realized that Sean Connery is Bond, George Lazenby was a nice diversion taking the character to a darker level, Pierce Brosnan had the potential to be a good Bond until the gadgets overshadowed the story, and Timothy Dalton was just plain awful. Daniel Craig to me is Bond in his purest form. He is clearly one guy you never want to get angry as you know he would take you out before you could blink, just for looking at him funny. His performance combined with a good script for CASINO ROYALE, erased the past 25 years of mediocre films that had potential but just did not live up to the past greatness that is Bond, James Bond.

Quantum of what? I still keep thinking back to the unofficial theme song HERE. What kind of title is that? Are we headed back into bad Bond territory? Well as you probably already know, Ian Fleming wrote a short story by the same name. That story has absolutely nothing to do with the film. I'm not going to tell you what the title means - at least not in any spoiler free section. Needless to say, when you find out what it does mean, it makes sense and is a great title.

The best way to describe this film is he second half of CASINO ROYALE. It starts 1 hour after the end of Casino, making it the first real Bond sequel. Is it as good as Casino? ABSOLUTELY. Although, there is one nasty little point that AICN Talkbackers might have a problem with - one of the writers happens to be everybody's favorite guy Paul Haggis. Paul was one of the co-writers on Casino so it makes perfect sense to have him back to continue the story.

Bond films never disappoint in the opening. Same rules apply here. Just as jaw dropping as ever, which then leads to the credits which are simply stunning. Better than Casino on every level but one - the bloody theme song. I just don't like it, especially when you compare it to YOU KNOW MY NAME.

The premier tonight was promoted as the largest movie premier in UK history. Even Prince William and Harry attended as well as several thousand of their closest friends on Lecster Square. The weather was bitter cold for an October night, hovering around just above freezing. It was comical watching all of the on air people take their coats off for broadcast then quickly get dressed again. I was in the press pen talking to everybody who would stop by for a minute or two. Merritcat was hanging out with the other photographers, who as usual tried to kill each other for that perfect photo. We hope you enjoy the collection here.

Lots more details to follow tomorrow on the film and the premier including my short interviews with the entire cast. Just wanted to get something up for you guys to tonight. Enjoy.

Mastidon will return.

Mathieu Analric, who plays Dominic Greene - head of a mysterious organization called Green Planet.

Olga Kurylenko, who appears as Camille - Bond's cohort who has a mission of her own.

Needs no introduction.

Gemma Arterton plays "Fields", a British operative tasked with wrangling Bond.

Jeffrey Wright returns as Felix, an American operative/contact for Bond.



No introduction needed here, either. She's in this movie much more than previous installments.



QUANTUM director Marc Forster