Quantum of Solace (2008)

Not quite incoherent, Quantum of Solace nevertheless exudes a general aura of incoherence and stumbles forward at 300 miles per hour like a rickety Rube Goldberg machine with a Soviet surplus rocket attached. The jerky Bourne-knockoff camera-work is impossible to follow; and what passes for story is a disconnected series of action set-pieces, strung together in semi-logical sequence with those few plot threads not left dangling along the way.

I didn't even recognize the villain when he finally appeared, the result of an unfortunate choice to rely on plot details from a forgettable prequel forgotten in 2006.

The most interesting thing about it is this take at The Valve on the evolution of the series' misogyny:

Quantum, on the other hand, adheres to this convention in a pointedly agonistic way. After all, there are two living Bond girls in this film, one who he doesn’t sleep with (and who is essentially his narrative double), and another who he kills by sleeping with, a guilt he both addresses as such and suffers from. In other words, both serve precisely the opposite function as we have been taught to expect of them: instead of using guilt-free sex as an expression of masculine power over women (and an expression of "free world" supremacy in the cold war), the main relationship of the film is a celibate one, and the other only illustrates Bond’s impotent inability to use sex in a constructive way.

At the time it felt like a return to the old sex-toy "Bond girl" stereotype; perhaps there's something more there after all.

Quantum has a bad rap for being incoherent and forgettable, but it's much better, it turns out, to watch immediately after Casino Royale: it does follow on immediately from that film and makes much more sense with it fresh in memory. Bond (Daniel Craig) pursues the conspiracy he blames for the loss of his five-minute romance "true love" in Royale. Twisty plot, great action and some great set-pieces.