Quantum of Solace.

I joined some friends this evening to take in the new James Bond film, which--in a new turn for Bond films--mainly hinges on story arcs laid out in the first Daniel Craig film, Casino Royale.

In summation, the action sequences were as impressive as any you'd expect from a Bond film and I continued to enjoy the burgeoning "relationship" between Bond and M (which I feel is shaping up to be the true heart of this series of films), but I felt that the burden of being a sequel in the traditional sense held this film back in a number of ways, and I hope that future Bond films can do better now that they've been freed of the Vesper-baggage.

They did lay the groundwork for some interesting future entanglements in the form of a shadowy world crime network (a la S.P.E.C.T.R.E.), but the plot was fairly thin with an overload of foreshadowing, a host of clearly expendable characters, and a denouement that I saw twenty minutes into the flick--something that caused me to spend the rest of the time wondering why Bond couldn't wrap his blunt instrument around it.

But hanging out with friends was a blast, as always. We're planning to do it all again for the new Star Trek. (Hells to the yes!)