Very little solace for some 007 fans

Movie critic Carl Jones was among an elite group of journalists invited to the world premiere of the new Bond film. Here he delivers his verdict.

A man who once screen tested for the role of James Bond - Jurassic Park star Sam Neill - was busily stealing the limelight in Leicester Square last night as he took to the red carpet for the London Film Festival.

Meanwhile, just 100 yards away at the cinema next door, a far more significant 007 event was taking place almost un-noticed, under an incredible veil of secrecy.

A select gathering of world media was being treated to the world's first screening of Bond's 22nd big screen adventure, Quantum of Solace.

Yes, Bond is back... and he's more brutal and unforgiving than ever.

Daniel Craig pulls no punches in his second adventure as Ian Fleming's superspy, snarling and brawling his way through 104 frenetic minutes of noisy, breakneck chaos.

Fistfights

It may be the shortest Bond film ever made, but it manages to pack in more fistfights, more action set-pieces and more wild globetrotting than ever before. No wonder it feels like the characters barely have time to pause and utter a meaningful line of dialogue!

If Casino Royale invited us to delicately embrace a tougher, meaner Bond, then Quantum of Solace positively rams this image down our throats.

Craig barely cracks a grin in his quest to get to the heart of the mysterious Quantum organisation, which he holds responsible for the death of his first true love, Vesper Lynd.

The story picks up just minutes after the end of Casino Royale, with 007 interrogating the mysterious Mr White (Jesper Christensen).

The trail leads him to a rogue agent in Haiti, an opera house on an Austrian lakeside, and eventually the remote deserts of Panama.

Quantum of Solace has many plus points, not least sultry Olga Kurylenko as vengeful Latino Camille, who plays part friend, part foe and must go down as one of the most beautiful Bond girls ever.

It's also got an overload of action and pyrotechnics as 007 battles evil in every imaginable form of transport, from Aston Martin to twin-engined jet, speedboat and motorbike.

But the whole movie does feel rather hurried, sometimes edited so abruptly that it's hard to keep track of who's doing what to whom, and why.

Laughs are in short supply. While Pierce Brosnan's Bond was very much for the family, Craig's incarnation feels almost exclusively adult-orientated. It's difficult to know what young teenagers will make of the almost unstinting brutality and simmering bitterness, despite the 12A certificate.

Many of the peripheral characters come and go so abruptly that it's hard to build any kind of rapport.

Worst to suffer is Gemma Arterton, whose supporting turn as MI6 Agent Fields promises much, but is disappointingly brief - her much publicised "covered in oil" death scene had the potential to become an iconic "golden girl" moment rivalling Shirley Eaton's demise in Goldfinger, but is tamely wasted.

Devious

Mathieu Amalric is creepy yet rather insignificant as chief baddie Dominic Greene whose eco-friendly front is merely a cover for a devious South American moneymaking scheme, and only Judi Dench's feisty and prickly M gets any kind of meaty dialogue.

Die-hard Bond fans who fear their hero is being turned into a Jason Bourne-style clone will have much to chew over here. A chase across Italian rooftops, shot on hand-held cameras, is highly reminiscent of The Bourne Supremacy, and the impact made by many members of the Bourne production crew added to the 007 team is clear to see throughout.

So can Bond fans take even a quantum of solace from this movie? If they crave the adrenaline rush of frantic action, then yes. If it's suave one-liners and drop-dead-cool moments they yearn for, then perhaps not.

Personally, I feel the producers jettison too many of the tried-and-tested 007 traits at their peril. Much like its predecessor, Quantum of Solace is a good action thriller, but certainly not a classic Bond movie.

Quantum of Solace is released at Shropshire cinemas on October 31.