Quantum of Spoilers...a review of the new James Bond movie.

Spoiler alert. Normally, this is a disclaimer you wouldn't need when reviewing a James Bond movie. For 40 years Bond movies were generally business as usual - thugs get clobbered, women get bedded, martinis get shaken, tricked-up cars get wrecked, villains meet their maker, and luxury products get placed. Like good barbecue, fine wines, or a good cigar, you turned to Bond for variations on a familiar formula of ingredients.

That said, "Quantum of Solace" is far and away the WEIRDEST James Bond movie I've ever seen. In their effort to continue the reinvention of the franchise that began successfully with "Casino Royale" the producers - the Broccoli family - have thrown out even more of the distinctive ingredients of Bond-ness. No familiar "gun-barrel" opening. No "Bond...James Bond". Heck, there's even precious little use of the always-attention getting theme music. The end result is that "Quantum" isn't much of a Bond movie at all. In terms of feel, pacing, and character this James Bond movie...is actually a Jason Bourne movie.

All the hallmarks of the Bourne films are on display in "QOS" - near-incoherent editing, rooms full of higher ups staring at computer monitors in a desperate search for the hero, and sadly, villains who aren't really all that different from the ones we see in real life. Bond villains were always outsized and larger-than-life and in "QOS" the villain and his plan lack both scale and imagination. Mathieu Amalric has lizard-like eyes that appear to be up to no good, but his caper seems hardly worthy of Bond's time. Or ours.

The biggest sin of "Quantum of Solace" isn't the shameless imitation of the last two Bourne movies or the bad villains, however. It's wasting the talents of Daniel Craig, without question the best 007 since the Almighty Sean Connery himself. In "Casino Royale" Craig's Bond was a revelation, earning praise for creating a character that was emotionally complex and yet still capable of delivering heaps of crowd-pleasing whoop-ass. In "Quantum", Craig's Bond is hardly given the opportunity for such range - the screenplay merely turns him into an unstoppable killing machine still brooding over the death of Vesper ("QOS" is the first true sequel of the Bond franchise, picking up not long after "CR" finished). Friends are dispatched just as easily as enemies, witnesses are killed before questioning, and things blow up inconsequentially. In other words, just like Jason Bourne, although in Brioni suits and fancier cars.

That's a shame, because Bond - whether he be Connery, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig, or even Lazenby - is an infinitely more fascinating character than Jason Bourne. Bond's more fun - he likes the ladies, the fast cars, the good foods, the great wines. He can also, unlike Bourne, appreciate the moment when he's dropped an evil henchman into a pool of piranhas. That sense of fun is lost in "QOS" and the movie suffers for it. I don't think anyone - least of all myself - wants a return to the excesses of the Roger Moore Era but jeez...a Bond movie used to be a good time. There were laughs, thrills, babes, and amazing stunts. If I wanted brooding, violence, and explorations on the gray areas between right and wrong...I can always watch Batman.

If I am tough on "Quantum of Solace" it's because I love the James Bond movies. At their best - and "Casino Royale" is proof that they can still be great, even 40-plus years after the first - they're stylish, thrilling, visually inventive movies. At their center is James Bond himself, cinema's most reliable hero Yet watching of "Quantum of Solace" makes me feel as if Jason Bourne did something Goldfinger, Blofeld, and Jaws couldn't do - finish off James Bond.