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Early reviewers said "Quantum of Solace" was more like a Bourne movie than a Bond movie, which was okay with me because I like the Bourne movies. Now that I've seen the latest in the 007 series, I can understand that they were mainly referring to a chase sequence that goes over rooftops and in and out of windows. I felt like the action sequences used fast cuts as short cuts. They used to choreograph those scenes better, making it easy to see what was going to happen. An old-fashioned Bond boat chase would have used long shots and less edits to show the vessels moving closer and narrowly missing obstacles. In "Quantum," they used more close-ups of things crashing into each other. During hand-to-hand combat, it was difficult to tell who was killing whom. I just had to assume that James Bond was winning all his fights, which of course he was.

The lukewarm reviews lowered my expectations to the point that I could easily enjoy the movie. Rather than stress over the unexplained plot points, I let myself relax and take in the pretty pictures. Speaking of that, a secondary Bond girl named Strawberry Fields, played by Gemma Arterton, deserved more screen time. Much has been made about the lack of some standard James Bond-isms in the latest film. However those of us who remember staying up to watch our first Bond movies on ABC on Sunday nights during sweeps months will appreciate a certain visual homage to "Goldfinger."